RF field strength meter


Posted on Feb 5, 2014

A very simple Field Strength Meter composed of a small antenna, a detector diode, a resistor, capacitor and a Micro Ammeter. Assuming that this simple circuit would be sensitive enough to detect the HF field, providing we keep it close enough to the transmitting antenna. This worked quite well, and the intermittent problem was easily diagnosed and fixed;


RF field strength meter
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it was caused by a broken antenna cable, making intermittent contacts. With the meter we were able to see a clear drop of the field strength when moving the cable. From there, the technical curiosity took over; what if we could improve the circuit, making it more sensitive and, how high in frequency it would still work Would it work for much higher frequencies such as 2. 4 GHz, to check RF fields from Wi-Fi routers and mobile phones I gave up (at least temporarily!) to the idea of building a wide range RF amplifier to amplify the antenna signal over that wide range of frequencies. This might be another project for another rainy Sunday (or many more rainy Sundays!). Instead, I preferred trying to amplifying the DC signal after the RF detection and see how far we can go. And here we go; we have a very simple instrument that can detect the activity of your Wi-Fi router, your mobile phone and about any RF transmitter through a wide range of frequencies. It is powered by a 9 V battery. The diode is a critical component; it should have a low threshold voltage. The diode used in this circuit is a germanium diode 1N60. A ghost from the past, but it is still available on the market (Escol for example). The diode and the 1 nF capacitor are soldered directly at the base of the antenna connector. In the next version of this circuit I would put the 100 K resistor there as well. Another critical point is the antenna. It should be cut to...




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