Ii Box

to Measure
RF Impedances
By G Billington , G3EAE'

HE BOX IN QUESTION IS an Of course the irnpc r-

T RF po tentiometer designed for

coaxialfeeder impedance meas-
urements in the ra nge 5106001l.
The im pedances a re ca lculated
Iro m vol tage measureme nt s, and the unit is
designed to operate with a modern digital
vollmeler wilh an input resistance of 1OMU or
tam ques tion
whethe r or no t 'Z' is
resistive . Th ere is a
sim ple test wh ich w ill
is

deci de this . II V.. = V. +

V" ·Z' is a pure resist-
ance.
more. A low power AF source capable 01 Using the g iven lig ·
giving a couple of watts of harmonic free ures: 7.5 = 5.0 + 2.5.
output into a load of around son is also The ligures pass the
required. test and 'Z· is a pure
The box can be used in either a very simple resis tance.
or in a more sophisticated manner. II is smat1,
The procedures just
cheap, and easy to build, and 10 a certain
described are easy to
extent it is self ch ec king . As well as measur-
ca rry ou t a nd can give
ing feeder input impedances ltcan be used 10 a q uic k rea ssurance
check the RFvalue o! resistorsagainst known
that an a ntenna is be -
cap acito rs and to measu re RF impeda nces in
havi ng itsel f.
general.

PRINCIPLE OF THE METHOD CORRECTING

THE BASIC POTENTIOMETER arrangem ent
a nd the req uired meas urements are shown in
Fig 1. The unkn ow n impe da nce 'Z' is con-
nected in se ries with a know n im ped ance '5'
to a su itab le AF source. The three voltages
V.' V , V,", are all measured as de sc ribed
later. fZ' may then belound using thetorrmna ;
ZiS =V,IV.
MEASURING FEEDER INPUT
IMPEDANCE: A SIMPLE
EXAMPLE
SUPPOSE THAT 'Z' is the input impedance
of a coax ial antenna feeder and that a resistor
01 56U is used as'S'.
Th e mea sured volla g es are :
V. = 5.0V ; V, = 2.5V: V", = 7.5V ,
Th e unknown imp edance 'Z' is given by:
THE
READINGS
II '5' is a res istance bu t
'Z'ts ccrn ple x. (V. +V) Internal view ol lhe Impedance measurIng box .
will be greater thanVon
but whatever the nature 01'Z' it is not possibl e
lor (V. +V) to be/ess tha n V,•. Nev erthe less,
if the bo x is set up with 'S' a nd 'Z' bo th
re sisto rs, it will be found that (V, + V) will be
less than V,. by a bou t 0 .15V, (This assu mes
that the recommended Sc hott ky diodes have
bee n use d) , I[ 0 .15V is added to all rea di ngs.
agreeme nt becomes very sausractcrv. usu -
ally within 0.05V, Using silicon diodes (1N914)
the correction was in the regi on 01 OAV . It is
surp rising that a vi rtually co nsta nt correct ion
works over the range one to tw enty volts .
It will be lo und that co rrect ing the read ings
will often ha ve so little ellect on the numerical
value 01'Z' tha t it may not seem worth doin g,
FI N DI N G BOTH
COMPONENTS OF 'Z'
SUPPOS E NOW T HAT V and V have the
same values a s betore bUI tha t V..
is 6.5V.
(Assu me all read ings have been co rrected) .
As V. and V. no tonger add direcll y to g ive V..
we know that 'Z' is not a pu re res istance.
Howe ver, 'z' is ca lcu lated ex actl y as before :
it is still 281! but is now a co mplex imp eda nce .
T he values of the res istive and reactive com-
ponents of 'Z' can be found by drawing a
tr iangl e as sho wn in Fig 2, The sides repre-
sen t the three volla ges wit h V. drawn horizon -
tally . T he angle q is the n me asured. In this
ca se il is 64 Z may be represe nted eithe r by
G
•

