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Spectran User Manual

1. Signal 2 50Hz at 23dBm ___ Signal 3 350Hz at 42dBm Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 60 8 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics AARONIA AG These signals are illustrated as vertical bars on the display Our previously deter mined rule applies here too the higher the signal strength the higher the bar More precise information about the individual bars is shown from left to right as markers in the upper part of the display On the left marker 1 the leftmost bar indicates a frequency of 16 7Hz at 63dBm In the centre marker 2 second bar from the left indicates 50Hz at 23dBm Finally marker 3 the rightmost bar dis plays 350Hz at 42dBm Remark the configured frequency range is constantly being analysed Thus the display will keep changing all the time This process is called sweeping What information did we get from the entire process 1 In the entire frequency range from 0 to 400Hz there are 3 main signal sources 2 The frequencies and signal strength of all 3 signal sources are exactly known As the exact frequencies of the signal sources are now known it is now easy to determine the actual entity or service emitting the signal by using a so called frequency table see also the frequency table on page 56 or the more exhaustive frequency tables on the Aaronia homepage Using these frequency tables we can determine the source of our 16 7Hz signal as follows
2. 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 17 Ki AARONIA AG 6 0 Manual frequency selection So far our examples were only using the provided frequency presets available at key 2 45 65Hz However you can also make a manual highly precise fre quency range sweep adjustment Recall frequency range presets mg At the keys 1 5 are different presets available including aofafiziohqu es tne optimal frequency selection for traction power A A 16 7HZ mains power 50HZ 60Hz harmonics TFTs COCCO 35624 switching power supplies and others 0 b Usually these are the measurements which almost any OMe body wants to carry out The amateur in particular will d appreciate these presets as all frequency parameter are already adjusted However you can also make a manual highly precise frequency range sweep adjustment This way you can set a frequency range exactly tailored for a spe cific signal source in order to measure only this single source To set the frequency range you simply need to know the start and stop fre quencies of the subject to be measured and provide them to SPECTRAN You can find an excerpt from the start and stop frequencies of various signal sources in the frequency table on page 56 Manual adjustment A There are two ways for setting up the requested frequen _ cy range exactly You can either go in the menu to the Start and Stop frequency or just work with the
3. ELDE FE NYJLOJdS ETIE 4d9 OS0S 4N N ALo3dS OTOS 4N NYJLOJdS OZOE 4N N aloads OTOE 4N N aloads SOTOT AN N adloads OTOT AN N dloads 2HT JazAjeuy winsjo9dS NVNL JdS eyo Aouanbaly Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 64
4. 10 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com E 5 0 Your first measurement Modes AARONIA AG tett By using our option 006 which can be retrofitted as an upgrade at any time you can also measure STATIC magnetic fields like the geomagnetic field geo logical dislocation or the strength of magnets for example in loudspeakers To do this just press key 6 and select the MSta sensor possible choices are X MSta Y MSta and Z MSta If you have an NF 3020 or better you can also select the external input SMA socket which allows you to connect arbitrary external sensors like large high ly sensitive coils testing probes or other special antennas You can also simp ly measure a voltage This input provides you with a whole range of new possi ble applications and converts SPECTRAN into a versatile all rounder For using the external input press the key 6 and choose Analog 5 2 Choosing the mode of operation Enter key All SPECTRAN models offer 3 different MODES OF OPERATION SPECTRUM analysis graphical display of signal levels and frequencies EXPOSURE LIMIT display percentage of a particular exposure limit AUDIO output makes modulated signals audible You can switch between the different modes of operation at any time by using the Enter key 5 3 Mode Spectrum analysis The DISPLAY MODE status field displays SPECTRUM Press the Enter key until the displ
