SWR Meter working properly?

[kiphartzell]

I just picked up a used Radio Shack 21-524 SWR/Power meter to tune a mobile setup. I am concerned that this meter is not working properly and had a quick question regarding the resistance I should get across the ground and positive of this meter. I was doing a connectivity check on the antenna and cable and happen to have the SWR meter hooked up. This showed the ground was connected to the positive. Is this normal? When I take a resistance reading across the ground and signal of the meter (nothing connected), I only get 0.2 -0.3 ohms. Is this normal or is the SWR meter internally shorted. Thanks.

 

[W5LZ]

What you are measuring is DC resistance, which is very different than AC impedance, which is frequency related, and what your radio will 'see' looking into that meter.
Is this why you are concerned about that meter, or is there something else that makes you think it isn't 'right' for some reason?
- 'Doc

 

[kiphartzell]

It was mainly curiosity. I know the ground plane can not be shorted to the hot in at least the antenna and cable. So if this is not true when adding an SWR meter to the mix, then I should be good to go. It just seemed that .2 ohms across the PL-259 connector on the SWR meter would constitute a short between "hot" and "ground". Background, I am debugging a perceived high SWR with a brand new Firestik II antenna with FireRing connector and since this was a pre-own meter I never used before, I was concerned it may be bad. Thanks.

 

[mackmobile43]

I measured mine directly on the so's and got a reading of .3 ohms.

 

[kiphartzell]

Okay, good to know. Thanks.