Z = 56. (2.5/5.0) but ir you a re going on to rind the resistiv e and the series combination R. and X• o r by the
= 28U react ive components as described in the next pa rallel com binat ion Rp and Xp (Fig 3 ).
section, ui ese small cor rections are more R. = Z.ccse R. = ZiC,osO
75 Mounr V9motl Roa(1. Bamsley. S YorJ<5, S70 4D W, important. X. = SinO X. = ZiS,nO
Using Z = 28U, H = 64 G

A. = 12U X. = 250

1 j S (knownl

I r "
L.'
Z ("""nownl

c ....."",..
Fig 1: Bas ic po tenll o mel er pri nciple 01 t he Fig 2: Exlracll on 01 Z components lrom vol la ge
impeda nce measuring box. readings. Fig 3: Series and paralle l co mblna t lo nS,ol R and X,

RADIO COMMUNICATION May 1995 37

MEASURING RF IMPEDANCES
Front p an el 01 im pedance mea su rin g 00. sho w in g
lhe I I. ed retere nce connector bl ock.
=
Rp 6412 Xo 3112=
Unlortunately the method described does
not tell us whether ' X' is inductive or capac-
nve. This can be done by making 'S ' a known
capacito r as described later.
II you do not wan t 10draw a diagram 10 find
o n may be calculated :
coee = {V..2 . V.2 - V/)/2V • • V.
CONSTRUCTIONAL OETAILS
THE UNIT IS BU ILT into a small me ter bo x.
The circuit is shown in Fig 4. It is a great
advantage to mount'S' exte rnally using a
PCB termi nal bloc k. All connections can be
kepi very short and'S' can be changed at will.
Two Map lin 2· wire 10mm PCB connectors
(JX38R or JY93B) are used. The two blocks
can be slotte d together giving a longer block
with four connecting points. This bloc k is
boi led dow n onto Ihe exterior of the bo x using
two 6BA nu ts and bolts which mus t be passed
through the two blank hole s in the blocks .
A small amou nt of Ihin plas tic has to be
cracked ott 10 allo w the passage of the bolts.
Each of me screw connec tors carries a short
wire projecti on which requires a hole boring
so it can pass through into the interior 01the
box . One pair of me connectors is used to
accommodate'S', The inner one of the o ther
pair is labelled '0 ' and goes 10 the coa xial
output socket and the outer, labelled 'E' goes
to chass is by the shortest possible route
(Fig 5), When using the coax ial outp ut, the
C...n boo
om , lt ~d
" . ... ---.(
cc
c __ ·,,,,,,
Fig 4: Ci rc uli di agram o f Im pedan ce meas urIng 00 •.
38
neighbouring '0' and 'S' points are connected
by a short link ,
When test ing the device using resistors,
ca paci tors , etc the link is remove d and the
lest piece is conne cte d betw een the inner 'S'
connector and 'E', Removing the link discon-
nects the capaci ta nce 01the output socke t -
abou t 4-9pF • which would otherwise be in
parallel with the lest piece. The inner 'S'
connection will have to accommodate two
wires, one from 'S' and the om er either from
the test piece ('Z') or lrom the link.
The above rnemoo of cons truclion enables
cntcar connections 10 be kept very short. It is
importan tlhat the diode leads are sol dered as
close to Ihe body of'S' as possible, ie to Ihe
short wires which project from meccnnectcrs
into tne interior of Ihe box . The actual length
of Ihe diode leads is not very crit ical so there
is no need 10 cut them too short and risk
coo king the diod es during soldering.
The resis tors at the input are to prevenlthe
load on the source exceeding 11212or going
lower than 2212. These are extreme cas es . In
antenna measurements the load is likely lo be
closer to so n and nea rly all resistive.
The 2212 resistor can be omi tted if desired.
Its only purpose is 10 preve nt a sho rt circ uit in
the unlikely event that'S' and 'Z' together
form a resonant series circuit, which just
co uld hap pen if 'S ' is a capaci tor and 'z ' an
induc tor,
The input resistors also provid e a DC leak
across tne tine which is essen tial for the
operation cr me diodes. The 22Kn resis tor
across the output ensu res that there is such
a lea k under all con ditions. Schottky diodes
