Digital Wattmeter
NOTE: The current firmware version is V1.3.4. If anyone wishes to update their meters to the latest firmware version, please email me so we can arrange a way to update your meter to have all the latest and greatest features!
About
This is an all-in-one drop-in replacement to the analog mouvement style meter for facilitating quick power measurements and comes featured with an auto high/low power interlock output to protect your transmitter!
Every meter is thoroughly calibrated before it is shipped out. The DWM can also be fully serviced and calibrated by the user!
Features Include:
Calibrate and save the configurations for up to 8 wattmeter elements!
Designed to allow the measurement of up to 2X the wattmeter element's rated power safely, requiring less elements for more measurements!
Return loss measurement capability.
Min, Max (peak hold/temporary peak hold (2s), Deviation, and Averaging (0.5s to 10s)
Fast power deviation response down to 150us (Makes AM & SSB voice deviation measurements possible).
Dark mode for low light conditions.
30uA and 100uA element selectable!
And more! See the DWM Guide for more information.
The DWM housing is designed to fit in both old and new style bird model 43 housings and the bird model 4522 rack panel mounts.
Display Types:
There are two types of displays available: Gray and Dark.
The gray display offers better daytime viewing and appears better in videos and pictures but might look a bit faded for some people's eyes. The dark display is more visually appealing to the human eye especially medium to low light conditions. Both types of displays allow the user to invert the colors of the display as well as adjust brightness and contrast depending on the lighting of the environment. Also, they are easily replaceable and interchangeable! No soldering required!
Most users tend to like the dark display more.
Demonstration videos are in the works!
The how and why it came to be
After a few years in the RF world and working as an RF technician, I noticed a big problem.
Reading analog meters from wattmeter elements can be a pain. Especially when the transmitter site has over 50 of them and you have to squint in front of every analog meter at the right angle only to hope the thing is even reading relatively accurately!
Being able to just read a number on a display of a calibrated meter that doesn't cost thousands of dollars seemed like something that should have existed long ago but here we are!
After several months of developement, close to a thousand hours of work, 5 revisions, and a lot of money, it's finally complete!
At the core level, the DWM is really meant to be a way to make the existing line-section and wattmeter element ecosystem more modernized and easier to use with increased precision and several features needed features compared to the analog meters. Also, it bridges the gap of needing two separate types of meters to read from 30uA and 100uA elements.
This lets the user take it from a ham shack to a full blown transmitter site to work in line with a dry contact interlock system to protect your transmitters along with continuous power fluctuation monitoring.