Hi Ken, You're probably right; my analog Bird meter and my digital MFJ-828 were calibrated to "lab standard" or so I believe. I had a buddy of mine who happens to be a communications officer for UNICEF take my meters and calibrate them against their lab-grade equipment a couple of years ago. They used some fancy signal generators and what-not to do the work. According to him if memory serves me right is that the margin of error should be around 5-7%. Not being a complete techo-geek, I took what he said at face value. So, with all things being equal, my two outboard meters should be quite accurate.
Anyway, if my K3's LPA output falls withing both meter's margins of error, then I guess I really shouldn't be concerned. 73 de James K2QI On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 8:16 PM, Ken Kopp <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi James, > > You're chasing your tail, me thinks ... > > I'm a retired career two-way radio tech and a > fan of Bird meters, thought by many to be the > best in their price class, and they're rated at > +/- 5% of full scale ... if they're calibrated to a > lab standard ... which in itself isn't likely to be > much better. Even two "identical" elements will > differ in the readings they produce. > > Accurate RF power measurement is difficult > under the best of circumstances. > > I have several Birds, a Bird dummy load, a W1 > and a W2 and I'm satisfied that the W1 and W2 > are pretty good. "Pretty good" is about as good > as it gets for us ordinary folks. (:-) > > 73! > > Ken Kopp - K0PP > [email protected] > > > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > -- 73 de James K2QI President UNARC/4U1UN ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
