The TW-1 Talking Wattmeter provides an aural
spoken indication of power and SWR using a digitally recorded voice.
It is ideal for the vision-impaired, for those of us in the
“bi-focal set”, or just for those times when you need to be looking
somewhere else. At the press of a button, the TW-1 speaks the
forward power, reverse power or SWR. Three languages are available:
English, Spanish and German. It includes its own internal speaker;
no external audio hookups are needed.
The TW-1 also offers a
continuous tone mode for tuning. Simply press and hold the Forward
button, and a tone indicates power. As you adjust your amplifier or
antenna tuner, a higher tone indicates higher power. This is just
the thing for peaking your amplifier while keeping a close watch on
the grid current.
You can select either long or short voice reports. Long reports
include descriptors like “thousand” or “hundred” and end with
“forward watts” or “reverse watts”. Short reports speak only the
numerical value of the measurement you’ve selected for a quick
reading.
The TW-1 needs just 1 watts to operate, but will handle up to 2000
watts PEP, making it suitable for everything from QRP to the largest
amplifiers in amateur service. The TW-1 is accurate to +/- 5% of
reading across the entire power range; this may very well be the
most accurate wattmeter you own. Resolution is 1 watt or 1% of
reading (whichever is higher).
The TW-1 is microprocessor controlled, and can easily be upgrade in
the field with a simple chip exchange. It requires 11 – 15 volts DC
at 200 mA maximum, but consumes almost no current when not speaking.