My opinion on the Astatic 600
I got my Astatic 600 because it was the only model they had at the radio shop when I purchased my new radio and paid only a small sum for, almost a throw-in for buying my new transceiver at the shop. The meter worked 100% when I got it about 4 months ago and still works the same now. 5000 watts capable, Wow! -The Astatic / ParaDynamics 600 has a beefy tubular line section that can handle a lot of power, no doubt. The connectors however are so tight that you should be careful not to separate the connector to the solid line section when connecting and removing your cables. I did not realize this until I was trying to get my cable off and had to wiggle to get it out and being the anal person that I am, I was dreaming about ways to reinforce the internal center pin connection by using more solder or something.
The unit is made in Asia somewhere, seems like PDC shipped the manufacturing equipment over there as the internals look almost exact to the original PDC6000 but with better assembly quality.
What is dissapointing is that the meter face printing is very poor. Units like the Dosy have beautifully printed and accurate meter faces, but the Astatic 600 looks like cheap fuzzy silk screening not befitting a scientific instrument. Shame on the mess.
The cal knobs are on extension plastic shafts that have a lot of play and lateral slack so calibrating for full scale is much more difficult than say a Dosy with professional architecture (the single meter Dosys with solid potentiometers and metal lubricated shafts). The Astatic is so poor in this regard that if you nudge the knob laterally it will change your full scale reading. Then again I have experienced super equipment with poor potentiometers from expensive manufacturers like IFR and Rohde Schwarz (a real eye opener considering the cost of the commercial gear)
Otherwise fit and finish is nice and the internals are nicely assembled, soldered and clean design.
There is a reason why the Astatic 600 costs a less than Dosy full size meters, for the aforementioned shortcomings and probably because its made from cheaply paid but high quality labor. Materials are also on the cheaper side ala cheap meter face printing, cheap meter lens plastic, cheap rubber feet. The meter movements on close inspection have a cheap look to them, although they may be durable for years of service. Only time will tell, I've only had mine for a short time.
My final dissapointment with this full size triple meter is that it does not have the audio monitor feature found on other high end meters in this price range like the Workman 5000 which I wonder if it comes from the same manufacturing company. If the Workman 5000 was available when I got this, I would have chosen the Workman for that additional feature of a diode audio detector monitoring circuit. Online the Workman is a few dollars cheaper than the Astatic, but that may be due to the color box the Astatic comes in.