(BAR 28 , Ma plins 0 013P) are employed.
TESTING THE BOX USING
RESISTORS
FIRST REMOV E THE LINK thereby discon-
necting the outp ut soc ket.
Another 1 watt resistor in me range 20 to
20012 is chosen for 'z ' and is con nec ted
between the inner'S' connector and 'E'. Both
'S' and 'Z ' shou ld have leads cut as short as
possible. Mapl in 1 watt resistors seem to be
O K at HF, at least up to 14MHz, the highest
frequency used .
Measure the volt ages and chec k that:
1) VjV. =ZJS
2) V,+V. =V..
As explaine d earlier, be tter agreement is
obtaine d if a small cor -
rection isadded to every
, ~,
voltmeter reading. O. 15V
shor!bnk To was suggested, Ihough
I0 ... nl~nna in lact anything be tween
0.13 and 0.15 seems to
be satisfactory . Cor rect-
, ing the readin gs shoul d
lead to a sm all but no-
tice able all round in-
R6 R7
crease in accur acy ,par-
ticularlywhen 'Z ' is more
than 4S orless than S/4 .
co Repeat these checks
us ing diff eren t in put
voltages and different
values of 'S' and 'Z'. Do
not use inp uts greater
than 20V. and also try to
avo id using any voltage
reading lowerthan 1.0V,
USING THE BOX TO MEAS URE Zo
AN D VEL.OCITY FA CTOR:
The ce araciensuc imped ance (Z.l 01a coa xial
reeder and also ns length in electrical degrees
can be both lound trom the same two pairs ot
measurements. Th ese are made on a lenglh 01
the cable. The exactlenqth is nol cntical but il
should 1'1 01be tes e than 1/ 16l h ol a wavelength ,
and not mo re than 3/16th5. Only one endshould
be fill ed With a plug, atrn e other should be a
clean cut.
The cab le needs to be plugged mto the
outpu t socke t or the box. A .eS< stanceol aro und
56U is used as '5'. The meescremems V. and
V, are then made:
1. Wilh the tar end open c,rCU,1and
2. W 'lfl a good short circui t across Ihe tar
end .One of lWomilhmel'es olthe inner core can
be e xposed, and the braiding pulled over ,t and
sold ered or evan cl,pped ,
fV.
t etve cceo circu it value 01V be denoted
by 'p ', and the Closed circtJit value or v fV, be
deno ted by 'C'
Zoa 5, -irP,C)
the angular length fl is given by:
r enu a -i(Cl P)
n .. Tan ' \ (ClP)
li the acluallenglholthe sample is 'L' metres.
then each rnetee is equivalenl lo UlL erecmeer
degrees.
The wavelength onthe hne .... is given by
.... " l ' (360IU)
The velocl ly lac lor lor Ihe line is equal 10the
line wavelength divided by ire free space wa ve-
lenglh )."
VelOCity lactor = ....' ~
FEEDER LEN GTHS LON GER THAN
ONE QUARTER WAVELENGTH
The above method can be emplo yed using
longer feeder lengths With the lollowing route-
ncns,
1. The lenglh can be any inlegral number or
hall wavelenglhs plusa lraclion 01 one quarter
wave length. The extra hall wavelenglhs have
no eneeron the mea surements.
2. Il ihe lengt h ,s any odd numbe r of quarter
wavetenqrns plus a tractio n 01 a qua rter wave -
length, the rat io C/P must be Irw erted. In thIS
case:
TanU ..... (P/C}
n = Ta n" , '(PiC )
In both the above cas es II is the angular
length 01 the linal incomplete qua ller wave-
lengt h which shouldbe some where between 20
and 70". II U lies outside these lim its (ie if the
reeder Ienglh is close to a who le nu mber or
qua-ter wavelengths) the resuns WIll be very
inaccurate . 11'1 such cases the feeder sho uld be
extended by about one eighth ot a wavelen glh
befo re ma king measurements.
Tl1e diode response is particularly inaccurate
at low voltag es .
TESTING WITH CAPACITORS
A CAPAC ITOR MAY also be used as 'Z', and
its reac tanc e fo und. This is obtained in ex-
actly the same way as with the res istors. The
following points sho uld be borne in mind
when using a capaci tor as 'Z':
1) The nominal va lue of the capacitance will
be effectively increase d by 4 or SpF due to
the output cap acitance of Ihe device.
2) The voltage addition rule does not hold in
RADIO COMMUNICATION May 1995
 MEASURING RF IMPEDANCES

