FWIW
Everyone has their like and dislikes, and if you get
three people together you'll probably get three opinions
about almost anything you can think of, encluding meters.
Personally, I think the 'cross-needle' SWR/Watt meters
are the handiest things that have come along in a while.
You get three readings with two meters, that's a bargain!
They're a bit confusing to start with, but that doesn't last
too long. They are also much easier to use than the
'standard' style SWR/watt meter too. If you rememebr which
needle is for 'reflected' power, and keep it on the bottom
peg, your SWR has to be acceptible whether you can
read it or not from the interpolation scale. At the same
time it's telling you what your power output is. I don't know
about you, but when I'm mobile I don't actually read the
number on the meter, I just pay attention to the relative
position of the needle. For me, it's much easier to 'see'
a needle against the peg (or close to it) than try to
memorize the 'correct' needle position for what ever the
SWR is supposed to be. If I just ~have~ to know what the
'numbers' are, I'll squint, lean over, and read the thing.
Most of the time I don't have to do that, though.
Anything you introduce into a feedline will cause some
loss. In most cases it will be very small, or not noticable.
The idea that a SWR/watt meter causes a nonacceptible
loss in signal is really stretching things! Unless there's
something wrong with the meter (or it's design), it just
doesn't make enough difference to worry about. Every
thing is subject to failure, feedline, meter, antenna, etc.
The failure of any of those things means bad news for
everything else in line before it. In I don't know how
many years, I've never had an SWR/watt meter fail and
not know it. Never had one to fail catestrofically(?) either.
I've had them fail, not read right, or at all, but it didn't
'take' anything with it when it quit. Maybe I've been lucky.
I think taking the meter out of line deprives you of useful
information, to no purpose.
So, I hope that may put a different 'light' on things. There
are too many other things to worry about without adding
'stuff' you don't need to worry about to it. An SWR/watt
meter is just more of that 'stuff'...
- 'Doc
</p>
Everyone has their like and dislikes, and if you get
three people together you'll probably get three opinions
about almost anything you can think of, encluding meters.
Personally, I think the 'cross-needle' SWR/Watt meters
are the handiest things that have come along in a while.
You get three readings with two meters, that's a bargain!
They're a bit confusing to start with, but that doesn't last
too long. They are also much easier to use than the
'standard' style SWR/watt meter too. If you rememebr which
needle is for 'reflected' power, and keep it on the bottom
peg, your SWR has to be acceptible whether you can
read it or not from the interpolation scale. At the same
time it's telling you what your power output is. I don't know
about you, but when I'm mobile I don't actually read the
number on the meter, I just pay attention to the relative
position of the needle. For me, it's much easier to 'see'
a needle against the peg (or close to it) than try to
memorize the 'correct' needle position for what ever the
SWR is supposed to be. If I just ~have~ to know what the
'numbers' are, I'll squint, lean over, and read the thing.
Most of the time I don't have to do that, though.
Anything you introduce into a feedline will cause some
loss. In most cases it will be very small, or not noticable.
The idea that a SWR/watt meter causes a nonacceptible
loss in signal is really stretching things! Unless there's
something wrong with the meter (or it's design), it just
doesn't make enough difference to worry about. Every
thing is subject to failure, feedline, meter, antenna, etc.
The failure of any of those things means bad news for
everything else in line before it. In I don't know how
many years, I've never had an SWR/watt meter fail and
not know it. Never had one to fail catestrofically(?) either.
I've had them fail, not read right, or at all, but it didn't
'take' anything with it when it quit. Maybe I've been lucky.
I think taking the meter out of line deprives you of useful
information, to no purpose.
So, I hope that may put a different 'light' on things. There
are too many other things to worry about without adding
'stuff' you don't need to worry about to it. An SWR/watt
meter is just more of that 'stuff'...
- 'Doc
</p>