[Elecraft] OT: Bird Wattmeter "meter failures"

[Robert Harmon]

Ken,

My bird has been acting as you described.  I will check it out.
I guess the remedy is to clean the spring coils ?
Thanks for the info ?

73,
Bob
K6UJ




On 11/21/15 3:23 PM, Ken G Kopp wrote:
> An earlier posting brings this to mind ....
>
> There is a seemingly little-known failure that frequently occurs to Bird
> meter movements ... or more correctly ... to the connector at the sensor
> casting end of the length of coax used to connect the (30 ua) meter to the
> sensor.
>
> Often a sharp "whack" on the housing will cause the meter to resume
> working, often for long periods of time.  The connector's internal
> connection is made by inserting the (solid) center conductor of the coax
> between turns of the coils of a tiny spring that's part of the center pin
> assembly of the casting end's cable connector.
>
> There's such a tiny amount of current flowing through the coax center
> conductor and the spring "connection" that it seems to corrode easily, and
> most assume the meter movement has failed.  The resulting tiny disturbance
> to the wire/spring junction is why the "slap" on the housing often brings
> the meter back to life.  Many of the expensive proprietary meters have been
> needlessly replaced because of this.
>
> 73 - K0PP
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