ICOM IC-7300 QRP measurements

On the ICOM IC-7300 FaceBook group i saw some discussions about the lowest power at which the radio transmitt.

Measuring the low power is not a simple task using common power-meters so I put on the work my NRP-Z11 Rohde-Schwarz sensor.

The sensor is able to measure very accurate the power between 200pW and 200mW (-67dbm - +23dbm) in the 10 MHz - 8 GHz range.

In the setup I used a BIRD 50A-MFN-20 attenuator (-20 db) and took measurements under that 23 dbm which can hurt the sensor.

I measured the power for "0", "5" and "10" on the "RF Power" Menu.

The results are in the XLS table below:

LE: For 5 and 10, the power is in W not mW. The above table is image and I cannot correct it.

And here is a printscreen of the R&S program:

LATER EDIT:

1. I had a revelation: the sensor is rated for frequencies above 10 MHz so the measurements below that frequency shall be taken with circumspection. Sorry I forget this, I rarely use it to measure the frequencies below 50 MHz.
2. The results are from my ICOM IC7300 and can be or not consistent with other similar radios.
3. LLE: I measured also with a AD8307 sensor and the values are the same!

APRS via LoRa I

O sa notez aici cateva din etapele setarii unui echipament care foloseste un mix de tehnologie veche (APRS) cu tehnologia noua (LoRa).

Momentan, cateva din elementele pregatitoare.
-GPS uBlox NEO6MV2
-Software de evaluare si programare. U-Center de la uBlox.
-Software analiza RS232/COM  Terminal V1.9b

Folosim un Arduino TRINKET PRO 3V cu GPS serial conectat la o interfata SoftwareSerial 9k6.
Utilizam doar portul de intrare (RX) al interfetei seriale pentru a face "economie" de pini.

Arduino preia tramele NMEA furnizate de GPS si selecteaza doar cele de tip $GPGGA care contin informatia de pozitie si timp UTC.
Identificarea se face pe baza prezentei substringului $GPGGA iar codul defalca informatia de longitudine, latitudine, altitudine si timp, acestea fiind separate prin virgula.

Dupa separare, le reansambleaza intr-un nou sir, de forma

$LRPRS, CALL-SSID, LAT, LONG, ALT, HHMMSSCC, K

Acesta este transmis pe Serial HW catre transceiver-ul LoRa care il emite cu 1200 baud si FEC cu periodicitatea stabilita prin SW.

ToDo: De portat pe TRINKET separarea HH, MM, SS, initial fiind verificata pe ARDUINO MEGA.
ToDo: De format trama standard APRS care va fi transmisa alternativ cu cea pe formatul de mai sus.
ToDo: De realizat functia de transformare POZ in BASE91 ASCII pentru compatibilitatea cu APRS tip MicE.


LE:
              String sendLORA = PREAMBLE + "," + CALLSIGN +
                                "," + StringLAT + "," + StringLON + "," + StringALT +
                                "," + lastHH+ "," + stringMM + "," + lastSS +
                                "," + StringTIME + "," + stringVAL + "," + "K";

LLE:

$LRPRS, CALL, LAT, LON, ALT, DD, MM, YYYY, hh, mm, ss, , Analog, EOT

 

: