Looking for a good/accurate/ power/watt meter for UHF/GMRS

[OffRoaderX]

Curious what some good, accurate, well-respected power meters are.  I know Bird is the gold-standard but I'm looking for something not quite as expensive.  Not just something that works well and is accurate, but something that "experts" would respect.

[marcspaz]

I'm commenting to subscribe. I have a Bird 43. From there, I have amateur grade or less. I'm curious what the pros are using.

[SteveShannon]

I’m doing the same thing as Marc. I’m interested in something less expensive than the Bird, but better than the Farsomatic.

Or if the Farsometer can be properly calibrated and relied upon I’d be interested. 
I have been looking at a couple of MFJ digital meters, but I don’t know if they’re much better than the Farsometer. 

[OffRoaderX]

49 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

I’m doing the same thing as Marc. I’m interested in something less expensive than the Bird, but better than the Farsomatic.

Or if the Farsometer can be properly calibrated and relied upon I’d be interested. 
I have been looking at a couple of MFJ digital meters, but I don’t know if they’re much better than the Farsometer. 

I need something better so i can calibrate my Fars-O-Meter 2000!
I am also looking at some of the MFJ's but I want something that "some people" wont declare is just 'junk' and i'm not sure where MFJ falls on the home-expert's scale of "just junk"...

[marcspaz]

I have been using Bird, Swan, MFJ and Diamond for some time. I've heard people call MFJ Mighty Fine Junk, but I like them. My Diamond meters are pretty good too... but not pro great. 

 

I would rank mine as Bird, Swan and Diamond, with the MFJ being tied with my Surecom. On if my Diamond meters (UHF) needs to be calibrated. 

 

The downside to both the MFJ and Diamond meters I have is that they are rated for a 10% tolerance, which is a lot.

[gortex2]

I use the Bird 43 at home. I also have the Telwave 44 that I'll use once in a while. I like the Telwave as I don't need to swap elements, however I find the Bird is more accurate with the proper element. Both were retired from work but I still send them for calibrations every 5 years. For work I use a rohde-schwarz NRT-Z14. 

When doing hobby work my Bird is whats on my bench 99% of the time. 

[SteveShannon]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

I need something better so i can calibrate my Fars-O-Meter 2000!
I am also looking at some of the MFJ's but I want something that "some people" wont declare is just 'junk' and i'm not sure where MFJ falls on the home-expert's scale of "just junk"...

It appears that at least some of the meters MFJ sells are sourced elsewhere and rebranded.  The digital meter I was originally interested in appears to be the same as a Nissei or Fumei meter, but $30 more. When the most prolific ham YouTube host (quantity before quality) opened it up, the board said  Nissei.  But another of their meters claimed it was very accurate and made in Taiwan, so it’s hard to know what they’re selling.

[Lscott]

10 hours ago, marcspaz said:

The downside to both the MFJ and Diamond meters I have is that they are rated for a 10% tolerance, which is a lot.

And that is of the full scale reading too! So if the full scale is 20 watts your reading could be in error by up to 2 watts. Trying to measure the output of a 4/5 Watt HT and getting a 2 watt error you don't know if it's the wattmeter or the HT that has the problem.

I think with the Birds you can get a 5 watt slug so when checking low power, like on HT's, and a 5% error rating, you get a pretty accurate reading.

I'm also looking at getting a good Bird wattmeter in good condition with "N" connectors on it. So far everything I've seen used is like $300, for a beat up one, to $400+ for a used one in good condition. Then there is the cost of the slugs, which you end up with a collection of those too, and they aren't that cheap either.

I have a buddy who is a full time radio tech at a local city transportation department. He uses a Telwave. I've never heard him complaint about it, and he uses the crap out of it, field and bench work.

I have a Diawa meter currently and I'm not that impressed with it.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dwa-cn-103m

[nokones]

I got this Bird 43 setup I purchased off of eBay and I don't have more than $300 total invested. I have slugs for 100W VHF Highband, 100W UHF, and a 10W UHF for reading the lower scale for the reflected power. I also have a MFJ Digital Meter that reads, VSWR, forward and reflected power, for checking the VSWR reading which the Bird does not do. The Bird is good for only the forward and reflected power checks. The MFJ is close to the accuracy for the power and can vary from check to check. The Telwave is a good unit and doesn't require slugs. Personally, I think the Telwaves read a tad on the high side, not sure which one is accurate the most.  

I always thought that the cool guys have the Birds so I wanted one so I can be a wanna-be.

[Lscott]

34 minutes ago, nokones said:

for checking the VSWR reading which the Bird does not do. The Bird is good for only the forward and reflected power checks.

