Whats a Good dummy load to get?

[kskev]

Needing to get a good dummy load to use, one that works good for a reasonable price.....
What do you all use?
Thanks!

[1206FL]

How large?? As in how many watts you want it to handle. And it all depends on pricing. Bird, Andrew, Commscope, and a few others make pretty good 50 ohm dummy loads. If you search the auction site you can find 25w ones for about $20 or so. Even a decent used one will work just fine. There are plenty of other manufactures of dummy loads, I just named a couple. MFJ, and a bunch of others make them and for not much as far as price, but I have found that a good 100 watt dummy load like one made by bird will take more than 100w for a few seconds no problem. Don't know if I would do that with a cheaper one. But the bird one looks like this. This is a 100w one and 2 25w ones. The 25w ones are Andrew/Commscope. The large one is the bird.
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Mine all have Din Make connectors but you can get them with PL259 or UHF connector. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for when it comes to Dummy loads. But you can also find the 1kw paint can style ones that work as well. Like I said, it depends on how much power you will be putting through them. I have put 400 watts into the 100w bird dummy load and it handles it just fine. But like I said idk if I would do that with a cheap one. JMHO. Have a good one.

[bluemeanie]

Howdy
Ive got an MFJ. Its rated at a kilowatt for a few seconds, its small and for 2-300 watts works very well. Last time i looked think they were about 70 bucks. Just my 2 cents worth.
Blue

[MDYoungblood]

I use an old "Cantenna" paint can load, good to 2K, a smaller version I built out of two pcb plates and 20 resistors, good to 250 watts, and the most used is an MFJ-260. Building one is the most fun, if you can get a quart jar with a lid, a panel SO-239, a couple short lengths of 14 gauge copper wire, an 1/8 teaspoon of salt and water you can make a decent "salt water dummy load". You'll need a multimeter to get the water/salt content right on 50ohms, google it and there are YouTubes too.

3's

Greg

[Deleted User 14541]

Keep an eye out for used commercial equipment if you need something big. I have one of the 1kw mfj loads but didn't pay much more for the big ugly one under my bench. I think it's rated 5kw continuous with a cooling fan 2500 without a fan. It will heat the garage if you have big enough amplifier.

[kskev]

Thanks guys, off to see whats on that auction site and go from there!

(edited by MDY)

[MDYoungblood]

Your taking your chances there unless it says "Brand New", might want to take a look at the sponsors instead.

3's

Greg

[Deleted User 14541]

Since our sponsors don't sell continuous duty dummy loads I hope you're just testing small equipment because I can't mention anything else. Before you buy think about what kind of power you need it to take and for how long you might be testing.

The little mfj is ok but look at the chart that shows how long you can key a kw into it...it's in seconds with a long rest before you go again. I rarely use mine to test anything over a couple hundred watts. Really not worth $70 IMO.

You can look around and buy the large carbon resistors and build own or repair a junker if youre into that. The oil filled cans are ok but if you get one hot it will take a while to cool.

[kskev]

MDYoungblood , 543FtWorth, good info, thanks......

Yep, I got a Galaxy 2547 and a TS DX250 and wanting to check the external SWR/Power meter and compare to the built in meter in the radio!
Also, cable...... make sure whats what.
Now I know what to look for in a dummy load!
Will stay away from the used ones and go with new!!!!

[772 alberta]

Mfj 300 watt to start. If running big power the cantenna.

[Double J]

I need one for up to 500 watts approx, so I will check out the auction site soon