The LDG TW-1 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 top firing 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 (verbose or terse modes). 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.
The November 2005 issue of QST Magazine features an exhaustive review of the TW-1 starting on page 77.
