Bird 43 Thruline wattmeter - last good ones

[rigmo]

Bird 43 30uA gauge can still be calibrated RPK2080-002 Element "There are no calibration adjustments for the meters."

@LifeIsTooShortForQRP -
4 years ago (edited)
The inaccuracy of those Chinese meters is one thing, but another problem is that their internal resistance is different from the original Bird (Simpson) meter. That will cause an additional error because the Bird slugs that you use with the Bird 43 meter expect a particular meter resistance (sometimes called "video resistance"). If the meter resistance is different (even when the 30uA at full scale for the meter is correct), the Bird 43 wattmeter will be WAY off. That is what initially happened to me. So after the Chinese lemon buy, I decided to spend the bucks and buy the real thing. that worked great. However, I am really disappointed with Bird that their 30uA meter assemblies give up so quickly. I requested them to stand by their quality and send me a new one for free. They did NOT honor that, I had to buy one. $100 plus shipping.
(This is the genuine RPK2080-002 Bird meter as used in the Bird 43 wattmeter.
Only use a GENUINE Bird meter for your Bird 43 wattmeter, DON'T be temped to buy one of those cheap China clones. The reason: those clones have a different internal resistance. As a result, your Bird 43 will have a huge inaccuracy when using those clones, basically rendering it useless. Therefore, ONLY buy the genuine article!)



- 2015
Why I Don't Use An After Market Bird Meter To Make Videos.
Now If I Wanted To Make People Think My Units Could Do Way More Power Than They Really Do, Then I Would Use One Of These Meters.
But I Feel That Everyone Should See The Real True Watts, And Not Glory Watts, So I Use Genuine Bird Meters.
AND FYI, THERE IS NO, ZERO, WAY TO MAKE THESE ACCURATE LIKE A REAL BIRD UNIT.


@dannelson8556
7 years ago
Bird didn't make their own meters, Before Bird moved production to china they used Simpson meters.. Ever since Bird, moved production to china their quality has gone down the crapper, The slugs are now brass plated plastic. Coaxial dynamics is really become a better product but they are still over priced.

I'm curious as to why CB'rs have such a Bird fetish, I mean they aren't all that accurate. Bird laughingly claims +- 5 percent of full scale but the calibration lab I use has told me in the 40 years they've been in business that the overwhelming majority of bird slugs they've tested barely met +- 10 percent and they are a military contractor

Now they can be calibrate the slug and meter to be within +- 5 percent but only for a very small frequency range , My own lab testing has confirmed this. Heck you don't need a lab to check or calibrate your slugs a simple Oscope and dummy load is more accurate than a bird meter for measuring power and can be used to calibrate them. There is no magic in a bird meter its all a really simple circuit. The bottom line is no analog meter based on a d'arsonval style meter regardless of manufacture can better +-10 percent in accuracy. In fact the best d'arsonval meters are bearly accurate to +-10 percent.

The solution is to have single slugs calibrated for a specific power and frequency. I have one slug calibrated for each frequency and power I use for testing and service. When done this way Bird meters can be very accurate. The single frequency slugs are guaranteed accurate to +-5 percent. Unfortunately the slugs will only retain this level of accuracy in the meter it was calibrated for use in and the calibration lab needs your whole meter to perform the calibration

For example my 20m slugs are centered on 14.200 and is good to +- 100Hz I have 6 slugs for each band calibrated for 50, 100, 500 1000, 1500 and 2500 watts. Their power measurement is guaranteed to be accurate to 5 percent within 10 percent of its calibrated value that's +-5 watts for the 100 slug. I've confirmed their accuracy with my HP power meter.

For example the 100 watts slug is a calibrated 250 watt slug guaranteed to be +5 percent at the 100 watt reading at +-100hz , above 105 watts and below 95 watts its only guaranteed to + 10 percent, Likewise below 14,100 and above 14,300 it's only guaranteed to +-10 percent or 20 watts. Unfortunately that's just the nature of d'arsonval style meters.

Don't take my word for it, Grab two 1000H slug and test them every 2Mhz through their range at 100 watts and compare them to your Oscope measurements. I guarantee It will only read accurately at one or possibly two frequencies that are harmonics like 14 and 7 Mhz everywhere else you will see a range for 50 watts to 150 watts. On the other hand an error of +-100 watts when measuring between 800 and a 1000 watts is kinda irrelevant



@michellebacchetta1866
8 years ago
Hello, This is MattN2YCK from Ebay, This meter your using is not the one we sell. There are two of us selling this type of meters that look the same, but are not.This meter your using are recalls from first generation a few years ago, and shouldn't be sold on the market anymore: But the other guy keep pushing them, even though he doesn't sell many of them. The meters now are within specs and don't read like what you seen in the video. Now where not saying there 100% the same, these meters where made for Hard core Hams, and CB'ers that are SSB, CW, RTTY, Packet and Data users that didn't want pep, this is why the meter moves slower. To make these meters move slower, we add resistance, and changed scaling. This still reads the same on AM, FM. These meters are also good when used in AC tube amplifier as an out put reading meter on the front panel of the amplifier for easy tuning, this is done by making an RF tap inside before out put port. This isn't used much in smaller amps, just tube amps do to some custom designs. Wish you would have bought from me as you wouldn't have had this problem. We have sold close to a thousand of these with about a 99% satisfaction rate. In our next shipping we are branding our meter do to this video; name will be Watts Electronics. We sell the 30ua round, 30ua square, and 100ua square. The 100ua has our name branded on them, as we have the only rights to them. I hope this helps free your mind and would like to send one of our square meters for a test as you wont see that 200w extra. thanks for your time, 73s.

[rigmo]

[rigmo]

I am look to buying an old SIMPSON defective bird power meterbird meter gauge 30uA

[rigmo]

BIRD 43 for sale. all good. accuarate pointer.

[rigmo]

200e free shipping

[BriansBrain]

200e free shipping

Great price

I paid a lot more for my BIRD 4304A

ebay...
Inc Post from USA = €247
Customs = €43
Cost so far = €290
----------------
I complained because the movement was the wrong type
€107 refund - so - Cost = €183
========================
New Movement = €211 EUR
Total Cost = €394
========================

+ I ended up with a usable working BIRD movement

With wrong movement

BIRD 4304A Front.jpg

With*NEW* correct movement

Bird 4304A.jpg

[rigmo]

BIRD 43 serie 1

[BriansBrain]

+ I ended up with a usable working BIRD movement

And I made an RF meter of it, I calibrated it using the real BIRD
It's OK at the middle of the FM band which is all I need it for

2 RF Meters + Aneng MM.JPG

RF meter rear.JPG

[BriansBrain]

I made an RF meter of it, I calibrated it using the real BIRD

I have been asked in MSG how/what I used to make the meter using the Bird 43 movement

I used this basic design of a Sampler
http://www.n4ga.com/50db-hf-rf-sampler/
Then fed it to rectification circuit then into resister networks to feed the meter.

Watt meter-1.JPG

Watt meter-2.JPG

Watt meter-3.JPG

I calibrated it the best I could using my BIRD
It's very crude and basic - but it works on the mid FM frequencies well

[rigmo]

The Bird 43 meter, movement pointer should be used properly. Otherwise, there is a sure wrong reading.