swr and watt meter

Anyone know if it hurts anything to leave a swr and watt meter hooked up while transmitting?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kk4fpx

Anyone know if it hurts anything to leave a swr and watt meter hooked up while transmitting?

---

Assuming the meter is of decent quality (low insertion loss), it doesn't hurt a thing.

I have several Kenwood SW-2000s with sampling heads that are attached to various VHF/UHF transceivers, HF transceivers and amplifiers in the shack. They're never disconnected. If I had a Bird 43 or other lab-grade instrument it wouldn't be used as a "shack accessory", however.

Mine are built into my tuner and so are always hooked up when I'm transmitting. Never hurt anything. I think it's a good idea to keep one hooked up, in fact—it will help you spot a potential problem with your antenna system before you fry the finals on your radio.

I keep a Daiwa CN-801 inline. It has saved my butt many times.

If it's not hooked up when you transmit, it doesn't tell you anything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KJ6BSO

Mine are built into my tuner and so are always hooked up when I'm transmitting. Never hurt anything. I think it's a good idea to keep one hooked up, in fact—it will help you spot a potential problem with your antenna system before you fry the finals on your radio.

---

Well, with these new fangled solid state finals you gotta worry. With the kind of finals I use all you need to do is look at them. If you see the plates glowing bright orange-yellow it might be a sign that something is a bit out of tune. If they are just glowing a ruddy cherry red your good to go and you can probaly lean on them a bit harder..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by W5GA

If it's not hooked up when you transmit, it doesn't tell you anything.

---

Has anybody told you you're such a smart-ass, you could sit on an ice cream cone and tell us the flavor? :snicker:





















I kid, I kid!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by n2ize

Well, with these new fangled solid state finals you gotta worry. With the kind of finals I use all you need to do is look at them. If you see the plates glowing bright orange-yellow it might be a sign that something is a bit out of tune. If they are just glowing a ruddy cherry red your good to go and you can probaly lean on them a bit harder..

---

Or you're running a 4x1 WAY over it's limits on linear AM! Such a pretty glow!

Go ahead and leave it in line all the time. Good monitor for what's going on out there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by N8YX

If I had a Bird 43 or other lab-grade instrument it wouldn't be used as a "shack accessory", however.

---

You ain't got no watts iff'n you don't have dem Bird watts! ;) :lol:

No excuses.... :rofl:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WØTKX

Has anybody told you you're such a smart-ass, you could sit on an ice cream cone and tell us the flavor? :snicker:

---

:rofl: