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Connecting radio to linear then to swr\watt meter?

What CK said is correct. However, most decent tuners have built in SWR meters which eliminates more patch cables using an external meter.

The one drawback is a lot power meters on tuners read average power not peak. This is because you really want to tune with average power for fast and stable needle movement.
 
My old MFJ-949e manual tuner is switchable from average to peak reading at 300 watts. Nice tuner and has a built in 300 watt dummy load.
 
Cheers sorted it out.

Just a few queries. I set the dead key on the 955 stryker to 10W, it swings to 20W on AM only. Then with amp powered on the watt meter shows too much of high dead key, also the meter on the texas star is on the 10 scale. So I lowered the deadkey on the 955 with the amp off to below 10W ( hard to tell about 7W?) and then turned the amp on and it was deadkeying at 150W. But the meter on the TS is now on 9.

Am I doing this right? I thought perhaps I had one tranistor down from new, so while holding the deadkey I increased the variable on the 955 all the way up and it sure did almost get to 400W deadkey and current draw was about 45AMP so I assume the amp works as it should. I didnt modulate it in this way at all. Was a quick momentarilly test.

Well I can see your well on your way to blowing the crap out of that amp and if you keep it up you might even take the radio out. Then you will be 2 for 2 on new radio's. Have you not learned ANYTHING from the last 10 er so threads you have started?

I'm being tough on you because you have already been advised on how to run that new amplifier before you got it. With those DEI finals I would say even a 150 watt dead key is too much, A 400 watt dead key is insane, I can't believe you turned your dead key up on the radio and and actually watched a 400 watt dead key and the amp did not blow. It might already be damaged. What were you thinking???

That said I think your radio will need to be tuned up some to better "match" up to your amplifier. You will need to lower the radio's dead key until the amplifier reaches say a 70 watt dead key. This way you can raise the dead key to 100 watts if you wanted to by turning up the radio's RF power. With DEI finals I would not go above 100 watts dead key out from that amp. When your radio was at a 10 watt dead key it should swing right at 40 watts with 100% modulation. Again it needs a little tune up work.

My last thought is this. In an earlier post this information was given, Radio=====>Amp=====>Meter====>antenna. If you are having problems understanding what this means I think you need to reconsider even running an amplifier. I would hate to see you keep burning up expensive radio gear. You now know why the E-Bay seller you bought the amp from sells as is.

Good luck, i'm out.
 
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Well I can see your well on your way to blowing the crap out of that amp and if you keep it up you might even take the radio out. Then you will be 2 for 2 on new radio's. Have you not learned ANYTHING from the last 10 er so threads you have started?

I'm being tough on you because you have already been advised on how to run that new amplifier before you got it. With those DEI finals I would say even a 150 watt dead key is too much, A 400 watt dead key is insane, I can't believe you turned your dead key up on the radio and and actually watched a 400 watt dead key and the amp did not blow. It might already be damaged. What were you thinking???

That said I think your radio will need to be tuned up some to better "match" up to your amplifier. You will need to lower the radio's dead key until the amplifier reaches say a 70 watt dead key. This way you can raise the dead key to 100 watts if you wanted to by turning up the radio's RF power. With DEI finals I would not go above 100 watts dead key out from that amp. When your radio was at a 10 watt dead key it should swing right at 40 watts with 100% modulation. Again it needs a little tune up work.

My last thought is this. In an earlier post this information was given, Radio=====>Amp=====>Meter====>antenna. If you are having problems understanding what this means I think you need to reconsider even running an amplifier. I would hate to see you keep burning up expensive radio gear. You now know why the E-Bay seller you bought the amp from sells as is.

Good luck, i'm out.
No, i just did that momentarily. The RF power into the TS is about 4 or 5 watts . All i did to "blow the shit" out of the amp was when I keyed the mic, i turned the dial on the radio up and saw the needle on the swan got to 400w, i didnt modulate or run it with the 400w dk. Used the amp with dk 100w.

I also respect what you say and do my best to listen and learn, but blowing two radios comment is abit harsh?

I agree with the matched comment, thanks

With the lowest rf power on 955 my dk on TS is 80. If i raise it to 100dk it swings to 250 w . I wanted to know to make sure the meter was in the chain correctly so i coukd measure power and swr.

Sometimes its good to be tough, it shows you care ;-)
 
Last edited:
Cheers sorted it out.

Just a few queries. I set the dead key on the 955 stryker to 10W, it swings to 20W on AM only. Then with amp powered on the watt meter shows too much of high dead key, also the meter on the texas star is on the 10 scale. So I lowered the deadkey on the 955 with the amp off to below 10W ( hard to tell about 7W?) and then turned the amp on and it was deadkeying at 150W. But the meter on the TS is now on 9.

Am I doing this right? I thought perhaps I had one tranistor down from new, so while holding the deadkey I increased the variable on the 955 all the way up and it sure did almost get to 400W deadkey and current draw was about 45AMP so I assume the amp works as it should. I didnt modulate it in this way at all. Was a quick momentarilly test.


No,No, No ........
I set my Stryker SR955HP to dead key no more than 4 watts on AM mode. The Texas Star 500V will dead key output about 200 watts or so at that setting.
Then I run my radio and Texas Star 500V from there on AM and SSB ......
I have been operating this way for well over a year now without any issues. The Texas Star will swing well over 500 watts PEP on SSB (actually around 550 to 600 PEP) depending on my vocal intensity and syllables. It probably averages around 400 watts PEP or so operating at this setting with a low normal voice.
 
No,No, No ........
I set my Stryker SR955HP to dead key no more than 4 watts on AM mode. The Texas Star 500V will dead key output about 200 watts or so at that setting.
Then I run my radio and Texas Star 500V from there on AM and SSB ......
I have been operating this way for well over a year now without any issues. The Texas Star will swing well over 500 watts PEP on SSB (actually around 550 to 600 PEP) depending on my vocal intensity and syllables. It probably averages around 400 watts PEP or so operating at this setting with a low normal voice.

Cheers, those figures were tests that I ran, I learned in the early stages from this forum not have a high dead key.
 

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