Roy’s Measurements



Roy’s Measurements


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W7EL’s Antenna current measurements:

 

Inductor measurement setup


This is the overall measurement setup described in the rec.radio.amateur.antenna
newsgroup

on and about November 9, 2003, showing both traces on the oscilloscope. Signal
input is

from an HP 8640B signal generator.

Closeup of measurement setup


This is a closeup of the inductor and current probes. The upper pipe is the
vertical antenna.

The one to its left is the mounting, which extends about four feet above ground.
The two are

spaced 1/4″ apart. The yellow toroid is the inductor being measured. The
smaller black cores

are the current probes. One core of each probe is a transformer, with the wire
carrying the

current to be measured passed through the core’s hole. The second core is a
common mode

choke or “current balun”, which serves two functions. One is to insure
that no significant current

flows on the outside of the coax cables connecting the probes to the
oscilloscope. The second

is to isolate the probes and reduce any possible capacitive coupling that might
disturb the

measurement. The probe outputs are terminated with 50 ohms at the scope.