[Elecraft] I'm Stuck!- counter hints

[Martin AC6RM]

Hi Bob;

   Hey, THANKS for your help!  The hand-made probe for the hand-held
frequency counter worked perfectly, with the 10pf cap on the end of a
foot of RG174.  I was really worried that I would overload the
frequency counter.  I checked that max input on the instruction sheet
and it does say 15 dBm max.  If that's low, I suspect it's low because
it's a frequency counter with an antenna, designed to be put within the
proximity of a transmitting antenna, not actually touching it.  The
frequency counter is an ELENCO model F-2800; here's a link with the
details of the unit: http://www.tequipment.net/ElencoF-2800.html.

   Anyway, I took the plunge and touched the end of the home made probe to
the test point and the field strength was showing about half-scale, and
we NAILED matching the frequencies easily by adjusting C22 to 12098.97.
 :)   I noticed also that the freqency on the K2's CAL FCTR display did
not change at all when I touched the hand-held frequency counter's
probe to TP1.

   So, on to CAL PLL and the rest of the alignment.  If I still can't hear
anything on 40m, I'll be signal tracing :)

   73, Martin

> Hi Martin,
>
> The 15 dBm max input corresponds to a sine wave with a peak of about
> 1.78 volts (1.26V rms).
> That doesn't sound like a very large signal at low frequencies.  I
> wonder if they might mean 15 dBV, which would
> be 5.6Volts ?   Sometimes meters can tolerate a much larger input
> without damage but they may not
> work correctly. Check the fine print in your manual.
<...snip...>