On the rs
meter I am reading infinity for swr at roughly 30 watts on cw (really only mode
I use) on 40 meters. On the scout meter, I am reading at most, 2:0. Now the
scout has an adjustment on the bottom for power. With the radio on, into a
dummy load, as I increase wattage, swr goes up and the ALC light goes out.

Hmmm...using the old "50% efficient" rule of thumb gives around a 5 amp draw at
30W out. Think the first thing I'd do is read the manual to see what the
current needs are...replace the RS meter with a decent one (the RS meter will
work, but not a "good" meter) and get a decent (Astron, etc) power supply in
the 12A and up range (I recommend the RS20 or RS35...good units).

Greg, one thing you may be able to do immediately is to get a gelcell of some
sort and trickle charge it...I use a 17aH cell to run my FT857 at 50W (w/solar
charger). What you are seeing, in part, is current limiting and loss of
regulation on the power supply. The antenna matcher probably is fine, the RS
meter will give a fair indication of what's going on. On the power supply
side, you may want to review some of the ARRL handbooks which cover P/S
information. This will give you a good start in understanding the amount of
current needed for a particular application. The fine folks at Ten Tec can
provide the manual (which may also be online somewhere for download).

Watch out as regards Polarity....tough to get the smoke back in those little
black cases.....

Hope this helps!
A