Notes:
This Field Strength Meter is simple
and also quite sensitive. It uses an ordinary digital voltmeter
to measure signal strength. The VM
should be set to the lowest dc volts range for maximum sensitivity. This is
normally 200mV DC for most meters.
I have tried this at VHF and was
quite pleased with the results. L1 was 7 turns on a quarter
inch former with ferrite slug. This
covered the UK FM band. A digital multimeter, as opposed
to an analogue signal meter has several
advantages in this circuit.
First, the impedance of a digital
meter is very high, around 10M / volt on most meters. This
does not shunt the tank circuit
unduly.
Second, as
opposed to an analogue meter, very small differences in signal strength
can
be observed more
easily on the digital meter.
Thirdly, used with a digital meter, the FSM will have better linearity,
responding well to both
weak and stronger signals, a cheap analogue meter may not respond too
well to very weak
changes in signal strength.
Back to RF Circuits