5. 16 7Hz Traction power In other words we are dealing with an overhead line or similar railroad installation 61 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com DKW AARONIA AG 20 0 Registration and warranty Registration card Aaronia products are constantly being improved As we Offer to all customers our replacement and upgrade service for all futu re models we kindly ask you to send us enclosed registration card with sufficient postage promptly back Only registered customers can benefit from this service as well as from our 10 years warranty Please see The Aaronia warranty Aaronia warranty Guaranteed upgrade service to newer models You can simply replace one of our measurement devices with a better model of the same series at any time by paying the corresponding difference in price For example should you have purchased a SPECTRAN NF 5010 and after some time you would like yet more sensitivity you can simply pay the price dif ference between the two models and upgrade to a SPECTRAN NF 5030 Remember that this service is only available for registered customers So be sure to fill the registration card included with this product and send it back to Aaronia Guaranteed replacement in case of product range additions As soon as new instruments are ready for launch you can upgrade your product to a more current model at any time by paying the price difference Our customers
6. are vastly different from the offici al limits for personal safety they are mostly significantly lower To one s great surprise however they often do not have any frequency component in con trast to the highly complex official ICNIRP limits which are also legally binding in Germany In other words they are completely identical for instance at 16 7Hz traction power as well as 50Hz mains Hence technicians in professional measurement technology are astounded at this rather strange way to evaluate exposure limits predominantly used by construction biologists However there is a simple explanation for this relatively simple way of evaluating exposure limits The measurement equipment used in this sector is predominantly based on the so called broadband diode detector technology However it is physically impossible to conduct frequency selective measurements with these devices Hence frequency selective construction biological limits would simply not be manageable In any case this might change very soon thanks to SPECTRAN as frequency should really not be swept under the carpet Even if supporting such trivial precautionary limits in a real measurement devi ce such as SPECTRAN does bother us intensely we decided to support at least the ECOLOG institute and BUND precautionary limits The following limits can all be called up in Exposure limits mode by using the right left cursor ke
7. other options available in the main menu are available in the section The main menu on the following pages 20 Firmware BETASO 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG DE 54597 Euscheid www aaronia de 1 8 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG SPECTRAN s easy to operate menu system works as follows Ou Bee The currently selected menu entry is shown in inverse dark background as can be seen in the example on _ the left Center The setting of the currently highlighted menu entry is always shown as clear text in the large info field at the top in this example it is the currently configured center frequency 940 This avoids the need for tiresome one by one activation of menu entries to browse values A8 0 EI The marker blocks 1 3 continuously display the following information START CENTER and STOP frequencies as integers in Hz KHz or MHz In the next line the current settings for Range MrkLvl and Reflev are display ed This is very practical For example you can query the current frequency range among other settings at any time during a measurement by just pres sing the menu button After you have checked the current values please just press the menu button again and the measurement will continue without any changes in settings To step through the menu entries use the up down arrow keys or the E gt jog dial To activate the currently highlighted menu entry press the enter key Now
8. AARONIA AG 2 0 Scope of delivery WWW AARONIA DE e Please check before initial operation the completeness of delivery Reclaim mis sing parts immediately at Aaronia or at your Aaronia dealer The package should include 1 Small aluminum transport case NF 3010 and better also available as an option When purchasing a measurement BUNDLE the bigger version of our transport case is included in delivery 2 9V battery only NF 1010 and NF 1010E 3 SPECTRAN NF xxxx unit including Aaronia 1300mAh battery only NF 3010 and better The battery is already installed Battery charger only NF 3010 and better if not already included in the BUNDLE This manual Registration card Aaronia product information and corresponding price list 6 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 3 0 LC Display AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE tag 1 BATTERY display 2 BARGRAPH 50 segments 3 Bargraph scaling 6 number blocks 4 STATUS field SETUP REF UNCALL OVERLOAD NUMERIC ENTRY MIN MAX LOW HIGH MAX MIN ZOOM USB PC 5 AUDIO Status field AM FM LEVEL NORM 6 MODE Status field AVG PEAK HOLD TIME MIN MAX 7 MARKER block 1 8 Graphics display Pixel display 9 MULTIPLICATOR field 10 MEMORY Status field STORE RECALL RECORD RESET 11 DISPLAY MODE Status field SPECTRUM RF AM FM EXPOS LIMITS 12 INFO display 13 MAIN display