this case , When '5 ' is a resistor and 'Z' a be increased by 4 or

capac itor (or vice versa) the rule for 1'011- SpF. As explaine d
age addilion is: earlier, the triangl e
V 2 =V 2+V 2 diagram will no t te ll
• • • you wh ether 'X' is in-
3) The inductive reactance of capac itor leads
ductive or capacitive. '.
can easily canc el out one or two ohms of
II a capacitor is used "
capac itive reactance at H F. Keepthe leads
as short as you can. The is much euect as '5 ' the method
v
•
mu st be mod ified
less impo rtan t wil h resistors .
slightly. bu t the trian- lal (b) (e )
gle then indicates in- A I.. u tha" A , ¢t Angl O A QfU"" I"",, ~ ,q.! ~ ngI " A . 90·
Z ISC ~ D ac , I "' .. Z 1Sf'>C1UC !.... l os P"''' ,,, ,,,, la lK"
TESTING WITH A COMPLEX stan tly whether the
LOAD load is inductive or
capacitive. Fig 6 : Dfllannlnatlon 01re a Cla nce po la rity us ing a c a paci ta nc e lor 'S'.
A SUITABLE LOAD MAY be made from a 1
watt resistor and a close tolerance polysty -
rene capacitor connected in parallel with lead USING A CAPACITOR AS'S' Note that this is identical to the earlier
lengths kept very short. The reacta nce of the formula excep t that it gives SinO not c csa.
IF A CAPACITO R OF reactance 'X' is use d as
capacitor and the resistance of the resistor This can give both positive and nega tive
'5' . 'Z' may be fo und exaclly as before:
shou ld not be too ort srent from each other, Of values for 8. A positiv e valu e indicates a
from the resistance of '5', 'Z' and '0' can then
Z= (VjV,) x. capacitive reactance and a negative value
be found from the triang le described earlier, The method for finding '0' is nOl the same. indicat es an inductive reactance.
and the values of R. and Xo found. Agai n, the Once again , the voltag e triangle is drawn in
nominal value of the capacitor will effectively the same way , and the same angle is meas- COMPARING CAPACITORS
ured. but this angle. 'A', in Fig 6, is not e.
IF BOTH '5 ' AND 'Z' are capac itors there is no
9 is equal to either (90·A) or to (A-gO). the
need to bother workin g out reacta nces . The

-
smallera nglebe ing subtracted from the targer.
5hor l w~ ~
.-.l , II 'A' is less than 90° as in Fig ea the reactive
rela tion simplifies to:
Unknown capacitance = capacitance of '5' .
---- component is capacitive: in Fig 6b the reac-
live component is inductive. In Fig 6c A=90 (V~ !Vl) '
Note the vollage ratio is 'upside dow n' , As
0 0 0 0
-- -- -- - - -- --
which mean s there is no reactive component
and Z is a pure resistance . If Z is a pure
explai ned in the next section, the residual
output capacitance will need to be subtracted
E "M 0 5 "M 5 capaci tance V.. is equal to the sum of V, and
from the measured value 01the unkno wn.

