I own a 229 tuner, and I have never used the meter. If it ever died, I wouldn't
care because it is of limited use. I would recommend finding a good external
meter that will read CW & PEP like the Ameritron AWM-30 which is what I use,
and forget about the 229 meter.
Of more importance are the crummy disc capacitors in the tuning circuit. My
tuner would not hold a setting, and the swr would drift all over when used on
the lower bands until I replaced all of the the disc caps with Russian door
knob caps that I purchased off Ebay. Now my 229 tuner is rock steady, and I
have not had any issues with it after the modification.
If your antenna does not need a tuner, then you will be happy with the 229 as
it is built, but if you are using antennas that are far from 50 ohms like my
doublet that is fed with 450 ohm window line, the 229 in the factory
configuration is a lousy piece of equipment.
The meter is more bother than it is worth, unless you are like me, and need to
have everything working correctly just because it's there!
Sorry for the rant.
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