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Reviews For: Telepost LP500/LP700 by Larry N8LP

Category: SWR & Wattmeters & Dummy Loads

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Review Summary For : Telepost LP500/LP700 by Larry N8LP
Reviews: 18MSRP: Approx 800 - 950
Description:
LP500/LP700 Digital Station Monitor, Power/SWR/Spectrum & Measurement Analyzer.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.telepostinc.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00185
W9CNN Rating: 2017-07-02
LP-700 Superb Digital Station Monitor Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Preliminary:

_I became aware of the development of the LP-500 / LP-700 almost 2 years ago and have recently taken delivery on the larger model, along with Qty (4) LPC-501 Couplers.

_The LP-700 is not your legacy Bird Wattmeter & Heathkit HO-10 "Monitor Scope" with 2 tone generator duo. It is an "Analytical Instrument" for monitoring, measurement, and signal QC evaluation beyond that which has been available in an integrated unit until now. The LP-500 & LP-700 are of enviable design "conception", and of equally worthy respect in design, manufacturing execution, and support. The Yahoo Groups informational flow, in support, has been such that it is hard to imagine one man doing all that Larry has done as a "Gentleman Engineer".

_The installation began with the attachment of 2 couplers directly to the back of my Alpha 99 amplifier using double male UHF adapters. The couplers are uni-directional and I was able to invert the output coupler orientation such that the coupler's measured output data network connector cleared the upper-top of the Alpha cabinet. Jumper cables may be needed with different installations / amplifiers.

_ I did not measure the millivolt or dBm output, of the tone generator output as the documentation refers to a 250 ohm output impedance. Audio dBm measurement is impedance specific and I do not have a calibrated instrument at that Z. My audio processing chain includes an analog mixer, followed by a Jensen Direct-Box Transformer which feeds the Kenwood TS-590S rear audio/data input. Typical small analog audio mixers typically offer both balance/unbalance Low Z microphone and unbalanced Hi-Z inputs. In my installation, the output of the LP-700 tones source did not effectively drive the mixer Hi-Z input, but effectively drove a microphone input when the mic input was set to receive a mono unbalanced source. Mixer configuration was such that audio processing did not follow when the LP-700 tones were selected so that the tones arrived at the transceiver input as intended. My understanding is that N8LP has an interface in the works for the average user that uses transceiver / transmitter microphone audio inputs directly.

_My dummy load is a ancient Bird_Termaline_Load_Resistor Model 8572/73. It is a 25KW rated air cooled unit that resides in the basement, directly below the shack. The load, with it's 3" transmission line to SO239 adapter, no longer measures exactly 50 ohms. Originally used at VHF, it is close enough to 50 ohms for my purposes on HF. The dummy load is on a antenna tuner antenna switch. I took the opportunity to "match" to the load and the LP-700 showed SWR at 1.01:1 with beautiful display resolution and accuracy!

_Initial testing of the Telepost LP-700 went very well! Waveforms immediately revealed fine linearity problems that I had been unable to determine previously. Amplifier drive levels are under review and there was an unexpected finding of amplifier output beyond my expectations. The old Autek Research WM 1 Computing Meter (wattmeter) didn't tell the Alpha 99 output power story accurately! It is comforting to know that the LPC-501 couplers and LP-700 have power calibration that is "traceable" in verification.
_Sadly, I had to end my initial testing as my Central AC does not adequately handle the radio shack. The radio shack temperature was becoming too high.

_This review focuses more on my installation than on signal analysis, I realize. I'll try to write something more informative going forward.

_For now, I want to say "Superb" and Highly Recommended! Thanks Larry!

Thanks For Taking The Time,
Randall
W9CNN

W8KEN Rating: 2017-05-09
LP-500 Great Station Accessory by N8LP Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I received my LP-500 SN 00117 a few months ago.

My station has evolved over the years. Most of my attention is now focused on several monitors, a keyboard and a mouse directly in front of me with my main radios placed to the right so I can easily reach and tune them. Unfortunately this puts my HF, VHF, and UHF Amplifiers out of site far to the right (HF) or behind me (VHF / UHF) making it difficult to monitor their performance.

My LP-500 (just to the right of my monitors) enables me to monitor Average and Peak Power as well as SWR for all of my transmitting equipment at a glance.

The LP-500 has auto switching to instantly show whatever exciter / amplifier combination is being used. Now when I am running MSK144 on 6m, SSB or CW on HF or 2m EME, I know at a glance that my power output is correct and that my SWR is low. If either jumps above a preset limit the LP-500 sounds an alarm, instantly warning me that something is wrong.

