Electronics > RF, Microwave, Ham Radio

low cost, reliable RF detector badge (passive)

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CopperCone:
What is a recommendation for making a RF detector badge, to indicate if (possibly dangerous) leakage is occurring?

LED? Neon Bulb?

What should they be attached to? Tuned antennas for the frequency of operation?

I imagined something like 5-10 fat diopole antennas in a pocket protector, each covering like 1GHz hopefully.

How about broad band detection? I.e. only having one circuit.

CopperCone:
No, I am looking for something to wear on your person around power equipment.

Of course you can have a SA hooked up, but I mean something akin to a radiation exposure badge.

I know if you stick neons infront of a powerful microwave, or CFL, they light up, but I am wondering if that can be tuned for personal protection.

Kind of like a passive spectrum analyzer you can put in your pocket that will have different lights light up if significant RF fields are present for whatever reason.

So you don't slowly cook yourself, risk your eye sight, etc (see the RF injuries thread I made for more details).

I thought a series of fat dipoles might work, if each is pretty wide band (like 500-1Ghz), so then you can have different lights to give yourself protection. It seemed like it would fit in a pocket protector (like revenge of the nerds).

So if they light up, you might want to check your gasket seals, antenna direction, etc. (perhaps you just made a forgetful error)

CopperCone:
ima stick a LED to a hardline loop and see what happens I guess

dmills:
Log detectors (Analog devices and such) are probably your friend. 

Personally I incline to the view that such things should be largely unnecessary, I mean you have the only keys to the power supply interlock switch on your person right? Lock and tag applies just as much to high power RF as it does to HV). 

Calibrating something mounted close to the skin is hard, doubly so in the near field.

73, Dan.

CopperCone:
Well I made it, Will test it soon. I used a red LED and a loop thats approximately 2 inches in diameter made of rg141 hardline.

I think its a good idea to have a passive detector in addition to an active detector, since the reliability is higher. They should be used in tandem.

Do I expect the thing to light up ever? not really. but why not? It's a simple measure to take in case shit hits the fan.

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