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Re: [Amps] grid resonance

To: <dezrat@copper.net>, "'Ian White GM3SEK'" <gm3sek@ifwtech.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Amps] grid resonance
From: "Joe Subich, W4TV" <w4tv@subich.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 13:19:30 -0400
List-post: <mailto:amps@contesting.com>
W6WRT writes: 

> A GDO "deceptive". I could not disagree more. Assuming the GDO is
> designed properly, what is says is happening really is. 

Since a GDO is a hardware device, it cannot be deceptive.  However, 
the results obtained by using a dip meter can certainly be deceptive 
because what is displayed is not always what the user THINKS is being 
displayed.    

Take a simple parallel resonant circuit - an antenna trap.  Suspend it 
between two strings several feet from any other surface and you have 
a relatively reliable indication of the resonant frequency of the 
trap.  Place that trap on a counter and the dip may no longer occur 
at the resonant frequency of the trap ... who knows if the counter top 
has metallic inserts, edges, pigments, etc.  Replace the strings and  
suspend the trap with wires ... now what does the dip indicate?  Is 
it the resonant frequency of the trap, the resonant frequency of the 
"antenna" formed by the wires and trap, or the loaded frequency of 
the "trap?"  

Similarly, couple a dip meter to one grid lead of a 3-500Z.  What 
does that dip tell you?  Is it the frequency at which the grid is 
the most effective shield, the frequency at which it is the least 
effective as a shield, the frequency at which the grid lead and 
G-P capacitance resonate, the frequency at which the loop formed 
by the multiple grid leads and bypass caps resonate?  What is really 
being measured? 

Quite simply, the dip meter does not tell you what is really being 
measured.  Unless the measurement is of two high quality components 
in total isolation, anyone who reports dipmeter test results without 
accurately reporting the test conditions is being deceptive. 

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV 
 

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