The W2 is great, but of marginal use for someone who has a rig with an ATU built in.
Indeed, one of the reoccurring mistakes Hams make is to put the external W2 between the rig and the antenna and then wonder why it shows a high SWR when the internal ATU reports 1:1. The W2 or any watt/SWR meter must go between the transmitter and the antenna matching network (ATU, etc.). Rigs like the K1, K2, KX1 and KX3 with built in tuners do not offer a way to do that. The W2 and W1 are handy for checking the SWR on a 50-ohm coaxial antenna feed line. That's best done with the meter at the antenna end of the feed line, but a general idea of how well matched the antenna is to the feed line can be had by monitoring the SWR at the rig end. It can also alert you to any unexpected changes in the antenna if you make a note of the indicated SWR on each band. Any significant change in that SWR indicates a significant change in the antenna, usually not for the best, Hi! 73 Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of NZ0T Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 5:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] W2 wattmeter Very happy with my W2. I have the 2KW coupler. Seems pretty accurate and the LED display is great for casual use. I don't always keep the display up on the computer but it's very useful when greater resolution than the LED display is desired. 73 Bill NZ0T ______________________________________________________________ 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
