[Elecraft] K3 RF Power Meter Accuracy

[Fred Smith]

Hi Jim

I don't have any LDG meters anymore but do have others a digital in my
Palstar HF-Auto tuner, an Alpha 4510 and a Palstar DL2K dummy
load/wattmeter. My K3 set at 50w the HF-Auto read 48w, the Alpha 4510 49w on
analog/digital meters both and the dummy load 41w. If you have a bird to
place in line try that but my Alpha is 100% reading scale as a fresh
calibrated bird and new slugs on mine from 5w it goes down to .3w and 2400w
goes to 3000w. But like you said quite a bit of money but matches my amp
well.

You need to come up with a known meter before going any further or I would
in that case.

73,
Fred/N0AZZ

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jim Bennett
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 9:30 PM
To: Elecraft Reflector Reflector
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 RF Power Meter Accuracy

I've been using my K3 #4359 now for several years w/o any issues. Just this
past week I acquired an LDG AT-600ProII auto tuner and the matching M-600
analog meter. I calibrated the M-600 per the instructions. What I'm seeing
is that the M-600 meter is showing me higher RF output than the K3's bar
graph on most bands. As an example, after setting the KAT3 to Bypass, using
the AT-600 to bring an antenna to a match (close to 1:1) with 5 watts out of
the K3, I turn the K3 power output to 25 watts. A key-down on the K3 shows
25 watts on the K3 bar graph, but the M-600 tells me that the power is about
39-40 watts. It is like this on nearly all the bands, 160-10 meters. On 6
meters, the M-600 reads about 20% LOWER than the K3.

I sent an email to LDG and asked them what's up - which is correct - the K3,
or the LDG unit? Their response is that the K3 most likely is incorrect, as
they calibrate their equipment with an Alpha 4500. That's a tad of an
expensive meter, to say the least. Are the LDG folks tweaking me on this, or
is that M-600 really more accurate than the RF bar graph on the K3?

Jim / W6JHB
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