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Technical Information, Construction Information and Modifications for Bird Electronics Test Equipment Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

If anyone has photos of Bird coaxial resistors, coaxial attenuators, or other non 43-series equipment we'd appreciate it, and we'd be happy to give photo credit.

A brief rundown of Bird model numbers that I've run across:

43   General Purpose wattmeter originally designed for the military, and gained wide acceptance in the LMR industry
694   1Kw 2-30MHz oil-filled continuous duty Termaline - uses standard QC connectors - with a flip-up steel protective cover over a meter calibrated to 1000 Watts.
4041   Relative Field Strength Meter.
4275-020   adjustable (-60db) signal sampler for 20 MHz to 1GHz, 1kw, BNC output. Uses standard QC Connectors for the main RF line.
4304A   Fixed 25-1000 MHz, 5-500W, Portable, see note below.
4305A   Portable, High-Power.
4308   Cellular Specialist, Portable.
4300-400   Conversion Kit for Model 43 Wattmeter to accurately read peak power in AM and SSB.
4314B   PEP, Single element, Portable.
4410A   Multiple ranges with the same (special) slug, ±5% Reading Accuracy, Portable
4431   A variation on the 43 that adds a variable RF Tap, see the note below.
4520   The 45 Series are rack panel mounted wattmeters
6734-030   2-35MHz oil-filled 500 watt continuous duty Termaline with a removable meter calibrated in 3 ranges (25 Watt, 100 Watt, 500 Watt) plus "Off".

The 4304 series has a front panel 5 position selector switch (5 Watts, 15 Watts, 50 Watts, 150 Watts and 500 Watts) and uses an element unique to this model series. It also uses a 20ua meter, not 30ua like in the 43 and 45 series meters.

The Bird 4431 series uses standard Bird 43 family elements, and is made with a built-in variable signal sampler unit connected to a BNC connector on the side of the meter for monitoring the transmitter output on a spectrum analyzer, frequency counter, oscilloscope, etc. The coupling of the sampler port can be varied (with the power on) from approximately -15 db to -70 db. The sampler is limited to 5kw on frequencies from 2 to 30 MHz, and to 1kw on signals from 30 MHz to 1 GHz.

A Bird 43/45 Series Slug Reference Table

STANDARD ELEMENT PART NUMBERS VERSUS FREQUENCY BANDS (MHz)
Power Range	2 - 30	25 - 60	50 - 125	100 - 250	200 - 500	400 - 1000
5W	-	5A	5B	5C	5D	5E
10W	-	10A	10B	10C	10D	10E
25W	-	25A	25B	25C	25D	25E
50W	50H	50A	50B	50C	50D	50E
100W	100H	100A	100B	100C	100D	100E
250W	250H	250A	250B	250C	250D	250E
500W	500H	500A	500B	500C	500D	500E
1000W	1000H	1000A	1000B	1000C	1000D	1000E
2500W	2500H	-	-	-	-	-
5000W	5000H	-	-	-	-	-

"K" range slugs have been seen at 1.1 to 1.8GHz, "L" range slugs have been seen at 1.7 to 2.2 GHz.
While it's not shown as a standard part number I've seen a model number 2500E used as the reverse power slug on a Channel 30 TV transmitter.

Special ordered slugs I've seen:

430-263   100 mw 800-1000 MHz
430-265   500 mw 800-1000 MHz
800-2   2.5 watt 800-950 MHz
801-2   2.5 watt 800-1000 MHz
800-1   1 watt 800-950 MHz
801-1   1 watt 800-1000 MHz

Manuals

Here are three versions of the Bird 43 wattmeter manual (there may be other manual versions that aren't here). The Bird Model 43 is a product that has been manufactured continuously for over 50 years and relatively unchanged in that time period. Very few manufacturers can make that claim. The Bird corporate web site is at http://www.bird-electronic.com.
	Bird 43 Wattmeter Manual  2.8 MB PDF courtesy of K4XL and BAMA. Note that this is the oldest of the three manuals we have and undated.
	Bird 43, 4305, 4431, 4521-27, and 43P Wattmeter Manual   903 kB PDF courtesy of A. Nony Mous. This is Instruction Book Part Number 920-43 Rev. D, dated 1998, 2001
	Bird 43, 4431, 43P, Series 4300 and 4520 Wattmeter Manual   831 kB PDF courtesy of K4XL and BAMA. This is Instruction Book Part Number 920-43 Rev. E, dated 2004.
	Bird 4410 Series Wattmeter Manual   We have two scans here: The first is a small file of 258 KB, the second has much better detail but is 2 MB. This is the model with the range switch option that provides power multiplier factors of 0.1, 0.3, 1, 3, 10, 30 and 100 allowing a single one kilowatt element to provide full scale readings of 0.1 W to 1 KW. Unfortunately this wide range requires the use of specific 4410-series elements.   Note that the 4410 series uses a 9V alkaline battery and kills it pretty quickly - approximate battery life is 24 hours of continuous usage. DO NOT LET THE BATTERY LEAK INSIDE THE METER. The 4412 uses an internal NiMH rechargeable battery. It may be possible to field upgrade a 4410 to a 4412.
	Bird 4360 and 4362 Series Wattmeter Manual   This is the manual for the Bird 4360 HF and 4362 VHF RF Directional Wattmeters that were manufactured for the ham radio market under the name "Ham-Mate". The 4360 is rated at 200w (low range) or 2000 watts, and from 1.8 to 30 MHz. The 4362 is rated at 25w (low) or 250w (high) and from 140 to 180 MHz.

Construction and Modification Articles

	Build an Isolated Tee Sampler for a Bird 43 Wattmeter   Build an IsoTee Sampler for the Bird from a blank slug!   By Kevin Custer W3KKC
	A Photo Tour of a Bird Wattmeter Element   By Robert Meister WA1MIK Ever wonder what's inside one of those elements? Bob took a bad one apart in an attempt to fix it, and took a bunch of photos along the way.   And yes, he fixed it!