bap8guy | 200W Audio Meter Project - building a T Attenuator for General Radio 1840A Power Meters @bap8guy | Uploaded June 2021 | Updated October 2024, 22 hours ago.
I wanted a nice meter to read out power levels of amplifiers and I found these General Radio 1840A units. They can adapt to a very wide range of load impedance, which is very nice, but they suffer in that they can only read 20W maximum. Since a lot of amplifiers I work on range up to 200W, this wouldn't seem to be a good solution.
I read in the manual that you can build a "T" Attenuator that can shunt precisely 90% of the power around the GR1840A, giving it a 200W range. I decided to build a pair of these units to give each of my 1840A's 200W capability, but could I do it?
In the video I explain how I went about ordering parts and analyzing the imperfections these parts had to the desired design. In the end I have a very nice 200W setup, verified using 2 different methods.
Unlike many of my videos, this is not to sell something on Ebay. but to document a project I have recently undertaken.
I wanted a nice meter to read out power levels of amplifiers and I found these General Radio 1840A units. They can adapt to a very wide range of load impedance, which is very nice, but they suffer in that they can only read 20W maximum. Since a lot of amplifiers I work on range up to 200W, this wouldn't seem to be a good solution.
I read in the manual that you can build a "T" Attenuator that can shunt precisely 90% of the power around the GR1840A, giving it a 200W range. I decided to build a pair of these units to give each of my 1840A's 200W capability, but could I do it?
In the video I explain how I went about ordering parts and analyzing the imperfections these parts had to the desired design. In the end I have a very nice 200W setup, verified using 2 different methods.
Unlike many of my videos, this is not to sell something on Ebay. but to document a project I have recently undertaken.
