Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: Palomar Engineers M-827

Category: SWR & Wattmeters & Dummy Loads

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Palomar Engineers M-827
Reviews: 2MSRP: Unknown
Description:
The meter computes SWR automatically and displays it on a light bar. The SWR is always correct regardless of power level. The SWR scale is 1 to 10 with logarithmic response that gives high resolution at low SWR values.

A second light bar displays power. Power ranges are 20, 200 and 2000 watts. Power readings are correct at SWR = 1. The light bar will follow SSB peaks
Product is not in production
More Info: http://palomar-engineers.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
KE8ADK Rating: 2020-06-28
Underrated. Still very relavant after a long life. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I inherited one of these when my grandfather became a SK a few years ago. I didn't think it was anything special until I started looking for a simple, accurate and easy to read power/swr meter that would work on VHF/UHF to compliment this one. It turns out this is a nicer model than some of the cheaper units on the market now, even after being around for 35 years.

Most of the meters you find under $200 are basic standard needle or cross needle. While they do work, I find that they don't come close to the ease of use that the M827 Offers. It's easy to see your power and SWR at a glance allowing you to adjust tuning or adjust power output on the fly without squinting to see where the needles on you meter cross.

A present day light bar meter will set you back a lot more than you can pick one of these up for. I would love to have a matching VHF/UHF model to go along side the HF M-827 in my shack. Too Bad Palomar didn't make one.

The only drawback to this meter is that at higher power levels, a single LED could mean a 30 or even 50 watt change on the 200 watt scale, or even a 500 watt swing on the 2k watt scale. Realistically, the perceived difference between 150 watts and 200 watts is negligible, but I'd still like to know what my station is doing.

I'm going to keep my eye out of the M840 which is a remote sense version of this meter. I'm not always in the same room as the radio if I'm running FT8, and this would allow me to see power and SWR while not necessarily close to the radio.
VE3XQQ Rating: 2014-11-06
Simple and fast Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Palomar Engineers M-827 is a LED meter with 10 segments for SWR indication and 10 segments for Power. With such a small sampling at the 2000 watt setting, power levels from 300 to 700 are represented by only 3 LEDs, I don't find this to be an issue as I think it would be annoying to have any more with this true peak reading meter. Besides a fractional change in power is not going to make a big difference at the receiving end.

Back May of 1983 it was reviewed by CQ in and they measured the Power and SWR indications and found them to be accurate. Good to know it was well manufactured, before I bought this on E-Bay.

In my station the meter is at the output of my AL-80A connected via RG-213 and found the Meter's light weight to be slightly annoying, I simply molded/bent the coax into a position that did not apply tension.

My primary function of the Meter is to monitor the SWR which it does very well

If you need a simple and clear display of your output, get one of these and you will not be disappointed

The manual can be found here:
http://www.palomar-engineers.com/Downloads/Palomar%20Engineers%20M827%20SWR%20Meter.pdf