Palstar AT4K Fail

[BenMara]

So ive had the Palstar AT4K since 2011. Ran perfect till 2015. The SWR meter turned inaccurate. Was on the horn with Paul and Eva numerous times to troubleshoot. They just ended blocking my emails. I dont want to spend $120+ to just remove and replace parts. I have access to another Meter to check it against. And the meter on my HF radio. Read somewhere i needed a dummy load to calibrate the meter. I can not find any reference material to calibrate the meter if it is out of calibration...

Tkx
Ben

 

[Road Squawker]

http://www.catlog.net/_Descarregas/Manuals/34-Palstar/Palstar manual_at4k.pdf

see item # 18

 

[BenMara]

Service by Palstar? How can you trust a company if they service sucks... Great product, support fails..

Its like changing oil, i rather do it my self if i have the equipment

 

[Road Squawker]

I'm out

 

[543_Dallas]

The adjustments are in the manual. Road squawker posted a link and gave you a page number. Twist them until the meter readings make you happy. You do need a dummy load to calibrate it properly.

You can get two meters to agree at one point but they will never give you the same reading across the scale. Doesn't matter if its a bird, palstar, mfj or dosy.

This is what happens when manufacturers decide to put watt meters in everything they make.

 

[nomadradio]

Would be helpful to have a diagram of the directional-coupler board.

A close look for one or more overheated fixed resistors may reveal a problem.

Biggest single failure we see with the directional-coupler portion of wattmeters is failed diodes.

I suspect an actual failure, and not something that simply turning a calibration adjustment can fix.

73

 

[Ranch55]

http://www.palstar.com/en/product-manuals/manual_at4k.pdf
see page 6 .....

A good known meter will be required......

 

[BenMara]

Paul from Palstar had me check fwd and rev voltages of the diodes.... i responded to his email with values and ops check... he never responded

 

[BenMara]

Yes i do see the potetometers Rev Lo, Rev Hi, Fwd Lo, Fwd Hi, Fwd Peak Lo, Fwd Peak Hi. Do i just do turn till its the same as reference meters?

 

[nomadradio]

Preferably they should be set with a dummy load, not an antenna.

Use a dead carrier. The peak setting gets adjusted to make it agree with the average reading. Peak power of a carrier is the same as the average power.

Calibrating the reverse side is usually done by reversing the connections. It must be in the "bypass" mode to do this.

73

 

[BenMara]

http://www.catlog.net/_Descarregas/Manuals/34-Palstar/Palstar manual_at4k.pdf see item # 18

The adjustments are in the manual. Road squawker posted a link and gave you a page number. Twist them until the meter readings make you happy. You do need a dummy load to calibrate it properly.
...

Both were right from the beginning.. I just needed someone more experienced to show me how to do it..

 

[Handy Andy]

Thanks for sharing the link, watching this thread with some interest...

What happened? Why did it lose calibration?

 

[BenMara]

Never found out what happened, but did have local Motorola radio tech calibrate the meters.

Tech was impressed with the quality of the Palstar Tuner, hes only had MFJ. He wasnt impressed with Palstar from his personal past support of their product . But knew the frustration i was under.

Fortunately im slowly getting back on HF...

 

[Handy Andy]

Oh, ok - thanks for getting back with me - glad to know it wasn't a serious repair to get it working again.

Wish you the best!

 

[drgrant]

Sad because their stuff is generally built like a brick shithouse, but have seen other complaints about the quality of their metering or metering hardware, etc.