I'll bet you'd love an invitation to expand on your comments about a "good
load" and "calibrate it."

Perhaps, but very few bench techs are found here.


How about a bench engineer? How did you come to the conclusion that the
Bird plugs go bad after 3 months?

Do you have a transmitter of known Pout that you use as a standard? Of
what
power level?

Or do you use known good attenuators, and measure the error of relative
powers?



The Bolometer is a classic load, there are many others (like a
barreter).


I'm not familiar with these, tell me more.




All that said, I still think that a Bird 43 (and yes, a good load or
attenuator string [once you get 60 dB or so on the attenuator string, an
open-end reflection is quite minor]) is the best route for a ham.


Yeah, someone suggested using long lengths of RG-58 (the lossier, the
better) to improve the return loss of a no-so-50 ohm dummy load.






For the 100 MHz region, you can think about a directional coupler. Nice, but
you still need either a bolometric power meter or a calibrated spectrum
analyzer. If you don't already have those two goodies, then the Bird is the
champion choice.

Ed
WB6WSN


Hi Ed,

I've never run across a need for batteries, except to light the meter.
There are better meters than a Bird. The AN/URM-120 is easily better,
and sells cheaper, has all the same qualities, but for its advantage
it also is larger and presents its readings with the meter horizontal.


For the AN/URM-120, i found this:

"On the 25-250 and 200-1000 Mhz slugs 10, 50, 100, and 500 watts
are available."

No 1000 or 2000 watt slugs for 25-250 MHz?


Slick