The SARC Soldering Circle came together on Sunday 17th August with the idea of making some RF Probes. As normal, A lot of time was spent on general techno-centric conversations.
At some stage we turned to working on the RF probes. What’s an RF Probe? It’s a very small gadget that takes an RF signal that your multi-metre can’t measure and turn it into a DC signal that it can. Why bother measuring an RF voltage? If you can measure an RF voltage then you can calculate power levels and power losses.
Who designed this? The N5ESE design and many similar variations that have been around for years. There are some references listed below. Is it accurate? It’s good enough for day to day Amateur radio use. If you’re in a battle with experts and laboratory certified measurements then you’ll be down in the “better than nothing” category. A Fluke 85RF probe will set you back about $600. This one is made for less than $10 junk box parts.
References:
https://www.qsl.net/g3oou/simplerfdetectors.html
https://www.n5ese.com/rfprobe1.htm
https://www.n5ese.com/rfprobe2.htm
http://qrpkits.com/files/RF_Probe_How_To.pdf
https://ftp.elecraft.com/K2/Manuals Downloads/E740001_K2 Owner’s Manual Rev I.pdf
de VK2DLR
