Bird 43

[dgmaley]

Afternoon from Iowa. I retired recently, after 31 years, of servicing different types of communications equipment for a large college. A lot of that time was out of a van. Management didn't mind if I brought a piece home to service my own Amateur equipment. Retirement left me with no bench. The one item I missed the most was my Bird 43, so I bought a nice used one with three slugs.
Wondering if this old piece of technology still gets used in field service? It worked for me. I had slugs up to 2.6GHz.
Also, can anyone recommend a good place to get the slugs?
Thanks in advance.
Dave...

 

[nd5y]

I think RF Parts and AES sell new slugs.
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Ham & Amateur Radios - Equipment, Parts and Supply | AES

I wouldn't buy a used one unless I knew for sure it was good.

 

[BirkenVogt]

Telewave makes a similar one but with no slugs. You must do correction factors for certain frequency ranges but for power measurement I usually do not care to be that precise. I mostly use an antenna analyzer for tuning whips now and radio transmitters just don't go bad much anymore so there is not as much call for a wattmeter as there used to be.

 

[zz0468]

The Bird 43 is still the wattmeter of choice for field service. the Telewave's are ok, but you gotta remember the correction factor.

The Bird 43 is rated at 5% accuracy at full scale. The Telewave 44A is 6% full scale AFTER CORRECTION.

Both can be found on eBay. I frequently see Bird 43 slugs on eBay in the $60 class for clean ones. They can be field calibrated if you know what you're doing.

 

[mmckenna]

Yup, I still use a Bird 43, and have my own personal one at home. Slugs are available on e-Bay, but buyer beware as in all things.

While there are newer ones out there, it's hard to beat the simplicity and ruggedness of these. I've seen digital display versions, but I really prefer the analog meters for this sort of work. It's pretty safe buying the meters, themselves, used. There isn't much too the things. My personal one I purchased use and only had to replace the leather strap. The rest of it, while throughly beat up, still worked fine. Easy to find replacement parts for them. I've purchased a few slugs off e-Bay, and I've had good luck. I've got one that looks like it may have been tampered with, but it seems to be working OK.

 

[dgmaley]

Thanks for all the information. Glad to see this old piece of technology still gets used. I had access to metering from HP that was more accurate, but it wasn't something that could be bounced around in a van or as easy to set up.
The meter I now have was built in the 1980's. It has the original Simpson, made in USA, movement. The slugs are all metal with some gold plating. It looks like used slugs, that are in good shape and have had their calibration checked aren't that much less than new. The new ones now have some plastic and no more plating. Coaxial Dynamics slugs cost just a little more than used. EBay has this stuff all over the place.
Anyone had experience with Coaxial Dynamics in a Bird meter? I may just go that route.

Dave..

 

[Thunderknight]

They are still excellent wattmeters.
I've bought several brand new slugs from the seller HenryRadio on eBay.