• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Cobra 29 SWR Meter

R

Ridge Runner

Guest
I just had a Cobra 29 LTD Classic tuned up and everything is working very well with one exception. The SWR meter function on the radio will not calibrate to set, it will gradually climb up after I hold the transmitt on for a few seconds but will still not reach "set" even with the calibrate knob full to the right. My external SWR bridge calibrates just fine and my match is good. The S meter functions normally RX and TX.

The dk is set a 5 watts with no swing kit. It worked just fine before the tune up, go figure. I rarely use the swr meter on the radio because I have external meters but I would like to see the radio work as it should. I could make another trip
back to the tech but if it is a minor adjustment I would
rather not have to burn the fuel. I also had an echo board installed and that works fine too but something went wrong with the SWR calibration.

Does anyone know what may be causing this?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated,

Ridge Runner
 

radios with swing kits usually wont do 5 watts unless a variable drive was installed ....swing kits are designed for low dead key /high swing for amplifier use. Your meter is sticky !! also could be full of static ? ....there's a set screw on the meter top and bottom ,you can sometimes loosen it up with a jewlers screwdriver ...just lift the scotch tape on either side and lighty turn the screw back and forth ,watch the meter and you can tell when the needle will break free....before you do that you can take a fabric softner sheet or just put some softner on a q-tip and rub it accross the meters face and body ,that will discharge any static build up ....if all else fails ? ...you can get a new meter for about 7 to 10 dollars ....its a very easy change if you can use a soldering iron. Good Luck
 
In my opinion....IF the meter works fine on both transmit and receive then there is NOTHING wrong with the meter. DON'T go turning on the screws on the meter if its woking on TX and RX.. You can and most likely mess the meter up..

I would say put this radio on a watt meter and check the deadkey to make sure it does have a 5 watt deadkey..
I would say this is the problem or maybe a vr was turned by the tech by mistake..
But usually the swr meter not calibrating all the way over is caused by a low deadkey on the radio..
Have this checked out and see.

Hope this helps
 
your point is well taken Demon .....there are also folks that like to do things for themselves if they can get away with it ....one has to start somewhere at sometime.It's very obvious to me that there are a lot of folks around these parts that know a lot more then I do and I can appreciate what they have to say on certain subjects as well. A lot of these same people are in the business to make money as well.He personally asked if there was something he mght be able to do to his meter rather then burn gas to go back to his tech.....chances are ...any tech out there would do the same thing other then to simply change the meter .....he also said the meter tends to work itself further over after a time ,sounds sticky to me (-: .....I haven't a clue how old his 29 is ? but I have brought radio meters back to life that were pushing 30 years old .....might not be perfect ? but they worked all the same......and as far as the SWR feature of the radio goes ? it's a plus that one would give a guy a ballpark reading all the same ......I've never really found them to be that accurate over the years anyway .....still nice to have some kind of refferance to go bye , I've been more comfortable with a standard SWR bridge type meters over the years. Peace
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated