    
Tech237
Moderator
Username: Tech237
Post Number: 687
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 9:31 am: | 
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While starting to work on a review of the 120-500MHz SWR/Power meter now stocked by Copper a couple of interesting things came up.
1)Out of curiosity I thought I'd check the several 2m Dummy Ducks I have for my handhelds. Expecting a shock I had one when all 4 showed SWRs of less than 2:1 while the were sticking horizontal from the back of the meter, with the meter sitting on the desk. OK - now for with them vertical and the meter in my hand so I could reads the scale. All now showed extremely high SWR and one was even off the scale. OK must be my hand, so I re-did the horizontal readings while holding the meter. Guess what - they all still showed less than 2:1. BTW I copied this test using a friends MFJ analyser and got the same results.
2) How many of you think you have 0 reflected power or close to it? At least that is what your meter tells you. Well try borrowing a Bird meter and running the reflected power test with a low wattage slug in it. Testing one of our repeaters with several meters (300w output) showed no needle movement on the SX-144/430 on it's 500w range, but dropping a 10w slug in the Bird showed around 5w of reflected power. Not much compared to the 300w out but an eye opener none-the less.
Watch for the full review of the SX-144/430 as it is being compared against the Bird and MFJ to see how accurate it is when compared to more expensive items.
Simon
Tech237
KD7IEB
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