The heart of the unit is an RF assembly built around a proprietary bi-directional RF power sensor designed specifically to cover the 2.4 GHz, 5.3 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bands. The sensor consists of series connected couplers; one senses forward signal strength - the other senses reflected signal strength. Twin leveling-loop circuits keep a pair of detection diodes at fixed potentials, maintaining conduction in each diode’s square-law region. The design minimizes modulation error while maintaining a fast response time. Readings from both detection circuits are converted by a microcontroller to generate the display readings. Each frequency band has been independently calibrated at the factory over the -10 to 50 degrees C temperature range and the data stored in the microcontroller’s integrated EEPROM.

Without in-line attenuation the Meter will directly measure RF signals from 0dBm to +20dBm. With a 10dB inline attenuator, readings are scaled up to a range of +10dBm to +30dBm. With a 20dB attenuator, readings are scaled from +20dbm to +40dBm. With a 30dB attenuator, readings are scaled from +30dbm to +50dBm.

The Meter captures peak power over a 200mSec window so that it is ideal to measure peak power of 802.11 CDMA packetized communications. The peak detection circuit will capture a transmission as short as 500 microseconds and hold the measurement for one second.

Tactile switches are integral to the main electronics board and sealed from the elements by a weather-resistant overlay.

A user's manual is available for this product as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. If you have questions about using PDFs, please visit the PDF help page .