Amateur Radio Stack Exchange
Amateur Radio Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [rf-power]

Questions about power ratings and restrictions, including maximum power by law or for certain components, or about calculating power in certain situations.

133 questions
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What makes cellphone transmissions so energy cheap?

The modern cellphone can carry on a full duplex conversation for a time period measured in hours on a battery half the size of my handheld transceiver. My transceiver can barely receive for that length of time on its pack, nevermind transmit, and…
Adam Davis
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How does an SWR meter really work?

For ham radio operators, the SWR meter is a ubiquitous piece of equipment. There are dozens of standalone models on the market and most modern transceivers and antenna tuners have this functionality built in. Any ham with an interest in antennas has…
Glenn W9IQ
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How do I discover APRS coverage?

I'm considering adding simple APRS transmitters to my vehicles. I'd rather just put one in and forget about it, but I understand there are areas of the US where a stronger transmitter would be required to successfully send an APRS update…
Adam Davis
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What are the (US) rules about unlicensed low-power transmissions?

It is common wisdom that transmissions of any sort (perhaps unidentified, encrypted, in the FM broadcast band, etc.) are permitted if they are sufficiently low power. Where are the FCC regulations which permit this, or where can I find a…
Kevin Reid AG6YO
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What is dBm and why is it used rather than watts?

Reading through an RF power amplifier datasheet, I found the sheet only referenced dBm output power, rather than watts. What is dBm? How do I convert it to watts? Why, or when, would you use dBm to specify power output rather than watts? Are there…
Adam Davis
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What is the actual loss in a feed line with high SWR?

It is well-known that it is unwise to have standing waves on the feed line between one's antenna and one's transmitter, unless it is a very low-loss type (e.g. ladder line), because the transmitted signal is reflected multiple times through the feed…
Kevin Reid AG6YO
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What determines power handling capacity of an antenna?

I just bought a cheap 1/4-wavelength, 2m. mag-mount antenna. The package says it can handle 50 watts. I can think of three things that could limit the capacity: $I^2R$ losses in the connection to the feedpoint and in the antenna wire itself:…
Pete NU9W
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Why bother to have a high power base station when mobile units are generally low-power?

I want to find out why, say in a GSM/cellular system, a base station can be up to 50 watts however the mobile units can be only 100mw (for example). Surely if the base station ever uses 50w to reach a mobile at long range, the mobile will have no…
code_fodder
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How can I prevent my mobile radio from draining my vehicle's battery?

I'm a very absentminded ham. I have a radio mounted in my car, wired directly to the vehicle battery. Fuses and high-gauge wire and all that good stuff. But, if I accidentally leave it on, my battery will be dead by the next morning! I don't know…
Dan KD2EE
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How do you choose an inductor wire gauge for high-power RF?

At 100 watts in a 50-ohm system, the current flowing through an inductor would be about 1.41 A, thus a 26-AWG wire should be plenty since they are chassis-rated for 2A and for just a few windings that isn't a very long wire. This answer indicates…
KJ7LNW
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Importance of Ferrite Size in Coax Choke Balun

The question is quite simple: When making a coax choke balun, does the size of the ferrite matter, and if so, why? I have seen design notes that say to use a single FT240-43 toroid for powers up to 400W, and then to use two stacked FT240-43 toroids…
M1GEO
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What is the point of a SWR/power meter where the needles cross over each other?

There are SWR/power meters with two separate gauges, and others that have them mounted so the gauge needles cross over each other. Aside from looking cool, does the cross-over point of the two meters provide specific or useful information?
Adam Davis
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What is the power increase required to double the range of RADAR?

Studying for a Pivate Pilot's Licence (PPL) and I've hit something in the study material that doesn't make sense to me. Typical of the PPL study material, it's quite shallow, so the full explanation may have been omitted. To double the range of a…
Matt
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Power limit of 50 ohm BNC connector?

Is there a limit to the power a 50 ohm BNC connector can handle?
Timtech
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dBm signal minus dB

I've got a 27dBm signal that I'm going to put through a 6dB attenuator. How do I work out the resultant signal in dBm? I've tried Googling that without any luck.
Chris Pavey
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