does EVERY swr meter, watt meter, and antenna analyzer suck?

Ink

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I have been looking for a tool to help me set up and experiment with antennas. Mostly for SWR to start but i figured any of the 3 can get the job done. Every tool from $30 models to $600-700 models have horrible reviews for build quality and accuracy. Im pulling my hair out after a few weeks of researching. I don't need lab quality but it seems like you get junk if your not spending thousands.
I just want a few good accurate tools.
any suggestions or words of wisdom? o_O
 
Not true. Bird 43's are very good.

Tha'ts one that i have seen pages of horrendous reviews on. But i have also seen pages of glowing reviews. Could it be simply operator error on the bad review side? I have seen places where the bird 43's are off by 20% quite often. I'll admit tho, it is one of my front runners atrm.
 
I have the RigExpert AA-600. Love it.

It tests SWR from 70cm down to 160m and it also has a USB interface for the computer. The software lets you do a wider sweep. You can actually have it do a scan from say 80m to 6m. Cool for analyzing a dipole.
 
Got a miniBlue VNA and like it. It has BlueTooth, so I can get data while far enough away from my antenna to not alter the field. Or suspend it from an antenna - it's small no lightweight.
 
not all users of equipment are as smart as the engineers who designed the equipment....

you'll find more pissed off people write reviews than do satisfied people also....
 
not all users of equipment are as smart as the engineers who designed the equipment....

you'll find more pissed off people write reviews than do satisfied people also....
This!
There are some real cheap ones that are crap, but an SWR meter has no rocket science in it and if all you want is to trim a dipole to length or sanity check a vertical, just about anything that lets you see the resonant frequency dip and gives a reasonably accurate SWR reading will do. Don't go fighting to get a 1.4:1 down to 1.2:1. There's no point. At 2:1 you are only losing 10% of your Rx or Tx power. Since one S-unit is a 4:1 change, 10% is nothing. Just keep the SWR well below 2:1 so the transmitter finals are safe.
 
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