Dosy frequency counter

[43Echo695]

I'm wanting to buy a frequency counter for the shack, for use as a quick reference,
with different radios.

Prefer one with SO-239 connections & 27.xxx.x resolution.

Any feed back on the Dosy FC-50PS?

It's aimed at sideband which is all I use.

Thanks & 73's

43 Echo 695

 

[groundwire]

If you connect a frequency counter using your antenna connector, on ssb you will not get a stable reading. Its just gonna be going all over the place. If you want a stable frequency readout for ssb, you are gonna have to connect the counter to the circuit board inside the radio.

 

[2NC995]

If you connect a frequency counter using your antenna connector, on ssb you will not get a stable reading. Its just gonna be going all over the place. If you want a stable frequency readout for ssb, you are gonna have to connect the counter to the circuit board inside the radio.

And will only work on TX, which would have pretty much no use.

 

[Low_Boy]

There is a video of that counter working o SSB.It shoots a tone in to the radio. I thought it was accurate if I remember correctly.

 

[Tokin]

If memory serves me fhere are 2 models, one am only one am/ssb.
The FC50P is am and the FC50SP is am/ssb

 

[Robb]

If you want to use a freq counter as a reference in the shack; then get a real counter that has accuracy.
Not a toy counter.

You will also need a sampler box, so that the counter is never connected directly to the radio's output.
No one like the smell of fried electronics, or what it cost to replace it.

An RF sampler, RF sniffer, or known by many other names as well, creates a bridge so that your radio signals go out to your antenna uninterrupted and the sampler pulls off enough RF to trigger the freq counter.

You can get a cheap Freq counter off of Epay that has enough accuracy to do a fine job and cost about as much as the Dosy - more or less.

 

[Tokin]

Robb makes a good point. When the day is done Dosy is truck stop quality equipment.
I agree, If you can buy better quality used do it.

 

[2NC995]

“The FC 50 S and FC 50 SP displays the frequency when the mic is keyed, on transmit only.”

I agree...a waste.

 

[nomadradio]

It appeals to a SSB operator who has no way to install a full-time display that works while receiving.

This one has the 'sampler' built in. Two coax sockets on the rear panel.

A steady tone into a SSB transmitter gets you a RF carrier out of the radio. The frequency of the carrier is set by the pitch (frequency) of the audio tone. Makes me wonder how accurate that will be. We built some tone boxes here that use a quartz crystal and divide it down to 1 kHz, into a volume control and a speaker amplifier. This way the "5" kHz counter reading becomes "4" on LSB and "6" on USB. Audio frequency is typically within one Hertz.

Just how Dosy gets this audio tone to be accurate is a big question mark for me. If the audio frequency is off 20 or 30 Hz, so will the counter reading.

Now, it's a whole 'nother question to ask "just who cares?"

I do remember 'sideband clubs' above channel 23, er channel 40. Seems to me their favorite thing to bicker over was who's off frequency and how much.

73