Useful test gear - Howel-Ronset Output Meter TS-585D/U

[EpicenterBryan]

Thought I would share a useful piece of test gear with you guys. I picked up this Howel-Ronset Output Meter TS-585D/U on Ebay for about $47 including shipping.

What does is do / What does it have / Why do I care?

First, it's a passive load with 40 different switchable input impedance's from 2.5 to 20K Ohms. You hook it up to the output of another device you want to test.

Then it has a meter and adjustable attenuator, and with the combination you can read both dbm and also power on the same meter. With the 4 attenuator settings and meter, you can measure -10 to +7, 0 to +17, +10 to +27 and +20 to +37 dBm referenced to 1 milliwatt.

With the combination of the meter and impedance selector, you can make changes to the load impedance and look for a peak in dbm to determine the source impedance if not known or unsure.

So today I used in on my Preso 92A amp and verified the output impedance was indeed set for 500 ohms. I also used it to set the "0" on the 92A meter to the correct setting according to the manual. The meter was set 4dbm too high. And I checked the signal at the load with a scope - did the calculations - and both agreed. 23dbm on this gizmo was 22.9dbm calculated from my scope measurement.

If you guys think something like this would be useful for checking your gear, you can find them on E-bay. No one has a clue what these are or how useful these cold war relics are so they don't go for much.

[audiocarver]

So what did you end up with for output power? I think the 92A was 60W, if I'm not mistaken.

Regards,
Andy