I picked up the very clean looking Bird 43 wattmeter at the Hamvention in Ohio, 5/2023, with a leather case for about $200.
Shopping elsewhere in the flea market area I also got a “N” type connector, looked basically new for $30, to swap out the SO-239 one on the side.
These wattmeters are well accepted as a reliable instrument for measuring RF power. It’s not uncommon to see radio service manuals refer to it when setting up, or checking, the power calibration on a radio.
I also picked up a couple of 5 watt elements covering 100-250 MHz and the 400-1000 MHz range for testing used HT’s I buy. Would get some higher power ones in the future to test a few 50 watt mobile radios and some high power VHF and UHF amplifiers I own.
