John George here – As an old time broadcaster, I’ve run into a bunch of antenna testers and power meters over the years! Now, the LBA Technology Test Equipment Group has a whole new bag of goodies for me. Case in point is the FIT-70 Antenna Tester.
The FIT-70 tester, is manufactured by Schomandl, a division of renowned German antenna company Kathrein. It is distributed exclusively in the western hemisphere by LBA Technology. The Antenna Tester is an easy to use, convenient, on the go device to provide quick checks on forward power and VSWR. The FIT-70 covers 70– 1000 MHz which includes the FM broadcast band, RPU bands and STL bands. Two other models, the FIT-400 and the FIT-1700 will handle frequencies up to 2000 MHz, making these popular for the wireless industry.
The FIT-70 arrived in molded carrying case with adapters and interconnect cables, making it ready to use out of the box. There were no sample elements to plug in, which saves time when checking the output power of a piece of equipment. The read out on the FIT-70 was easy to see and accurate. There is even a red LED for antenna short circuits. A couple of other features include an ohmmeter for fault finding and memory storage of the minimum and maximum values. The separate RF test head is really nice, and makes it much easier to get to difficult cable locations than the clunky Bird boxes!
In my initial test of the FIT-70, I set up a Marti ™ transmitter to confirm forward and reverse power. I had the FIT-70 providing the power output reading in a matter of moments. I then powered down the Marti ™ and connected my Bird™ model 43 to the output. I had to sort through a collection of elements to locate the correct power and frequency before I could power up the Marti ™ and check the output. My next step was to compare the accuracy of the FIT-70 with my Bird ™ Model 43 and both units read within a Watt of each other.
The FIT-70 will definitely find a place in the gear a service person or engineer needs to take to a transmitter site. Presently the FIT-70 will test power levels up to 50 Watts but Schomandl is planning to increase the range to 100 Watts. This unit is ideal for checking most broadcast exciters, FM and TV translators, STL transmitters and RPU transmitters. The unit is ruggedly “German” built and will provide years of reliable use at a competitive price. Here is an FIT-70 spec sheet PDF. You can order the unit from LBA Technology – just call Paulo Fernandes at 252-757-0279, or email, and he’ll get you hooked up.
