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History.
The principle of the grid dip meter was developed in the 1920s. Wikipedia was not more specific
than that. If anyone has more information I would appreciate it if you would send it along to me.
The first appearance of a grid dip meter in the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook was in the 1948
edition. It is called a "Test Oscillator and Grid Dip Meter" but it is barely recognizable. It is an
oscillator configuration I am unfamiliar with. A 6SN7 is configured as a cathode follower driving a
grounded grid amplifier which makes a noninverting amplifier. The plug in coils have two
windings. This circuit was repeated in the 1949 edition but in 1950 the circuit shown below
appeared.
there was never any confusion or errors caused by reading the wrong scale, something I have done,
how about you?
The question of tube versus transistor is relevant. Although I like to build tube circuits when I build
a piece of test equipment I prefer the small size and low power consumption of transistor and IC
devices. You may want to find an ARRL handbook new enough to have a transistorized dipper.
Avoid any circuits similar to the Heathkit tunnel dipper. The meter deflection is small and the dip is
right on the edge of being imperceptible. The Millen type 90652 "Solid State Dipper", pictured at
left below, uses a 3N128 duo gate MOSFET as the oscillator device. There is also a meter amplifier
using BJTs. It operates from a 9 volt transistor radio battery.
A transistorized dipper is fine as long as you confine your dipping to indoors. If you want to use it
for antenna adjustments with an antenna bridge such as the Millen type 90672 pictured at right
below, you may find the RF level from the dipper to be inadequate. In this case I would advise
constructing a true grid dip meter employing a tube.
If you like to build historically accurate reproductions of old equipment you may want to go for the
1950 circuit. 955s are likely to be hard but not impossible to find. Failing that your choices are
between the 1953 and 1962 circuits. Nuvistors are not hard to find but the sockets may be another
story. If you can find a socket this is probably the best choice. I suspect that most will go for the
1953 circuit. The 6C4 is easy to find and so is a socket. It has another advantage in that the tuning
capacitor is a simple single section one. The drawback is that the coils need three contacts.
Probably the easiest connector to find is the European DIN plug and socket. Although this was not
designed for RF use it is easy to find. The 1962 version only needs two contacts for the coil. Each
coil can be mounted on an RCA phono plug and an RCA socket mounted on the dipper enclosure.
The shell must be insulated from the chasses because both sides of the coil are hot.
Theory of Operation.
The theory of operation is very simple. The oscillator coil on the GDO is outside the enclosure and
is its probe. When this probe is brought into close proximity to a tuned circuit which is resonant to
the frequency to which the GDO is set some energy is taken from the oscillator causing a decrease
in amplitude. This decrease is indicated by a decrease in tube grid current which is monitored by a
current meter. As the GDO's frequency is tuned across the frequency of the tuned circuit under test
a dip in grid current is observed, hence the name.
Operation.
My first encounter with a GDM was unsuccessful because of my impatience and high expectations.
I expected the meter to drop from half scale to near zero. Furthermore I was turning the frequency
knob much too fast.
Operating Procedure.
1. Select the coil that covers the range of frequencies you are interested in.
2. Plug the coil into the GDM.
3. Adjust the meter sensitivity control for a reading of to 1/3 scale.
4. While holding the meter away from the test circuit and any metal parts, rotate the frequency
knob over its entire range to make sure it doesn't go off scale.
5. If it does go off scale decrease the sensitivity until it doesn't.
6. Also note the points where the current is at a maximum and minimum so you won't be fooled
by a dip that is part of the instrument's nature.
7. Place the GDM's coil in close proximity to the circuit under test with the axes of the two coils
parallel.
8. SLOWLY tune the frequency of the GDM until you observe a small dip in current that
wasn't there when the meter was in open air. The dip can be quite subtle and can easily be
missed if the frequency is tuned too fast or you are not attentive to the meter indication.
9. Read the frequency from the proper scale.
That's really all there is to it.
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This page last updated August 23, 2014.