Astatic PDC2 SWR / Puissance / Mesureur de champ

Up to 100 watts this little guy works well. I used it for several months until I got a higher power radio and needed a higher watt meter.

Just like some other reviewers have reported, I was disappointed to receive my unit and find it broken right out of its packaging. The packaging was sealed fine and amazon had it boxed up decently so it was apparent to me that this was broken right when they put it into the factory packaging at the factory and nobody bothered to notice. Specifically the 10w/100w switch was broken. If this manufacture had any type of quality control whatsoever... had anyone tried to flip the switch once before packaging or tilted the unit they would have noticed that the switch was falling into the unit and that loose pieces of the switches' guts were literally rattling around inside the case of the product.So I took it out of the packaging and immediately noticed the sound of metallic parts rolling around inside the metal case, and sure enough I could see the 10w/100w switch was skewed and had no feel when I tried to move its positions. Hugely disappointing.Figuring I didn't have much to loose, I pulled my utility tool out of my pocket, flipped out the screwdriver and undid the two rear screws holding the two halves of the case together. Upon separating the case two metal bits of switch fell right out, a tiny spring and a clip. I could see that the switch had basically fallen apart due to unbelievably neglectful assembly. The rest of the workmanship inside this unit is also very poor, I noticed.Now, these switches are not that complicated, so again with nothing to loose I placed the spring back into its position and installed the metal contact clip over it, carefully pushed the circuit board portion with the wires over the works and folded the six tabs down to reassemble the switch body. It *seems* to work, I don't actually have a current need or ability to test anything over 10 watts so all I cared about was that it at least worked on the 10w setting, and after repairing the switch it does seem to work. So I put it back together and kept it because I wanted to use it right away. I don't like dealing with returns anyways, but fair warning to anyone else this is really low quality junk that I would not recommend.The only use I am getting out of this is the "some gauge is better than no gauge" type of philosophy. It shipped very fast and got here when I needed it but taking it apart to repair it right out of the package is super annoying, even if it was somewhat quick and easy.I don't trust the readings the unit gives, but they DO work for me to compare multiple antennas and radios that I have, and even if its not accurate (as I'm sure its not) I can still use it to measure relative performance from one antenna to the next, gauge whether antenna adjustments are working, see which of my radios puts out more power, etc.Remember no jumper cable is included so you will need to order one separately. The included instructions are not the best, some helpful info in them but you will need to supplement it with youtube videos to really understand how to use it. Its paperwork says something like accurate to within 10% which is pretty bad, again only useful to me in comparing the relative performance of components, when it says one of my radios is pushing 1.75 watts I have no idea if thats right or not but I know its "higher" than my other radio which only shows 1.5 watts when hooked up. Who knows.There are calibrations inside if you can meet up with someone who has better equipment you can adjust the readings on this to match something better and then maybe you'd kinda have something. I'm hesitant to use this for making power adjustments because if its reading low then I might burn up my radio if a 4 watt reading on this is 6-8 watts in reality. Can't trust it by itself as far as I can throw it.Do what you will with this information but if you order one for yourself anyways don't say I (and the other reviewers) didn't tell you so.

I use his meter almost every week.Why did you pick this product vs others?:It’s accurate small and doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out your power and SWR

I don't like giving a bad reviews, and maybe for on the road traveling this would probably come in handy as the SWR meter was spot on when compared with another meter. However when testing this watt meter to another watt meter this watt meter was 10 watts off, I'll say is was just a unit that had bad calibration.

Nice very easy to use

I was surprised to see the meter on the left is another SWR meter and power meter and not just the power meter. The SWR part of the left meter does not work.ws full scale 10, this means 10 watts in the 10 watt scale, and 100 watts at the number 10 in the 100 watt position.

Perfect for what I needed

Chassy doesnt sit flat miss aligment on cover .China made .You get what you payfore .God save the Queen.

All in all a great, dependable and accurate meter. Down side is if you run any power, i.e. linear, you will cook it. Can only handle 100 watts.

My meter arrived with 2 broken slide switches , it was cheaper for me to buy 2 micro toggle style switches and solder them in than the shipping cost to return . And I needed the meter and could not wait for a new one. With the quality that I figured would be associated with the name Astatic I thought there should be better quality in a part that will get 99% of the wear and tear on a meter, I know you get what you pay for and this meter is the bargain price model but c'mon a switch upgrade is not that expensive when you know they can get them for pennies when buying for production. The meter works great and I am sure it will last longer than any other one same make/model since I upgraded the switches.

