[Amps] Q meter [TSPA]

[Will Matney]

Peter,

Genrad (General Radio now named Quadtech) still does or they are 
included in their LCR meters. I have a digi-bridge here I use by them. 
ESI (Electro Scientific Industries), and Wayne-Kerr manufactures LCR 
meters too which will measure L, C, R, Q, and D. B&K has some handhelds 
and one or two bench model digital LCR meters but I'm not sure whether 
any will measure Q or D. Out of all, I like the GenRad's the best.

Quadtech:   http://www.quadtech.com/

Will Matney



In a tank circuit, rather than use a Q meter, I prefer to put a suitable  
resistor from the plate to ground (and with no HV, of course) feed a 
signal in  
from the output Then use a valve voltmeter to measure the RF volts that 
appear  
at the plate, while an SWR bridge in the feedline shows when the tank is  
correctly tuned. This enables you to check for choke resonances, and yet 
you  
don't hit the physical problems of trying to connect a Q meter - which 
is, after  
all, a pretty unwieldy beast physically to try to connect into an amp. You
can  measure working Q by finding the 3dB points, too.
 
Incidentally, does anyone make Q meters anymore? Over the eyars, I've 
used  Q
meters a lot at work, but I'm not convinced that they're something you 
can't  
do without - like grid dip meters - that's another thing you can get away  
without.
 
73
 
Peter G3RZP