SHOULD I BELIEVE MY MFJ 828?

[Sonar]

At this stage reactive errors might be a bit much for Sonar.[/QUOTE] WORD!!!

 

[Beetle]

Yeticom, well aware of the limitations of said meter, Although 30 years old it is still better than most.Yep never buy a used oskerblock without the cal chart !.I do have the original calibration chart but added the WARC and CB bands myself. Used that meter as it was easier to photograph.

Company I worked for had a dozen or so bird meters, even birds don't all read exactly the same unless they are calibrated regularly.

At this stage reactive errors might be a bit much for Sonar.

Regarding Bird meters - they do need to be periodically calibrated, AND each of the slugs needs to be calibrated as well. The US Navy used to require that: a Bird 43 would be stored in a fitted, padded wooden box, along with all of the slugs it used. The slugs were all marked with the serial number of the Bird 43 associated with them, and the technician had to verify the equipment before using it. They may still use this system but I haven't been in that particular field for quite some time.

And even with the safeguards, a Bird 43 and the correct slug, both bearing current calibration stickers and identification, is only a ±5% of FSV instrument. If it's the PEP version, it's ±8%.

 

[Sonar]

Stick a good dummy load directly on the output side of the meter and see what they say. A good dummy load with a short cable should read a perfect 1:1. Anything different shows the meter is wrong.

Once again CK thanks for the excellent advice.
I used both a twenty watt dummy load and my 1500 watt mfj DM (oh boy).
With both dummy loads
Workman meter showed 1.1:1 as did Micronta. The mfj read 1.78.
All readings were taken with 2 watts am AM (madison on channel 20.
I hoping the mfj could be calibrated.
Maybe like vkrules said it's not a meter that's going to work correctly on 27 MHz.
If it can't be calibrated I'll put it away with the junk.

Stick a good dummy load directly on the output side of the meter and see what they say. A good dummy load with a short cable should read a perfect 1:1. Anything different shows the meter is wrong.

 

[Road Squawker]

assuming the MFJ was on the low scale (150 watts?) then the 2 watts drive was 2/150 (less than 1.5%) of full scale, the other meter was 2/20 of full scale(10%).

most meters are not accurate at a very low % of full scale.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

First off is the analog meter reading the same as the digital readout on SWR? Secondly have you done a RESET on the meter? Have you tried it with more power? Some meters do not read accuracy with only a couple watts due do the non-linear conduction zone of the detector diodes. There is a firmware upgrade version 1012 for that meter available from this link. http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Downl...J-826B_828_869_Firmware_v1012.exe&company=mfj
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Downl...J-826B_828_869_Firmware_v1012.exe&company=mfj
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Downl...J-826B_828_869_Firmware_v1012.exe&company=mfj
On page 11 of the manual is an SWR bridge calibration procedure to follow however make sure you check out the points above first and only do the calibration as a last resort. Lots of things to check out before you right the meter off as junk. If you decide to right it off send it to me instead. I'll even pay shipping.

 

[BJ radionut]

If you decide to right it off send it to me instead. I'll even pay shipping.

I call Next!
All the Best
Gary

 

[Sonar]

First off is the analog meter reading the same as the digital readout on SWR? Secondly have you done a RESET on the meter? Have you tried it with more power? Some meters do not read accuracy with only a couple watts due do the non-linear conduction zone of the detector diodes. There is a firmware upgrade version 1012 for that meter available from this link.
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Downl...J-826B_828_869_Firmware_v1012.exe&company=mfj
On page 11 of the manual is an SWR bridge calibration procedure to follow however make sure you check out the points above first and only do the calibration as a last resort. Lots of things to check out before you right the meter off as junk. If you decide to right it off send it to me instead. I'll even pay shipping.

I did the factory reset twice. Once before I sent it to mfj and recently.
The analog reads 1.3:1 with 2 watts and the MFJ 1.78.
The MFJ analog side reads higher.
With 700 watts the analog 1.5:1 and MFJ 1.98 and over 2 on the analog side.
The cross needles jump all over the place before finally settling down.
I've read other posts on the web that explain the same exact thing. This happens no whether the meter is set on auto, 2500, 250, or 25.
My setup is problematic. At first my goal was to get on the air with little concern for how technically correct the station was.
That's changing . I'm going to start with getting my antenna to the proper height. It's at less than 10' off the ground in my yard lol
(Not really funny)
I know I've issues with stray RF and most likely second harmonics. Probably other problems. Wheather this is causing the issues with the meter, I don't know. At this point I don't even care.
I need to concentrate on getting my station as close to ideal as possible.
I'm gonna use the workman meter for now.
Only because the 828 is annoying to look at and the fact that I'm convinced it has issues and did from day one bothers me to no end. It's going back in its box and will sit there until I get the station correct. I'll give it another try when the antenna is at the proper height and I add a low pass filter.
I doubt this will correct the meters issues because as I mentioned I believe it has issues and those were there form the day an mfj employee soldered the last joint and tested it.
Thanks for all the advice and help.