Daiwa CN-801 (series)
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| Frequency | the HF/VHF flagship (CN-801HP): 1.8-200 MHz; the series splits by band - V covers 140-525 MHz, G reaches gigahertz territory |
| Power | CN-801HP: 2 kW max across 20/200/2000 W ranges (derating to 1 kW at 144 MHz); ~5 W minimum for a meaningful SWR reading |
| Modes | forward power, SWR |
| Weight | 1 kg (2.2 lb) |
| rf in | SO-239 (transmitter/amplifier) |
| rf out | SO-239 (antenna) |
| dc power | 2.5mm DC plug for PEP mode and meter illumination |
| power req | Average mode: passive (no power needed). PEP mode: 13.8 VDC (2.5mm DC plug, power cord included). Meter illumination also requires 13.8V. |
The glance-and-know instrument: forward power, reflected power, and SWR visible simultaneously and continuously, with no calibrate step to forget and no formula to compute - the cross-needle's whole argument, executed at Daiwa's build quality with 2 kW headroom and PEP capability. The meter you stop noticing because it never asks anything of you.
Cross-needle SWR resolution is coarse at the scale's edges (1.3 vs 1.5 takes squinting), the stated accuracy class is honest-but-modest versus lab gear, the lamp and PEP circuits want DC the passive competition doesn't, and 5 watts minimum leaves QRP operators reading tea leaves.
The default station meter for good reason: continuous three-quantity monitoring with zero operating ritual. Precision questions still walk to the reference instrument; everything else is answered at a glance, all day, for decades.
The Daiwa CN-801 series is the cross-needle wattmeter as permanent station furniture, and the cross-needle concept deserves its small celebration: two meter movements share one face, forward power swinging one needle and reflected power the other, and the SWR is simply WHERE THEY CROSS on a printed grid - read continuously, with no sensitivity-calibration ritual, no range juggling mid-QSO, and no arithmetic. Where the reference instrument asks you to measure forward, rotate an element, measure reflected, and compute, the cross-needle answers before you finish asking.
The HP flagship spans 1.8 to 200 MHz - one meter from topband through 2 meters - at ranges of 20, 200, and 2000 watts full-scale (1 kW at 144 MHz, the honest derate) with a stated accuracy of plus-or-minus ten percent of full scale and PEP measurement aboard - the mode SSB and digital operating actually requires, with the fine print that the peak circuit wants 13.8 volts DC while everything else reads passively. The format is the kilogram-heavy illuminated bench face readable from across the shack, because this is the meter that lives in the line permanently rather than visiting for checkups. The series splits by band rather than compromising: the V variant owns 140-525 MHz, the G chases 900-1300 MHz on N connectors - same philosophy, different couplers - and the whole 801 generation has since passed the catalog to the CN-901 line, leaving clean used 801s as the format's value pick.
The honest limits are the format's: SWR resolution at the crossing is coarse where the curves crowd (distinguishing 1.3 from 1.5 takes a squint), accuracy is station-grade rather than laboratory-grade, and the illumination and PEP circuits want a DC feed the passive classics never did. None of that touches the value proposition - continuous, ritual-free, three-quantity monitoring - which is why a Daiwa face glows in some corner of most serious shacks, usually a few feet from the smaller single-needle doing portable duty and the reference slugs waiting in their drawer.