wirejock
Well Known Member
I love home made tools. My Mentor, Dave recently ignited my passion for electronics. I have been an amateur radio operator for a long time. KI0TK. I also was a radio technician quite a few years. I fixed my 2m/70cm handie talkie and Soortys gave me $25 off a new SP400. My old SP200 was T.U.
Anyway.
This is a pretty handy little box. Field Strength Meter
The meter is used to scan for RF fields. You can scan your radio/antenna system to see the radiation pattern, check for EMI leaks in the airplane or house. Lots of uses. Looking for RF noise is primary purpose. Noise like LED switching or coax leaks can be found pretty quickly.
I had one long ago and lost it. Super useful and very easy to assemble with pieces of wire. I used pieces of Cat 5 data wire I had laying around. It solders easy.
I offered to our Colorado builders but no one replied.
I have enough of the diodes, capacitors and potentiometers for four more units plus enough diodes and capacitors for quite a few meters.
All you need is a 50uA (micro amp) meter movement and a project box. Maybe $15 for both. The other parts (2-diodes, 1-capacitor, 1-potentiometer) free to anyone interested. I'll send by snail mail. You buy the meter and box. If additional builders want the diodes and caps, you can buy the 100K pot pretty cheap. I may throw in a BNC jack if there are any in my hobby box.
This company has some good deals. I got the meter from them. They also have project boxes and pots. Make sure the box is deep enough.
www.jpmsupply.com/
You will need some sort of antenna jack. I had a BNC but almost any jack will work. PL-259 female & male are handy because a piece of #12 Romex fits right in the pin hole. Solder it and fill the cavity with epoxy to keep it insulated. You can look up antenna calculators on the internet and cut the Romex to whatever length needed. You might get really cool and use a telescoping antenna. Just extend it to the resonant length. I found these pretty cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H9PXZX...abc_CPCW6KAJN11FQXQGT2QK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I added a piece of flattened copper pipe bolted to the bottom of the box as a ground because it was easy to solder a wire to it.
The simple schematic and photo are below.
If anyone wants to build one I'll send out the leftover diode, cap and pot.
Anyway.
This is a pretty handy little box. Field Strength Meter
The meter is used to scan for RF fields. You can scan your radio/antenna system to see the radiation pattern, check for EMI leaks in the airplane or house. Lots of uses. Looking for RF noise is primary purpose. Noise like LED switching or coax leaks can be found pretty quickly.
I had one long ago and lost it. Super useful and very easy to assemble with pieces of wire. I used pieces of Cat 5 data wire I had laying around. It solders easy.
I offered to our Colorado builders but no one replied.
I have enough of the diodes, capacitors and potentiometers for four more units plus enough diodes and capacitors for quite a few meters.
All you need is a 50uA (micro amp) meter movement and a project box. Maybe $15 for both. The other parts (2-diodes, 1-capacitor, 1-potentiometer) free to anyone interested. I'll send by snail mail. You buy the meter and box. If additional builders want the diodes and caps, you can buy the 100K pot pretty cheap. I may throw in a BNC jack if there are any in my hobby box.
This company has some good deals. I got the meter from them. They also have project boxes and pots. Make sure the box is deep enough.
www.jpmsupply.com/
You will need some sort of antenna jack. I had a BNC but almost any jack will work. PL-259 female & male are handy because a piece of #12 Romex fits right in the pin hole. Solder it and fill the cavity with epoxy to keep it insulated. You can look up antenna calculators on the internet and cut the Romex to whatever length needed. You might get really cool and use a telescoping antenna. Just extend it to the resonant length. I found these pretty cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H9PXZX...abc_CPCW6KAJN11FQXQGT2QK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I added a piece of flattened copper pipe bolted to the bottom of the box as a ground because it was easy to solder a wire to it.
The simple schematic and photo are below.
If anyone wants to build one I'll send out the leftover diode, cap and pot.
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