9. because of the automatic scaling Such a combination of settings is generally of limited use 7 15 Unit Select physical unit The Unit setting allows you to specify the physical unit used to display measu rement results Options are Tesla Gauss and A m Two further options Volt external SMA connector and Mim E field sensor are automatically chosen when the corresponding sensor is selected Hint In EXPOSURE LIMITS mode the measurement result additionally gets displayed as a figure and bargraph In this mode you can display the result with two units AT ONCE for example Gauss and Tesla SIMULTANEOUSLY Hint2 You can even use this feature for conversion of units Simply freeze the current reading by using HOLD mode then choose a different unit The conver sion result will be displayed immediately as far as physically possible Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 29 DKW AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu WWW AARONIA DE tet 7 16 UScale Set scaling of physical unit UScale allows you to choose the prefix of the physical unit Selecting Auto automatically selects the prefix p n yu m k However you can also set a fixed prefix where possible options are p Pico n Nano u Micro m Milli Unit only full units WITHOUT prefix and k Kilo 7 17 MrkCnt Set number of markers MrkCnt is used to set the number of marke
10. 14 MARKER block 2 15 MARKER block 3 Depending on the model not all display elements may be available Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 7 4a AARONIA AG 4 0 Key layout 1 Numeric block hotkeys 1 RAIL traction power 15 30Hz 2 POWER mains frequency 50Hz or 60Hz 45 65Hz 3 HARMON 50Hz 60Hz harmonic 90 500Hz 4 TCO 1 shortend TCO frequency range 1 500Hz 2kHz 5 TCO 2 TCO frequency range 2 2kHz 400kHz 6 SENSOR sensor type and axis Mag Msta E Fld Analog 7 DIM H field measurement dimension 1D 2D or 3D 8 RBW resolution bandwidth 9 SPTIME sample time in mS or S 0 ATTEN attenuator auto DOP 10dB 20dB 30dB 40dB 2 On Off key Turn the unit on off 3 Clear Reset key 1 Resets the settings to default incl OdB attenuator 2 When in main menu clear entry 4 Arrow keys 1 With activated menus selection of menu entries 2 In Spectrum analysis mode Right left key move frequency range by one SPAN Up down key move reference level by 10dB 3 In Exposure limits mode Right left key select exposure limit 4 In Audio mode Right left key move center frequency by one RBW Up down key decrease increase RBW bandwidth 5 Dot key 1 Modes Spectrum analysis Exposure limits HOLD on off 2 Mode Audio Switch between AM and FM 6 Shift key Mode Spectrum analysis amp Exposure limits Detector RMS MinMax 7 Enter key 1 S
11. 0 073 The chart on the left graphically represents among others the before mentioned formulas for H fields over a frequency range from OHz to 400MHz The curve clearly indicates that the wide g x ly used cheap broadband t Le asama N4 testers CANNOT determine E eee panies these exposure limits properly co ant i as they do not take signal fre quency into account B uT zZ 10 10 108 f Hz Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 47 4a AARONIA AG 14 0 Exposure limits Moreover the significant differences of exposure limits for various groups of per sons are clearly visible as well as the corresponding maximum values For EM fields at the workplace there is a seperate prescription from the German Berufsgenossenschaften BGV B11 which allows higher exposure for a short time period Mathematical examples The 50Hz power supply system mains wiring high voltage lines would have a maximum allowed electric field strength of under 250 0 050 5 000 V m In contrast an energy saving lamp with an operating frequency of 5kHz the electric field strength may only be less than 87 V m a big difference Those low frequency fields with the highest impact in daily life are those caused by regular mains wiring and appliances operated very closely to the human body such as electrical shavers and hair dryers Contrary to popular belief appliances such
12. 500 V m 5 000nT Beneith a 110kV high voltage line 3 000 V m 20 000nT Beneith a 380kV high voltage line 10 000 V m 50 000nT In the vicinity of a 380kV substation 15 000 V m 500 000nT Tesla Oersted Gamma 1T 10 000 Oe 0 1 T 100 mT 1 000 Oe 0 01 T 10 mT 100 Oe 0 001 T 1 mT 10 Oe 1x 10 T 100 uT 1 Oe 100 000 y 1x 10 T 10 uT 100 mOe 10 000 y x TOS Tian 10 MOs 1 000 y 1 x 107 T 100 nT 1 mOe 100 y 1x 10 T 10 nT 100 uOe 10y 1x10 T 1 nT 10 uOe 1y 1x 107 T 0 1 nT 1 uOe 0 1 y Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 53 4i 8 AARONIA AG 17 0 Tables Conversion table for MAGNETIC FIELDS 1 nT 0 001uT 0 000 001mT 0 01mG 0 000 01G 10 nT 0 01uT 0 000 01mT 0 1mG 0 000 1G 100nT 0 1yuT 0 000 1mT 1mG 0 001G 1 000nT 1T 0 001mT 10mG 0 01G 10 000nT 10yuT 0 01mT 100mG 100 000nT 100uT 0 1mT 1 000mG 1 000 000nT 1 000uT 1mT 10 000mG 10 000 000nT 10 000yUT 10mT 100 000mG 100G 100 000 000nT 100 000uT 100mT 1 000 000mG 1 000G G Gauss T Tesla n nano one billionth u micro one millionth m milli one thousandth 1 Gauss 1 Oersted Oersted is used in various countries mostly in eastern Europe Conversion table for ELECTRIC FIELDS 0 01 mV m 0 000 01V m 0 000 000 01 kV m 0 1 mV m 0 000 1V m 0 000 000 1 kV m 1 mV m 0 001V m 0 000 001 kV m 10 mV m 0 01 V m 0 000 01 kV m 100 mV m 0
