On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:07:26 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:17:15 -0500, Cecil Moore
wrote in :

Frank Gilliland wrote:
Impedance matching of an SWR meter is generally unimportant since most
SWR meters used for HF have a directional coupler that is much shorter
than the operating wavelength.

Point is that they are usually calibrated for Z0=50 ohms
and are in error when used in Z0 environments differing
from Z0=50 ohms, e.g. Z0=75 ohms.


The point is that the error is insignificant when the directional
coupler is much shorter than the wavelength.

In a word, baloney. The error is independent of length. A zero length
bridge calibrated at 75 ohm is in error when measuring in a 50 ohm
system. Period.


The error is even more
insignificant when there are a host of variables and confounds between
the SWR meter and the transmitted field that can (and frequently do)
affect the objective -- field strength.

Often, field strength is of zero importance. What do you do when the
device under test isn't supposed to radiate? The simplest example of
this would be a CATV system, yet VSWR is *extremely* important in
cascaded networks.


It's much simpler (and just
plain logical) to measure the field strength directly instead of
measuring an abstract value halfway towards the objective and relying
on nothing more than speculation that the rest is working according as
expected.

More baloney and it isn't even sliced.