Fig 5: Con n e cl or block l o r lhe re le re n ce

0-- V.' if Z is a pure induc tance V..is equal to the ir
dil/erence.1fyou prefer calculation todraw ing
a scale diagram, '0 ' can be found using

componenl , . S inO= (V.,~ - V .~ -V/) /(2V • • V)

~
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RADI O CO MMUNICATION May 1995 39

 cable . The SW R in the shack should be the

EUROTEK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65
Starting at 28M Hz.lhe coil lap and capeo-
lor sening for best SWR waseslablished. The
lUnlOQcapacilorwas then removed and meas -
ured; many modem d igita l mul timeters have
a pico larad range . A permanent wire from the
coi l lap Justlound to its relay wa s then sol -
de red in .
A hxed cap aci tor, 01roughly the value jus l
mea sured b ut not nec essa rily of ad equa te
raling. was lhe n soldered in w here the tuning
ca paci tor had bee n oncjppeo . This mus t be
do ne becau se the ca paci ty al this wiring and
the open relay will affect the 24MHz band
same or a eme lower than althe ATU . II atl is
well, increa se power and verify lhat too aulo-
ma tic ATU can reduce the SWR on aillre -
queocies 10 where the transceiver w ill delIVer
its rated outpul.
NOTES
(I) lltop-band is of interest. two articles are
il.="==~.".,-
recommended :
'B rin g back th e en d ·fed ' by G3UCE,
RadCom 2/89 (but beware of the untler-
rated capacito rs mentioned ')
'l 60-m OXfrom subu rban sites ' byG3XA P,
RadCom 12/73.
(2J In the UK, weatherprcol p lastic cabine ts
are very expensi ve . G4l C I's ATU used a
wood en p latform lor the com ponents and

wh ich is se t up next. And so on.
As the sea rch time and price a t capa citors
adequate lor l QOW was expected to be co n.
side rab le. it wa s fou nd bestto complete the
whole sel -up a t low power w ith junk box ca -
pacitors; In the end . two capacitors could be
used on three band s each, and those co uld
be made o f RG58IU.
If il lums ou l that an exact ca pacitor value
is ha rd 10 get , !he ne xl low er value may be
(3 J Some radi o s hav e a band-data outpu t
il----==~,
an upside -down z-utre icec ream co ntainer
(held down by a brick ) overhanging that
-,;;:;- 10<1 ""
platform on all four sides. It survived the
198 7 hurricane intact!
which ca n be used to selec t relay s in the
pre-ma tch ATU Ihrough a boughl or bu ilt
interface . The same applies to lhe an-
ieona sel ection p rovis ion s in some linear
--
Fig 3: SWR va lrequenc y In lhe cable be '-en the
re-mote pr&-fI\8tc h ATU ..-d in lhe 1J>ack.

shunted by a small ca pacitor made 01 coa x, or
moving lhe COil tap a b it w ill elfect an ac-
equately low SWR wilh a standard-value ca-
paci1or.
Aher all bands WOtk satislactorlly on low
power, capacilors with the proper ratingS are
insIaUed and the SW R is checked again, IIrst
atme ATU and then at the shack-end 01 the
ampl ifiers and automa tic ATU s. HB9G BB
decodes ue BCD band output of his Yaesu
transce iver with an S N74lS145 fC . which
can sin k relay coil curren ls up 10 SOmA.
II solid-slat e devices are used 10 drive
relays. piece diodes across !heir COilS 10
prevenl destructiOn 0I1he switching tran-
sis tor upon release of the relay ,
141M odels wllholher than 12V coils are inex-
pensive as su rplus and at rallies . The
vo ltage ahead of !he regula tor in 13.8V
hnear transceiver power supplies wil l op-
erate most 24V relays.
ISj"A real QRPP SWR me ter' by OJ1ZB,
Spratnr.69 &71 . •