It's done all the time. You will need a calculator with a square root function. Look under the heading in the below link:

"VSWR formula using forward & reflected powers"

https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/antennas-propagation/vswr-return-loss/vswr-calculations-formulas-equations.php

[MarkInTampa]

Anybody ever try a WaveNode watt meter? They claim 5% accuracy. It has USB interface to the computer with software that does some neat things if you want to use it and also has a programable SWR protection relay. It's been on my wish list for awhile but would love to hear from somebody who has used them before.

https://wavenodedevelop.com/

[SteveShannon]

The MFJ-874 claims 5% average accuracy on 20 and 200 watt scales: https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-874?pr_prod_strat=use_description&pr_rec_id=43ee72544&pr_rec_pid=4393832153187&pr_ref_pid=4393832349795&pr_seq=uniform#product-manuals

It looks interesting to me.

The wavenode looks interesting as well.

[shevo7385]

OffroaderX, I know this is off-topic but I love your channel and used it to learn ALOT on this topic.

[tcp2525]

My advice spend the extra money and buy the Bird so you have peace of mind. I had two Daiwa 901s and I had to replace a meter on one for $50 and a diode in the other, all common documented problems.  I always thought Daiwa was a great second choice, but no, just more crap. You don't want to see the slop inside one of them. Buy the Bird, I did and ain't looking back.

[tcp2525]

7 hours ago, Lscott said:

It's done all the time. You will need a calculator with a square root function. Look under the heading in the below link:

"VSWR formula using forward & reflected powers"

https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/antennas-propagation/vswr-return-loss/vswr-calculations-formulas-equations.php

Or just use the chart.

[tcp2525]

11 hours ago, gortex2 said:

I use the Bird 43 at home. I also have the Telwave 44 that I'll use once in a while. I like the Telwave as I don't need to swap elements, however I find the Bird is more accurate with the proper element. Both were retired from work but I still send them for calibrations every 5 years. For work I use a rohde-schwarz NRT-Z14. 

When doing hobby work my Bird is whats on my bench 99% of the time. 

Just looking at the extremely tight tolerance of the line section speaks volumes of the type of gear the Bird is.

[gortex2]

23 hours ago, Lscott said:

It's done all the time. You will need a calculator with a square root function. Look under the heading in the below link:

"VSWR formula using forward & reflected powers"

https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/antennas-propagation/vswr-return-loss/vswr-calculations-formulas-equations.php

All of my Bird wat meters have a chart on the back with F/R and VSWR averages. In the end F/R is really all that matters. If its same on both bad antenna. 

[SteveShannon]

I just ordered an MFJ-884.  I did so based on reviews on Amazon and ehams.net, which were very positive except for a couple people who ordered from the bargain basement selection of used meters.

https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-884

These are the features that swayed me:

Range from 1.8 MHz to 525 MHz

Reports of accuracy

Reports of accuracy even when measuring low wattage devices (milliwatt sensitivity)

Ease of use (simplicity).  This meter just measures forward power and reflected power.  The intersection of the two needles occurs over meter markings that show the SWR.

Ability to calibrate.

Retail is $160.  Ham Radio Outlet has it for $150 with free shipping.  I generally receive items very quickly from the Portland store and that's where this is shipping from.

It's not digital.  It doesn't have a frequency counter.  

It only needs external power for the meter illumination (as I understand it).

 

I was sorely tempted to get the MFJ-874.  It also had very good reviews.

https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-874?pr_prod_strat=use_description&pr_rec_id=ec31e14d7&pr_rec_pid=4393832153187&pr_ref_pid=4393832349795&pr_seq=uniform

[SteveShannon]

On 2/21/2023 at 2:02 PM, Sshannon said:

 

I just ordered an MFJ-884.  I did so based on reviews on Amazon and ehams.net, which were very positive except for a couple people who ordered from the bargain basement selection of used meters.

 

The meter arrived today. Stupidly I didn’t  order a short (about 18 inches) coax jumper; don’t be me. 
So, I used a 12 foot ABR 400 cable. 
It appears to work just fine but I have no reference. My Radioddity DB20G measured 18 watts at 146.940 MHz. At 147.500 it measured a little over 20 watts. A digital meter might’ve reported more figures to the right of the decimal, but I don’t know that it would mean anything. 
The SWR of my Comet SBB5 antenna measures 1.1 at 146.940. That’s the frequency of our local repeater. Again, that is meaningless as an endorsement of the meter without a reference of some kind. 
The only negative that occurs to me is that it seems small. I didn’t pay attention to the dimensions. 

[K7lon]

I am not a expert,  but use a bird meter and a MFJ 269 antenna analyzer. Placing more value on the antenna over power output. The surecom $60 power/ SWR meter for quick checks is looking like my next purchase. This comes from a antenna nut not a expert.

Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

P.s. The comet SBB5 is my favorite mobile ham antenna.

[SteveShannon]

41 minutes ago, K7lon said:

I am not a expert,  but use a bird meter and a MFJ 269 antenna analyzer. Placing more value on the antenna over power output. The surecom $60 power/ SWR meter for quick checks is looking like my next purchase. This comes from a antenna nut not a expert.

Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

P.s. The comet SBB5 is my favorite mobile ham antenna.

A friend asked me to fix his MFJ 269D Pro.  I fixed it yesterday.  Someone had broken the N female socket on the top.  That was not designed to make it easy to fix!  

 

[K7lon]

Nice save. They are a nice tool.