I have the power

With my 830S “data Rig” I use an MFJ 945 tuner. This is a compact ATU which seems to work quite well. One of the handy features it has is that there is a built in SWR/Power meter. The power meter has two ranges  0 to 300 watts and 0 to 6 watts.

Now I wouldn’t like to try running 300watts through this ATU, I really don’t think its up to that but it works quite well at 100 watts and the built in meter seems fairly accurate.

Whilst setting the rig up for WSPR I was trying to measure my power at 5 watts. I have a fairly high quality  AVAIR power meter and used this to set the 830 at the QRP level. I was surprised to notice that with the external meter showing 5 watts out, the meter on the MFJ on its low range was showing just 1 watt. Switching the MFJ meter to its high range it was showing approx 5 watts like the external meter. Its obvious that the low range setting on the MFJ meter is pretty useless. At least I know that the high range is OK and I can set my power based on that.

WSPR has been working well for me.  I ran it overnight last night and for much of the day today, all on 10mhz (30 metres)I note that I have been heard now by several U.S stations and much of Europe. This morning I noted some G Stations on my heard list but it seems they didn’t hear me.

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