Cheapest way is to use a watt meter on one end with a known transmit power on the other, calculate loss. Also measure SWR at the radio with a meter that covers that range, you can calculate the return loss based on SWR readings.
Thank You, Brian Webster www.wirelessmapping.com www.Broadband-Mapping.com From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jaime Solorza Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 10:51 AM To: Animal Farm Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Measure return loss Check out Commscope website for some tools ,calculators and tips. Watt meter is what we use with a Bird Tester but only up to 2.4 On Dec 17, 2015 8:41 AM, "Adam Moffett" <[email protected]> wrote: Specifically 3.6ghz in this case. In a perfect world I would hope for something that can test from 2.4 up to 6ghz. On 12/17/2015 10:40 AM, Jaime Solorza wrote: What frequency? On Dec 17, 2015 8:29 AM, "Adam Moffett" <[email protected]> wrote: What device could we use to measure return loss at microwave frequencies on a coax cable and/or antenna (N-connectors if that matters)? A TDR perhaps? Will this cost thousands of dollars or is there a cheap/simple tool? A lot of coax testers I see online are targeted at CATV so I'm guessing they won't test at the higher frequencies that we care about in our business. I'm afraid I'm too ignorant in this area to make a good product choice. My root issue is that I have a piece of equipment which produces radio head alarms. The manufacturer is telling us it's caused by "reflected power". They say it could be the unit is faulty, or it could be your cables or antennas. So I'm supposed to replace cables and antennas and then wait a few weeks to see if the problem comes back, then they'll RMA the radio if it does. I'd like to stop wasting time and just have a definitive way to test the cables.
