Accurate PEP Meter?

[Justme]

AM power VS SSB power

Lots of good info there.
Simply said whe the meter circuit starts to go up on the SSB signal the power already drops and the meter will drop as well before reaching the peak value.
The meter circuit just isn't fast enough to follow the waveform of SSB, hence the scope or electronic circuit needed to give an accurate rading of the PEP value.
The electronic PEP circuit samples the signal, amplifies it and has a hold circuit so that it can reflect the true PEP value long enough to see it on your meter.

Using a homemade circuit is possible, you can calibrate the meter using the methods as described above.
I just had 2 Daiwa CN 801 meters here, so after some modifications of showing SWR I PEP mode and lengthening the hold time a bit, I just use there, one on H.F. the other for 6 meters.

 

[psycho]

The best peak reading meter I have ever owned was a Macaw and I don't remember the model number but it did not need 12V or a wall wart to run.
Sometimes on ebay they will pop up. It had a 20/200/2000 scale and read swrs perfectly when compared to a bird.
Definitely not as loose as a Dosy.

 

[GnG8d]

The best peak reading meter I have ever owned was a Macaw and I don't remember the model number but it did not need 12V or a wall wart to run.
Sometimes on ebay they will pop up. It had a 20/200/2000 scale and read swrs perfectly when compared to a bird.
Definitely not as loose as a Dosy.

LOL, that's a good one.

 

[M0GVZ]

The best peak reading meter I have ever owned was a Macaw and I don't remember the model number but it did not need 12V or a wall wart to run.

Then its not a proper peak hold meter which is what you need to measure SSB properly.

 

[jazzsinger]

LP100 or Bird 4314 would be my choice used in conjunction with a two tone non harmonically reated test generator and a dummy load. Another option would be an RF Ammeter, very easy to work power out from Rf current.One thing is certain, no matter what way you do it, accurate ssb power ain't gonna be cheap to measure.

 

[Shockwave]

The peak reading watt meter should give the appearance of being generous since the real peaks should show much more than the average power. One might think this would be easy to get right considering all of the generous meters we may have seen over the years like a Dosy.

The problem is how do you get a peak meter to display the enormous positive peaks while not exaggerating the average or carrier power reading? This is much more complicated that just increasing the calibrated sensitivity of the meter.

That is why an active, powered electronic circuit is required to measure PEP. So you can slow the meter movement down enough to see it while still responding to the highest peaks accurately.

 

[CbRadiosPRONTO]

LP100 or Bird 4314 would be my choice used in conjunction with a two tone non harmonically reated test generator and a dummy load. Another option would be an RF Ammeter, very easy to work power out from Rf current.One thing is certain, no matter what way you do it, accurate ssb power ain't gonna be cheap to measure.

Yup. Price is a killer.

 

[Marconi]

What's a good meter to have that measures PEP output? I have my Bird 43, but it doesn't have a peak kit in it, so it only measures average.

I also have one of those "feel good" meters (Dosy) that is calibrated on AM (calibrated to deadkey wattage).

With just the radio, both the Dosy and my Bird meter read almost exactly on the money to each other, but when I switch the amp on, the Bird meter reads 300W on SSB, and the Dosy reads 500W.

Sooo... hence the question for a good, accurate PEP meter. I hear the Daiwa CN-801HP meters are pretty good, is that something I should buy? Is there another meter that does well? Any info would be most appreciated. Thanks!

~Cheers~

Hey exit13, I have a Daiwa 801H. I think it does a really fine job. I think the best feature is I don't have to calibrate it when I use it in any scale 20w,200w,2kw.

I don't know how accurate it is, but it does show exactly what what I expect from my TS 570D, and my TS50 with both radios in the FM mode.

I have a bird too, but it is a mess to deal with, and I don't know if it is perfectly accurate either, but the outputs are typically the same when the meters are at the same point in the feed line, or when connected directly to my dummy load...which also has a meter for 10,100,1000 watts. So, I might not get perfect results, but I'm happy.

What do you do with your meter information that makes it so necessary to have perfect lab type results? Isn't close good enough?