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Old April 26th 11, 09:21 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Jim Lux Jim Lux is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Mar 2007
Posts: 801
Default Transmitter Output Impedance


Measuring the output impedance (for relative small change in load) is
possible, but is not a simple task. Very likely other people will
comment on this.


ON9CVD's website I linked to has a very simple technique.. 50 ohm dummy
load and a 220 ohm resistor you can switch in.

At 100W (into 50 ohms), the 220 ohms would only dissipate 22W. You
could get some of those non-inductive resistors from Caddock and series
them up to do something like this.

BTW, this is a simplified version of what's called a "load pull" test...
which makes me wonder if one could cobble up a quick test set that could
be controlled by a computer to do automated output Z measurements of an
HF transceiver over a reasonably wide range... One approach would be to
use a RS-232 controlled antenna tuner and, maybe, a antenna relay box
with several different load resistances).

The challenge (having actually looked at doing this with a LDG AT200PC)
is that the Z of the tuner isn't very well defined. It's a pretty big
calibration project in itself.

Maybe, though, one could build a few test dummy loads.. say a 25 ohm and
a 75 or 100 ohm, along with your vanilla 50 ohm, and the antenna switch
(like an RCS-8V). Basically, you're building a "high power resistor
substitution box"

You'd want some sort of nice inline watt meter (like an LP100) to make
the measurements.