On 2/6/2022 11:14 AM, Bob McGraw wrote:
The instrument also costs in the neighborhood of $500+.
Have you priced a Bird 43 recently? A new one without an element will
set you back about $450, used about $275. Expect to pay $100 - $200 for
a new slug, and depending on frequency and power level, we may need
several. My drawer includes about 15 of them, all used. Yes, I paid a
lot less -- 20 years ago!
The Bird is only accurate in a matched 50 ohm line. A standard Bird 43
only reads forward and reverse power, and we must do the math to compute
SWR. I still own one that I use as a portable/bench instrument for
troubleshooting, or to look at 2M/440 rigs/antennas. I recently gave my
spare to a neighbor who lost everything in a wildfire.
The LP100A reads complex voltage and current, which the screen screen
can be set to display, in addition to SWR, average, peak, and
instantaneous power, and is accurate in mismatched lines when fed by a
50 ohm source. The standard coupler is good for up to 3KW from 160M to
54 MHz, and power accuracy is 5% of the reading from 1W to rated power,
and over that frequency range. Compared to a Bird, it's a BARGAIN!
I own two LP100As, one with two couplers inline with the outputs of the
two amps in my HF SO2R contesting station, and a second with a coupler
dedicated to the second output of my KPA1500 that feeds my 7-el 6M Yagi.
73, Jim K9YC
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
