Hello again,
Doug reminded me of two other items... one is the must have of one or two decent terminations (decent quality 50 ohm dummy loads), decent quality coax jumpers and some coax adapters (if required). Use of coax adapters is sometimes hard to avoid... but using modest attenuator pads help reduce some adapter issues. If you fish around Ebay, you can find really nice 3dB Pads fairly cheap. Here's an example of what you might want to use: Ebay Item Number: 200414154267 While the price of the above auction is in reality more than fair (compared to the price of the item new)... you can find the same or similar types of "pads" for less money. You'd be trading time for money if you want to pay less for this type of attenuator. I've seen and bought many of them for less than $10 at flea markets. Just be advised used ones can be el'smoke'd (burned up by excessive power input). Same thing with Terminations (Dummy Loads) like the one in the following Ebay Auction: Ebay Item Number: 170367584254 Great for bench work, cheap to buy if you're patient and very usable for most of the typical Amateur Bands. Coax is another item that's fairly cheap to improve upon. RG-214 mil-spec is usable but large and cumbersome in size. A lot of us like and use the "Root-Beer" color Teflon Coax types like RG-400. Here's another Ebay Example: Ebay Item Number 380188408647 If you're not getting to crazy... even RG-223 coax works at VHF frequencies without a lot of grief. another example with a picture Ebay Item Number 330309673164 And again, the price indicated in this auction is kind of high to those of use who frequent Electronics/Ham Flea Markets. I cite the above auction as an example with a decent picture to look at. Other coax types can be used... but don't be cheap in this area if you have the choice. In a pinch a few months back I made up a very short RG-58 jumper to use on a back-to-back UHF Maxtrac Repeater... only to find almost half the TX Power was lost in the coax. T'was a Homer Simpson moment I'll try not to repeat. cheers, s. > Doug Hutchison <specialq....@...> wrote: > > Low power HT, VSWR meter and dummy load will get there but not as > perfect as the proper RF kit. It can be done as Skip suggests. > > Cheers and seasons greetings to all... > > Doug > > > > On 23/12/2009 18:20:18, Jim Cicirello (ka2...@...) wrote: > > Hey Skip, for those of us who have a service monitor without a Spectrum > > Analyzer built in, is there an alternative to using a radio with an S- > > meter on the duplexer end to see the peak and notch? I was wondering > if an > > RF Meter would be sensitive enough to pick up the peak of the regular > > output of a service monitor? Would this be better in that we are taking > > another receiver out of the mix or would we be better to figure how > to put > > an analog S Meter on a scanner or some type of stable receiver? Also > with > > an variable output from say a service monitor, what do you use the > > attenuator pads for and where. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and > > experience. I only need to turn a few times a year and have an > IFR1200A so > > I have a stable output, I just need to see the peak and notch. > > > > 73 JIM KA2AJH > > > > From: [email protected] [mailto:Repeater- > > [email protected]] On Behalf Of skipp025 > > Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:36 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Can we tuning duplexer with this > > equipment? > > > > > > > > > > If you have a decent radio with some type of receive signal > > strength indicator, some coax cables a separate transmitter >
