[TowerTalk] Radio Shack remote-reading wattmeter

[Rolfe Tessem]

John Brosnahan wrote:
> 
> >
> >It has average and peak modes -- no peak hold as far as I can tell.
> >
> >As I do not have another peak reading meter, I can't offer any
> comments on
> >accuracy in this mode. In average mode, it agrees with my Bird 43.
> >
> >Rolfe, W1VC
> 
> Rolfe,
> 
> I have seen a lot of interest over the last few days on the
> Radio Shack units.  I purchased two of them about a month
> ago and was quite disappointed.  Both were very poor on
> power calibration (and similar!),  reading about 25 watts on
> a carrier when both the 781 and the Bird 43 were reading
> 100 watts.  But they could have been recalibrated, I guess.
> But both seemed to perform poorly on CW with erratic
> readings due to improper time constants in their integration
> circuitry.
> 
> The review in QST was not very favorable and I just wanted
> to add my thoughts as a bit of a caveat.  My experience led
> me to the conclusion that I should build my power meters
> myself.
> 
> 73  John  W0UN

I certainly wouldn't get rid of my Bird 43 for the Radio Shack, that's for
sure. But for the case where the remote-sensing head needs to be widely
separated from the display, it seems like a worthwhile solution -- mainly
because there aren't a whole lot of affordable alternatives.

FWIW, I'm seeing much closer agreement with my Bird than you are  -- within a
couple of watts at around 100 watts output.

Rolfe, W1VC

-- 
Rolfe Tessem           |       Lucky Duck Productions, Inc.
rolfe@ldp.com          |       96 Morton Street
(212) 463-0029         |       New York, NY 10014

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