I have a radioshack power meter question

[awitt101]

I have a radioshack swr/power meter here is the link a that site that describes it, http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... ab=summary

Can I use this meter to approximately test the power output of uhf radios? motorola radius and m1225 radios in particular?

[tvsjr]

Not with any reliability, as that device is designed for 3-30MHz (and doesn't work worth a damn there, either!)

Quality test equipment costs money. Save up for a Bird 43 and the slugs appropriate to your band and power requirements.

[Dan562]

No! The Frequency Coverage of this C-H-E-A-P Radio Shack Meter is 3-30 MHz operation frequency range. The UHF Frequency Band starts at 300 MHz and goes up to 3GHz (Microwave). This is 10 times higher (on the low end of the UHF band) than the meter is capable of on its high end frequency coverage. Further more the Radio Shack Meter is specified for Amateur Radio Service not for the Commercial Land Mobile Radio (Equipment) Service!

Get yourself a used Bird Model 43 Wattmeter with the appropriate Frequency & RF Wattage Slugs or a Telewave Model 44 that doesn't require individual RF slugs. There are plenty of web sites out on the Internet selling used test equipment. I wouldn't pay more than $150.00 for a used Bird Wattmeter, probably even less but remember it's a commercial standard meter.

[Will]

Can I use this meter to approximately test the power output of uhf radios? motorola radius and m1225 radios in particular?

NO, not even approximately...not even . Besides they only are barely close on citizens band 26-27 mHz. In fact the impeadance at UHF is no where near 50 ohms and could dammage your radios' transmitter due to very high VSWR.

Get a B1rd thruline wattmeter... and a good UHF dummy load.

[jistabout]

Nope. But I regularly use a "cheap" RS meter similar to this in my ham station on HF and it displays reflected power just as well as any other meter which I've seen within its intended frequency range.

I have also verified its forward power reading accuracy against a Bird 43 both into a dummy load and then into a tuned antenna. The RS meter (mine anyway) is within +/- 2 watts compared to the Bird on all bands.

Conclusion: Not too darn bad for a cheap meter. I've seen alot worse for more money. (MFJ?)