Very well said, don. If ham does not need a new dummy load, there are a lot nice ones available in the used market at a very reasonable price. Nowadays, frequency counter, RF watt meter and DMM are all available at a much affordable price. Even a temperature controlled soldering iron is not expensive. All those items were totally out of the question when I started my hobby at the age of 12. Let us enjoy our hobby in a much affordable way now. 73 Johnny VR2XMC 寄件人︰ Don Wilhelm <[email protected]> 收件人︰ [email protected] 傳送日期︰ 2015年03月31日 (週二) 12:06 PM 主題︰ Re: [Elecraft] 50 Ohm Load - source? I think that attitude spells the difference between "appliance operators" and those who are willing to check out, and otherwise examine their ham gear. How many "transceiver" problems turn out to be problems with the antenna system? The number is larger than many are willing to admit.
In the long past, every ham had at least a few test tools - dummy load (even if it was a light bulb), and means of measuring RF and SWR (even if it was a pair of #47 lightbulbs on a piece of 300 ohm twinlead) - and that gear was used to determine if the transmitter was capable of producing power and if the antenna system was capable of accepting the RF power. There were times when precise and accurate measurement gear was outside the budget of most hams, so we used substitute methods that gave us some indication that our transmitters and antennas were performing OK. Today, reasonably good dummy loads and wattmeters are well within the budget of the typical ham. When we are willing to spend $1000 or more on a transceiver, I find it foolish economy to decline to spend $100 for a few pieces of test gear to assure ourselves that that $1000+ transceiver is running properly. It seems some hams would rather 'send it back to the factory for a checkout' than to make some simple measurements in the shack - the cost of that trip to the factory will exceed the cost of the equipment required to do simple testing of the equipment in place. It does seem like false 'economy' to me, but I know there are some who will do just that. And - when the transceiver returns with "no trouble found" because the problem was actually in the antenna system, that is not helpful. The cause of the problem could have been identified if a dummy load and a wattmeter had been available and willing to be used for some simple tests. The precision of the dummy load and wattmeter need not be extreme for tests of this sort - even gear with a 20% or greater error can give clues to the cause of failure in cases like that. Yes, I now have precision dummy loads and wattmeters whose calibration is NIST tracable, but I use those for precision measurements. To do a 'sanity check' of where the problem may be does not require anything near that precision or accuracy. As I have stated in the past, every hamshack should have a dummy load capable of handling the maximum output of that station. It need not be exactly 50 ohms non-reactive (unless it is being used for calibration), but it should be a part of the diagnostic tools available in every hamshack. 73, Don W3FPR On 3/30/2015 5:43 PM, Dave Baxter wrote: > I often wonder about people who will buy expensive (but excellent) radio's, > then baulk at spending a few bucks, quid's or ?, on basic test kit like a > half decent dummy load! > > Am I missing something? > > ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [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 Message delivered to [email protected]
