[MLB-WIRELESS] Measuring SWR and power...

[Steven Haigh]

Quoting Gustaf Bjorksten <foobard at gmail.com>:
> Okies, i have a question. Do any of you regularly measure stuff like SWR and
> power output of your 2.4GHz nodes, and if so what equipment do you use?

I think pretty much all of us wouldn't have a clue what actual power  
output we get out of our gear. I'd love to see if the WRT54s actually  
transmit 30mW like they say, or something more along the lines of  
10-15mW. The equipment to do this however is DAMN expensive. After  
all, at the end of the day, the rated specs are only for the one or  
two that were sent for type approval. The thousands and thousands of  
units after that may have quite different specs.

> Obviously most SWR meters out there wont cope with anything beyond the 70cm
> band, but i have seen some from BIRD that go up to 2.7GHz. Anyone have any
> experience with these?

I have seen these in use. Instead of being a set meter as such, they  
seem to use a 'slug' of some description. there's a different slug for  
each frequency and it's turned 180 degrees inside the meter to check  
forward vs reverse power. Again, what I do know about these sets is  
that they are VERY expensive - hence I've never actually played with  
one :)

-- 
Steven Haigh

Email: netwiz at crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9017 0597 - 0412 935 897