Taidacent HP363 Power Meter
Taidacent HP363 Power Meter:
This is a bare board designed to measure very small RF power levels. Care must be taken to avoid damage
while using it. The easiest way to manage this is to connect it to your transmitter through an attenuator.
This board has a built-in attenuation calibration, so you just tell it what size attenuator (in dB) you're using
and it will automatically adjust its dB/voltage/mW display to compensate.
You still need to carefully consider the maximum power the transmitter could be producing though, to avoid
damaging either the meter or the attenuator. This meter's maximum (unattenuated) input is 1mW. Every 10dB
of attenuation you add multiplies this by ten, so a 30dB attenuator will increase the maximum to 1 watt, good
for small transmitters like Meshtastic. A 40dB attenuator will max the meter at 10 watts, good for most HTs.
When transmitting with higher powers, make sure the attenuator is rated to that watt level. This board is rated
1 watt max, and covers 1 MHz to 10 GHz, with a 50dB measuring range. You'll probably want to have a short
SMA/SMA M-M jumper and a UFL-SMA/F pigtail handy to connect things up, plus this meter needs 5 volt DC
power to run. (careful! 12v will fry it)
There's a newer version of this board that runs on 12v, it might be a better (and cheaper) option.