As I started getting to HAM radio a couple years ago, I listened on an HT while I studied for my test and bought mostly 'entry level' (and, inexpensive) equipment to dial-in the SWR for my pre-made antenna.When I 'got my ticket', I unboxed the "Astatic (302-PDC2) SWR/RF/Field Strength Test Meter" and followed the instructions. It was the same instructions and unit I used back in the 'CB-days'.I set it for 10w (for the HT) and it appeared the SWR was correct according to the antenna specs.HOWEVER, the Power Level meter *PEGGED THE NEEDLE* with a 5-WATT INPUT every single time. I tried the 100w setting and it showed I was putting out 30w from a BTECH UV-5x3!!!IMPOSSIBLE.Later, I bought a 65w iCOM 2300H and tried it with my Astatic meter. I followed the exact, same instructions on the 100w setting so I could LEARN the unit in my house BEFORE I put it in the car.The meter SLAMMED to the top of the 100w scale with a rather loud 'click' and kept doing it on each transmit test! The SWR meter went from the OFF position to pinning the needle as soon as I barely started to turn the rotating control knob....EVERY SINGLE TIME!I feel fortunate that I didn't seem to damage my radio, but, with this BROKEN and DEFECTIVE unit, I had to bypass the Astatic SWR meter and go right to the antenna.HOW can you trust a meter like this to CORRECTLY dial-in your antenna settings when a 5w HT can PEG THE NEEDLE on the 100w setting??All the HAMs I've talked to say "DON'T TRUST IT! GET or BORROW one that works so you don't ruin your equipment!."I wish I had bought a different SWR meter now. I don't know anyone locally with a 'proven track record', so since I didn't get a chance to actually try it until the warranty expired (90 days?), I'm out about $40 and the no-proud owner of a PRETEND meter that could only be used as a paperweight.~ Mr Q.A. ~

Worked fine when I got it. Useful piece of Ham gear at a cheap price, but that price comes with cut corners in the all-important panel meters.Has SO-239 connectors, while all my QRP gear is BNC. I could've used adapters, but I have on-hand some 4-hole panel mount BNC connectors - they fit well enough. Be careful with the board if you do this, the traces burn EASILY. .But I'm OCD and the SWR panel meter (right) wasn't zeroed properly, reading close to 10% with no power.I've adjusted zero on dozens of panel meters... not this one - soon as I popped the plastic cover it was obvious that the coil spring was SPRUNG. Trying to adjust it just unwound it worse, making the meter useless. LOOKED EVERYWHERE... and finally found what I believe are drop in replacement meters... 48mm x 43mm, with same cutout size. They are cheap 500ua VU meters, part #SD-310S, available from a very few places, sent from Taiwan. Till then I put in a much better 500ua panel meter, which - unluckily - is too large (64mm) to make permanent. If there were better quality drop in replacement meters, I didn't find them after a lot of searching.The circuit is a stripline type SWR meter, which is different from other SWR meters I've used. What I notice is that it matches FWD power readings on my other equipment, but seems to read a bit lower on REF power, making SWR appear lower than my Stockton bridge-based meter.OTOH, the stripline design makes for very low insertion loss, so I'd have no problem leaving this in-place for QRP operation.

works good. expect to adjust power readings. easy enough. field strength works well. swr a bit off (high) NO MOUNTING BRACKET OR HARDWARE even though it states it comes with it, it most certainly does not. Not a deal-breaker, obviously I still gave it five stars because at $20 another similar item is almost $80, with the price point this is sold at I can overlook misaligned power readings and missing brackets

The SWR function seems to be decent but the power is very unreliable for accuracy. It is both 10 and 100 watt ranges so if you need to peak power tune a radio this will do the trick but you won't really know the exact power out. I found one of the female side mount connectors loose so I snugged it with slip joint pliers. Then I tested my SWR again and I had max reflected power. Opening the cover I saw that while tightening that connector mounting bolt on the outside, the inside connection turned and shorted to ground. Simply by re-positioning that connection, all was well again. Do check out a few YouTube videos on coax jumper lengths using inline SWR meters. That is a great thing to know while tuning your antenna if you do not plan to leave the meter inline after tuning.

