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Old July 24th 05, 10:33 PM
Murray Green, K3BEQ
 
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Thanks for reply. Yes, we will definitley contact Bird first.
On the 100 watts it was absolute, of that you can be assured. Again
thanks.
73 K3BEQ
\\\

Fred McKenzie wrote:

In article , "Murray Green, K3BEQ"
wrote:

Another ham friend and me both have 100 w slugs for 100-250 Mhz. (100c).
Both are bad. Tests were made on three different Bird meters and a 3rd
slug known to be good.

On all 3 meters inputting 100 w, the good slug showed 100 watts while
the two bad ones showed 70 w and 60 w respectively. Pretty high odds
that we both would have faulty slugs eh?

So the questions a what happened to make them go bad, and can they
be reasonably repaired by the Bird Corporation? Although we will
be calling Bird personnel next week I thought I would throw out the
question here.


Murray-

I've had a couple slugs go bad. One I was able to perform surgery on, and
it appears to be repaired. Neither had the problem you are seeing.

I would be careful about drawing a conclusion based only on what you have
seen. Consider that the combination of slug and meter is only accurate to
5 percent of full scale. This gives you a ten watt spread right off the
bat, even if all met specifications. And you must make comparisons using
the same setup with only the slugs changed between readings.

You didn't say it, but I assume the "good" slug is also a 100C. What
makes you think that the one reading 100 Watts is correct? Do you have a
100 watt rig that you trust to be putting out exactly that power? Even if
it is, that depends on your power supply putting out exactly 13.8 volts.
You may find that a slight drop in power supply voltage can produce a
radical drop in power output. If it is in your vehicle, it can easily
make thirty watts difference between having the engine running and not.

I suggest you put off trying Ralph's suggestion until you determine if
Bird will correct the problem, and don't be surprised if there is some
simple explanation about the discrepancy in readings.

73, Fred, K4DII