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DeadlEyes
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 7:49 am: | 
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There are two kinds of SWR/Power Meters. They are not Analog and digital, although if given the choice take the digital.
There are two distinct types of Power Meters. Average and PEP.
Average Power meteres measure just that. The average power of your signal at any given point in time. The middle power output if you will. An average power meter showing 4 watts is not giving you the complete picture. It does not give you the peak or highest power. However since it does give you a good general overall picture of your signal it is a good choice for situation that do not require extreme accuracy.
The other kind of meter is the PEP Power meter. Every signal starts out at zero builds up to a peak and slowly declines back to zero where the cycle starts again. The Peak Envelope Power or PEP Meter meausres power at the max of the peak. The hightes power. HOWEVER, this may give you a false image/impression that your signal is stronger than it actually is. If you measure the peak you will never know what your signal is doing on the AVERAGE words. But if you are say a ham op and the rules limit you to 1500 watts PEP using an Average Power meter showing 1400 watts you could occasionally go beyond your max legal of 1500 at times. A PEP meter is important when you ride close to the max numbers. But otherwise it is just a luxury.
Price wise, the Average Power Meters cost less than a PEP Meter. The PEP meter requires additional circuts that add to the price. PEP meters always require a battery as well.
A few nice features on meters, a dual swing meter is a nice thing to have. You have two needles going in opposing directions on independant scales on a single meter. One shows power output while the othr shows power reflected with an SWR table built in so you can check power out, power reflected and SWR all at the same time. If you get a swing meter try to get one with a fairly large meter with meter scales that are easy to read. Those small meters make you squint at times.
A nice feature is a backlit meter. If you have a backlit meter you can use it in the dark and low light situations. Should your present meter have a opaque back--milky plastic back--you could possibly put one of those bright colored LEDs in the back. They run just about forever on batteries and the circut to light them is fairly simple. Heck, you can even put that Bright LED in place of your regular incandecent light in your radio. It lasts just about forever and comes in a variety of colors. Check with your store where you buy it for details resistors etc needed to knock down the voltage to the LEDs working voltage.
I see once again I must go to work. So readers please have a productive day and think about how LEDs and a good meter light up your life.
Signed
Now where did I put
the keys to the pirogue :-)
DE
Southern Lousiana |
XLAXX
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 1:06 pm: |
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DE-
Nicely written and an informative post.
2 quick questions:
1)Now the "Average Power" that you speak of, is really RMS correct? The average between your highest power reading and lowest power reading when radio is keyed.
2)PEP "Peak Envelope Power" or just "Peak" is your actual highest power reading on the meter, or where the needle swings to?
Example:
Radio output is 1.5W dk to 17W swing. 17W would be my "Peak" PEP, Peak envelope power reading. Where the needle swings to (max).
Now my RMS would be the average between the 1.5W and 17W peak right?, so the average would just be a little over 9 watts?
Thanks
XLAXX |
Tinman
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 2:33 pm: |
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And I thought i was the only coonass on here lol. |
DeadlyEyes
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 7:35 pm: |
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RE axx...
Question 1, basicly yes, I did not want to confuse the matter by using that term but yea. Less than the highest but also higher than the lowest. Somewhere in the middle.
Question 2, It depends. A PEP meter swings to the highest value at the peaks of each power at any given time of the cycle rather than hovering somewhere in the average values. Most people forget that every word or sound drives a signal differently. The tone and pitch of the voice combined with the charastics of the mic can also drive a signal harder as well.
So Basicly the PEP reads your max output at any given time or point depending on the sounds or word being transmitted. But sometimes the peak misleads you into thinking that every last word is at the amplitude/level of power. An average measurement for the most part is the better daily use meter. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 8:03 pm: |
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My backlit lcd swr/power;avg/peak radio shack meter cost me 100 bucks 3 years ago,it has auto ranging,then 20,200,2000 watt settings,for swr it will measure 0 to 100:1 swr then infinity,I though it was a good buy at the time.It's smd technology and has its own remote power supply.I think they stopped selling it because it cost more and offered more than the avg. buff was willing to pay,now they sell a very hard to read cheap analog swr/power meter or a very high quality and expensive ham style meter. |
XLAXX
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 8:35 pm: |
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DE-
Thanks! I thought I was in the ballpark but needed confirmation!
Basically, sharper consonants and vowel sounds in evryday language will give higher PEP values. When checking this value someone on the forum once mentioned "counting the words from 1 to 10" but these sounds need to be sharper I think, so words like "CHECK" and "AAAAUDDDDDIOOOO" are better?? The stress on the sounds of "AAAAAUUU" and "CH" seem to increase the PEP much like a whistle does.
Tinman- coonass???
Thanks!
XLAXX |
Alsworld
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 10:44 pm: |
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XLAXX,
Tinman was refering to someone from Louisiana which is where DE is from. Not directed to you. Must be a Cajun thing 
Hey Tinman,
Snowman is also from LA but haven't seen him post in a while.
Alsworld |
Alsworld
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 10:46 pm: |
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DE, very informative post. Nice education for sure!
Alsworld |
Ironmask
| | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 11:59 pm: |
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DE, I second Alsworld's coments. Thanks for putting things in Laymans Terms so all could understand. |
Tech671
| | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 6:10 am: |
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There's an awesome meter that's not available right now in the US, but if you guys join me in the crusade to get Copper to carry them, you will never buy another meter in your life. |
Tinman
| | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 9:20 am: |
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Yes it is a cajun thing..sorry for the confusion...Go LSU Tigers!!!!!!! |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 9:39 am: |
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I vote "yes" Tech671 and you can show this to 'em. |
XLAXX
| | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 7:32 pm: |
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Hey I'm game, what's the meter 671???
No problem Tinman,.... Thanks Alsworld! We Southern Virginians don't take kindly being called names and such, hehehehehe LOLOLOL!
XLAXX |
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