In addition to these always used features, Larry has built many other waveform displays and features to evaluate station performance in a small enclosure with a high resolution easy to read display.

The LP-500 performance far exceeds the old monitor scopes available in the 60's. Unfortunately there has been little to no waveform monitor devices available for many years until Larry's development of the LP-500.

I now have one device, the LP-500 with 4 remote couplers, to monitor any exciter, amplifier, and mode of transmission combination that I choose to use at any moment.

The LP-500 is a commercial quality piece of equipment which performs to expectations and is readily upgradable via USB connection as new features become available.

As an addition Larry has developed LP-500 Virtual Meter software that will port the LP-500 display to your PC's monitor in case you wish to remote the LP-500 or view a larger display. The VM display is very nice and Larry is adding new features regularly.

I recommend the LP-500 (or LP-700), am pleased with it's performance and rate it a 5 out of 5.
NG7M Rating: 2016-11-16
Another Telepost Inc N8LP Commercial Quality Product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I took delivery of serial number #46 this last week. The wait was well worth the end result!

Having assembled an LP-100A and LP-PAN2 as kits and seeing the support and performance of these previous two products, I knew I would be getting something special from N8LP in an LP-700.

With so much mediocre equipment being peddled on the Amateur Radio market, it's so refreshing to see something like Larry's products appear and thrive. Opening the LP-700 could only remind me of opening the Begali 60th anniversary paddle or opening the Elecraft K3 kit. There is a category of quality that can't be matched in certain products based on the creators. The LP-500/700 is right up there, no doubt about it.

Is the LP-500/700 inexpensive? Of course not... you get what you pay for and if you want something special, you will need to save your pennies and pony up for the quality and performance experience rendered by the LP-500/700. Not to mention the personal touch and support that goes along with quality products that exceed expectations.

Congrats to Larry for the time and effort to produce a classic product that will only get better with time and tweaks to the firmware and computer display monitoring software.

Max NG7M
N5YY Rating: 2016-10-20
Great now even better Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is am update to my previous review. In that review, I was very pleased with my LP-700. My only comment was about the screen timers. N8LP said these could be changed in a future firmware update.
Well, an update was placed on line today with an update to the timers! Larry has also been keeping the User Guide updated on line. I now consider this a perfect station monitor. If you are not familiar with the LP500/700, I strongly suggest you go to the LP-500 web site and watch the intro video.

Thank you Larry!
NG9W Rating: 2016-09-26
LP-700 Excellent Instrument Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received mine at the end of last month after being on the wait list for over five years. Excellent piece of equipment. Once Larry gets caught up with production backlog, I'm looking forward to the completion of the Virtual Monitor for Windows and to a firmware upgrade to measure IMD3 in PSK modes.
W6OPO Rating: 2016-08-18
LP-700 - Great instrument! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using my brand new LP-700 daily since Monday (8/15/2016 4 days ago) when it was delivered. Wow – nice display (touch screen too) and was an easy install and it is easily navigated. I have three couplers in use.

Larry – your video on the TelePost site http://www.telepostinc.com/ was very helpful. I’m still looking for how to set the max-power lines in Setup but that isn’t very important. Auto seems to do just fine.

The power out both in Average and PEP and SWR with Peak-Hold is nice and big easy to read in the default display.

Although I’m still on the learning curve it is nice to see and confirm the CW wave from produced by the TS-990S. With the cursors it was easy to measure the rise and fall times (also voltage). I was then able to adjust them in the radio (menu) and confirm the change on the LP-700. I hate key-clicks and would shudder to think my radio was producing them.

The split waveform and trap display is indispensable too. Verifies the amplifier is properly tuned – distortion free.

Next is to make up a cable to insert the 2-tone audio signal into the mic jack. The ACC jack’s Line-In is busy. I want to see the IMD display to see just how well the TS-990S handles those products.

Thanks Larry for such a feature rich and quality product. Now I will be retiring the Heathkit HO-10 to the Collins S-Line. At least they are in the same era – 1960s. Just a note – the HO-10 provides maybe 1/10th of the information the LP-700 delivers.

Sleep Mode – The TS-990S has a Molex jack on the back for Kenwood’s high power external antenna tuner. It provides 12VDC at 4 amperes. With a PowerPole converter cable I have the LP-100A, microKEYER II and LP-700 powered from it. Now these units come on and off with the rig. Convenient.

