On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 03:26:46 -0800, Roy Lewallen
wrote:


represents. That'll take an investment of a few dollars and an evening
to make a step attenuator.

A greatly overlooked item of test equipment.

I recall advising a ham to buy a HP355 step attenuator so that he
could quantify the level of interference from nearby power leaks and
build a prime facie case for non compliance with emission standards.

Although he had just winged at length about his $20,000 plus
investment in a tower and VHF/UHF antennas, more on radios, etc... he
baulked at spending a $100 on something as unexciting as a step
attenuator. This was an opportunity to learn a little more about
predicting path loss than a $100 burden.

As part of my FSM project for measuring BPL emissions, I went
searching the net for kits for RF step attenuators, and all that I
found were kits that had gone obsolete, no longer available. Today it
should be a piece of cake to do a low cost kit with miniature
switches, precision surface mount resistors etc... but we as a
community are apparently not sufficiently interested in quantifying
things these days.

Owen
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