Thanks for all the info on diagnosing the intermittent problem with my Bird 43 guys ! I discovered their was a poor connection where the RG58 from the meter movement connects to the element. As mentioned there is a tiny spring in the connector on the end of the cable. It didnt look dirty visually but I cleaned it with some contact cleaner and now is fine. It was mentioned to change over to a BNC connector to eliminate problems. I assume we mean an adapter from the bird element connection point to a BNC. Then add a BNC on the end of the short
RG58 from the meter movement.   Anyway it is working now, thanks guys !

73,
Bob
K6UJ



On 11/22/15 2:13 PM, Bob McGraw - K4TAX wrote:
Ron mentions various well taken points regarding the Bird 43 meter series. This also applies to almost all watt meters as well, and that is the power calibration is relative to a 50 ohm load only. Any other load Z will introduce errors in the meter accuracy and indication.

At the same time, the ratio measurement for forward power and reflected power will always be correct in that each value will be measured with the same degree of error. Thus using this information, one can accurately calculate the SWR using the forward power indicated and the reflected power indicated. Where as, absolute values will not necessarily be accurate under these conditions.

73
Bob, K4TAX

On 11/22/2015 11:38 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
Bird instruments specs a Bird 43 at plus or minus 5% of full scale. If you have a calibrated 1000 watt slug and meter it will read within 100 watts of the real power. What many people miss is that the possible 100 watt error is constant over the range of the meter, so measuring 500 watts the meter will indicate something between 400 and 600 watts and at 100 watts the reading can be off by a full 100%!


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