For a frequency 'r MHz the capecterce

ABOX TO MEASURE RF should be mulhplied by ( 1411) though the COMPONENTS
IMPEDANCES exact val ue 01the capaci tors is not «ncer. Resistors

CONTINU ED FROM PAG E 311

GENERAL COMMENTS
".
Rl.R> ""
180 R. l W
A4, A5. A6 330K

ESTIMATING THE RESIDUAL

OUTPUT CAPACITANCE
THE MO ST CONVENIENT way to do Ihis is
to use a capaci tor o f abo ut 18p F as'S', and
le ave Ihe ou tpu t open ci rcuit. 'Z' is then at-
most entirely due to me residua l output ca-
pac itance wh ich can be found in the usual
wa y.
Use a Ireq uency of atleas l 14MH z. The
residual cecacaeoce is lypical ly 4 or SpF wilh
the coax socket disconnected , and it does no!
seem to vary much if measured under diHer·
en l ccoouoos.
HARMONICS
THE ONE DISADVANT AGE In the method is
that it is susceptible to erro rs due 10 harmonic
frequencies in the input 11 any harmonic
pseseot ceocoes WIth a resonance of a feeder !
antenna system disproportionalely large er-
rors could result.
The inp ul sho uld be led via a simple hiler
for instance a 1:1 p see tion filt er. Such a hiler
for 14MHz was made by trial and error using
two 470p F ca pacitors and a self supp orting
coi l 018 tu rns, abou t 2.3c m long and t.aen
diam eter . The filter co uld be tuned usin g a dip
OSCillator and squ eezing turns tog ether to
obtain the co rrect filter reso nance.
AC CURAC Y
It depends upon what is being mea sured . In "'
cap acitor s '"
general, great est accuracy is obtained when Cl ,C2 ,C3 l 000 pF
'r and '5' are of similar value , whe n accu ra -
cie s 012% or even better can bo obtai ned. In
C4,C5 .C6
sem iconductors "'"'
the ca se of comp lex impedance s whe re one or. D2, D3 BAR28, Ma plin QQ 13P
co mponent is larger than the o the r. Add ll iDnsl l1ems
The most significant componenl can be ConnOC1lng blocl<. U aplm JX38R or JY938
oOlai ned to a good accuracy , bu lthe va lue 01 Components ale a -..aolable 100m Maplon EIec·
the other componen t ma y be very appro xi- Ironic Producls. 1.10 11(12 554161
mate . II on e of the coeeooeors is more lhan
4 limes greater than the cmer. the valueof the
less significant component is unlikely 10 be 0.D1 vo lt. even though the last digit will be
very reliable , and shou ld this figure be 10 or unreliable.
more, the IesssigniflCani componenl wi.pr0b-
ably remain undetected. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
VO LTM ET ER CORRECTIONS THIS IS A METHOD BASED on simi lar prin·
As mentiooed before. adding O. ISV to al ciples 10 the Three Meter M ethod , which gave
readlf"lQs is a rea sonable compromise. For me some ideas. The lech nlQue was first oe-
readingS between O,SV and 1.0 V the coeec- scribed in CST [l )and by Peter Dodd,G3I..oo.
hon shou ld be less , and it decreases stili more (2) 13].
at lower volt ages.
The correcton is muc h more signlhcant REFERENCES
at low er vo ltages bei ng a much greater
pe rcentage of the reading and there fore
ltl 'Me asurement 01 R+X j' ,D Str andl un d,
W8CGD. OST. June 1965.
hav ing a much greater etl ect on the final
ans wer. '5' sho uld be chosen to be roughl y [21'Mea surement 01ante nna imped ance' , P
equa l to 'Z ' which me ans that low voltmeter Dod d and T Lloyd , OEX. Nov 1987,
readings will be avoide d . It isprobab ly wort h- (3 JThe Antenna Experimenters Guide,avail-
while measunng the voltag es to the nearest able from RSG B Sales, see page 90. •

96 RADIO COMMUNICATION May 1995