Got it as a field strength meter, not as an in-line VSWR or power meter. It works fine with a couple of Daisy-Chained clip leads as an antenna on 6 meters as well as HF. No complaints. This is NOT a test instrument and I have no idea how much power it will stand up to. I have nothing connected to the coax connectors at all. I took the supplied antenna off the square mounting nut and used clip leads to extend the length and it has been fine for it's purpose (Tuning high power amplifiers for maximum output)

I bought this to use in an HF mobile setup. It works for the most part, but the SWR meter on the right gets "locked up" when the needle swings back left past 0 when you unkey, and I have to tap the box to get it unstuck and back on 0. I use it to fine tune my screwdriver antenna on the different bands; it is OK to find minimum SWR, but I don't trust the actual readings, because they are lower than my MFJ antenna analyzer shows.You must re-set the maximum forward (FWD) deflection for the SWR meter every time you change the power output of the radio, then flip to reverse (REV) to read the SWR; I am surprised others complained about that, since just about every SWR meter works that way. The power meter on the left seems to be non-linear; it pretty much reads around the middle of the scale regardless of the actual power output of the radio, and I can run from 5 to 100 watts. It does vary some as you adjust SWR, with maximum power deflection around lowest SWR, so you can use it along with the SWR meter in a gross sense to tune the antenna (get the maximum power with the minimum SWR).Bottom line, it is more of an indicator than a meter; it does indicate a change in SWR as you tune the antenna, and it does indicate that power is coming out of the rig when you key down. None of the actual values should be trusted, however, and I would use extremely low power when tuning initially to avoid frying the final power amplifier in a solid state rig.

Works great! Well - I don't really have anything to calibrate it against, but if you're like me and you've just picked up a bunch of cheap CB equipment, this will at least get you started.As everyone says, the included instructions make pretty good kindling but not much else. This is a common model though, just look up "tuning SWR" and half of the YouTube videos that come up will use this radio.The one complaint I have is the fragility of the little field strength antenna. My cat managed to rip it off within about 10 minutes. Although I'm not sure it's necessary - didn't seem to significantly change the reading.If you're trying to decide between this and the PDC1 or a similar 1-gauge meter: I haven't really used the field strength meter much. It was moderately helpful when trying to figure out why one antenna was putting out a weak signal, but that was it. You'll probably use the left side of it once, if I'd known I would've just saved $7 and grabbed a simpler model.Remember your Coax cable.

SWR seemed fine for my HF rig and was close to the value returned by my antenna tuner. Wattmeter was WAY off - was pegging the meter when running full power. Opened up the case and noted that the trim pots for the power meter were both set to the same value (hmmm...). Put it inline with the back off and started trimming the 100 W pot (the one closest to the ANT connection). Tuned it down to within range so that it matched the output of the radio. The meter is now scaling well from 10W through 100W. Had to tweak the 10W range pot, too. It was displaying a little higher than the actual output at 10W. Now all I have to do is get some non-skid feet for it at Lowe's and it'll be a nice addition to the shack.Be careful when having the back open and make sure the unit is insulated when opened up so you don't ground it out and mess up your radio. Use iterative adjustments of the pots to get the meter into spec. I don't take any responsibility if you're dumb enough to key up with a screwdriver inside an open case and trying to make changes 'on the fly' and end up smoking your meter, your radio, or both.

A must have for a CB radio installation. Dials are nice and legible. Meter operated right out of the box as per directions. Adjusting your SWR (standing wave ratio) on the antenna is very important in order to make your CB radio last or even be able to output a signal. If your CB station lacks range, this very useful tool will test your CB antenna wiring and your antenna. Some of the CB radios have built in SWR meters, but in my opinion, having a separate tester is a more accurate way to test a set-up. It only takes a small SWR adjustment to make a lot of difference in the range of output in your CB radio. One of the very experienced CB radio installers have always told me that a cheap CB radio with a high quality, properly tuned antenna will outperform an expensive CB radio, with an incorrectly tuned antenna, in almost all cases!

I choose this meter based on others reviews of this product and was not disappointed with the preformance of the product. Like others that reviewed this product, the instructions are very lacking and needs a lot of improvment. There's not even instructions on were or how to place the anttena that comes with it and there are two places that you can put it. the meter. Like others have said go to YouTube and watch one of the videos on how to use the meter and you should be find but you shouldn't have to in my opinion because the manufacture should provide some instructions on how to use their product.If I needed to buy another meter I would buy this one again. I like that it came with a power meter too so that I could see how much power I was transmitting with too. I made quick work of tuning my anttena also.