73,

Bob – W6OPO
San Jose, CA
W9AC Rating: 2016-08-07
Digital Station Monitor Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the LP-700, the 7" touch-screen version. Bright screen with sharp resolution from all viewing angles. The LP-500/700 includes a built-in high-performance SWR/wattmeter, waveform analyzer, and spectrum analyzer. It has replaced all other wattmeters and scopes on my station desktop.

Uses external RF couplers - up to four can be selected for station monitoring at different points along a transmission path (e.g., two couplers for trapezoid amp linearity adjustments). Each coupler connects to the desktop analyzer with a CAT-5/6 cable.

Another impressive and well-designed product by N8LP.
G0SEC Rating: 2016-06-05
Excellent Product Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had loads of Larry's products in the past from Pan adapters, the LP100 & LP100A and now the amazing LP500. This has been a product well in the making and well worth the wait for it coming into production. From Larry to the super fast shipping from Fedex, USA to my home here in the UK, it only took 2 days in total to arrive! I was eager to open the box after waiting a long time for it to be finally launched into production. When I took it out of its very well packaged box it was love at first sight. The pictures do not do it any justive, in real life it is even more impressive, just a lovely piece of equipment that I really love and so will you if you buy one. I made myself a quick cuppa and then got it hooked up with the 2 HF couplers, one for my amplifier and the other being for my icom 7800. I plan on getting the VHF and UHF coupler as soon as I can when they are available.

Over the first day and first week ahead I done lots of tests with it on and off air. First I have to mention the Display, Larry was right in waiting for the new displays to arrive so he could launch this wonderful piece of equipment with the much sharper higher res displays. It is sharp and can be seen from all angles even when on the dimmed setting of only 10% brightness, at full 100% brightness, it is even more vibrant then my laptop and is of very high quality. I really love the display as its not to bright at night if you dim the display and perfect for in the shack in the day if you turn it up to your prefered setting. Now for the Power meter itself, well what can I say, it is stunning, best power meter I have ever owned, it is really nice, I love how you can set it to auto and it will put the 2 bars for Power & SWR just right, not to far to the end and not to close to the begining of the scale for the power bar and it will auto select the right scale depending on the power you are using, this is a lovely feature to have. When it comes to the Power/SWR meter bars and how they perform there is nothing I can really fault it on as it is spot on, super fast and simply superb. It is really lovely to view this whilst in QSO as it is so easy to see and looks impressive too. The Trapezoid display is one of my fav features too and is really nice to see whilst tuning your amplifier, it is also nice being able to fick the channel and see your input and output power very quickly and even view it in split mode too. Infact there is quite a few modes that will work in split mode and that is going to be a sure winner with most hams im sure.. Another great feature is the ability to measure your TX audio for essb to get a clear idea of the fequency spectrum of transmitted audio with a white noise signal, 2tone, noise or even both. The ability to measure your CW Charactistics is also another feature I really like, it is precise and the touch screen for measuring the rise and fall times is very good and will impress you when doing these measurements. The menu system is very good, I have spoken to Larry about maybe in future there being an update to further enhance it but it is also fine as it is. I would check out on Larry's website all of the features on this piece of equipmet and really read all through the manual on all of what this unit will do as it will do quite a lot and your get the most from it too.. For Measuring IMD you can do this using 2tone and I just could not fault it in any way. I have not used the usb to PC for the monitor yet but I know Larry will have this available soon to download if not already since the time of this review. There is 2 versions of this unit, the LP500 which is the 5" version and the New LP700 which is a larger 7" version. I wanted the 5" LP500 as it just seemed to fit right where I wanted to install it in my shack.

In conclusion:
This unit is a really nice piece of equipment to own, it does everything really well and flawlessly, it is a pleasure to operate whilst in QSO, it does look stunning and has many features. I think this is going to be a real winner with other Hams the world over. I would like to thank Larry for designing such a fantastic piece of kit and I for one am looking forward to future updates of which there has been a few already put up on the Telepost website of which I have found no problem installing and updating the firmware. I have done a couple of my own reviews on my own youtube channel which you can find if you search for them on my youtube channel "The Ham Shack" or by typing in my callsign and or LP500 or LP700.

My advice to anyone that has been looking at this or would like one is to get one, you will not regret it, it is one of my fav pieces of kit in my shack for testing things and the best Power meter and analyzer I have used by far and I have used quite a few of them over the years, it is easy to operate and is extremely fast on performance, you will not be dissapointed as like all Larry's products, they are top notch and of the best quality.