13. also supports MEWS Software multilanguage installation H rennen ebepenent Currently German and English SPECTRAN Firmwere Updotes lt a Firrnvare updates for your SPECTRAN measurment device New versions of the firmware could fix bugs introduce new features or increase the accuracy Aaronia Spectran Soft waredevelopment Kit Here you can find the preview to our new Aaronia Softvaredevelopment ki t ASDK Participate in our ongoing Software Development and learn how to create your ovn SPECTRAN based semen easily by use of the Aaronia Software Development Kit ASDK This site offers Free Firmware updates Free PC Analyzer Software MAC OS Linux and Windows Free ASDK Aaronia Software Developer Kit P CODE programing samples and SPECTRAN TUNING User Forum incl FAQ News on latest Aaronia products Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 63 AARONIA AG ap e WWW AARONIA DE 22 0 Frequency charts Analyzer amp Antennas tatt SHIT EISE I JHS I Eem I JHA I EIS I EI I Est I ER I ZEIL ER I ERE or EHAS EEE BEES BoR Ed pd pd pd Ed Ed Ed Ed Ed bd I l TITIT T T x gzoz 9 OMEER gzoz SOREERE 2HS00T ZHOOT 2HOT ZHWOOT 2HWOT ZHINT ZHAQOT Z2HAOT ZHAT ZHOOT 2HOT ZHT Ss qOld pue seuu zuy 5070919 pue 50719d H eyo ADuanbal4 dx JH NYALOJdS JH NY ALOJdS be d O90h 3H NYJLOJdS nad Mnk
14. as TVs computers and monitors are neglectible as they are mostly shielded very well TCO99 or operated at large distances TV and thus exposure levels are very low 14 2 Device limits In contrast to limits for personal safety the so called device limits are often SIGNIFICANTLY more restrictive and are subject to greater variations depen ding on frequency For example a hair dryers limit is totally different to that of a computer monitor values may well vary by a factor of 100 Nevertheless all device limits must also conform to limits for personal safety and are a sub set of those A good example for device limits are the well known monitor labelling schemes MPR2 and the more stringent TCO99 the latter of which will be outlined here TCO99 recommendations are again frequency dependant Frequency E field V m H field pT 5Hz 2kHz 10 0 200 2kHz 400kHz 1 0 010 There is a vast difference to the personal safety limits outlined previously However it is noteworthy that the TCO99 recommendation also prescribes com plex details of the measurement setup such as specific distances antennas number of measurements taken monitor settings etc for correct measurement 48 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 14 0 Exposure limits AARONIA AG ek 14 3 Construction biological limits amp Precautionary limits The countless construction biological limits
15. device to about 1 2m Also please note that these fields quickly diminish in proximity to the floor Thusly most measurements of electric fields are carried out at a height of about 1 3m above the floor Should you wish to measure with the instrument in your hand anyway you should only measure with your arm extended Also only handle the device by its tail end as the sensors are located close to the front of the case However please note that the measured values will be 3 to 4 times too 36 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com pr 8 8 0 Correct measurement AARONIA AG a large when doing such a manual measurement Be sure that no other persons are near by where you make your measure ments as they could influence the results The device and the used tripod must not be covered by dew This could lead to extremely inaccurate results Operation with connected USB or audio cables or the included power supply can distort the field and lead to extremely inaccurate results Always measure with battery supply and without any cables connected Use the panning approach to determine the E field maximum as the E field sensor can only measure in one dimension Otherwise wrong too low levels could be measured This is especially possible when several wires signal sources or various other sources of interference are occuring On the other hand should you measure a single subject such as
16. going Consequently you will take a piece of paper and note the corresponding lane number and measured speed Starting at lane 1 you write down nothing OK next lane 2 nothing either OK lane 3 yes there s something going at 18km h Lane 4 nothing And so on until you have reached the last lane What have you achieved Well you have just performed an analysis of the entire lane range of 0 400m Or in other words you have performend a RANGE ANALYSIS Analysis as you know means dividing something into smaller pieces and eva luate those In our case the wide motorway was that something and the smal ler pieces were the individual lanes Now the word range can be replaced with the word SPECTRUM and there we are we have just performed a SPEC TRUM ANALYSIS Well who would have thought that you are a spectrum ana lyser But joking aside now the only thing missing is a lane plan which would provi de detailed information which lanes correspond to which vehicles and you can determine exactly what vehicles were just been travelling That s exactly what happens when doing spectrum analysis There are lanes here as well just that these lanes are called frequency ran ges The width of these frequency ranges is measured in Hz Hertz As very often these ranges fall into very high Hz ranges numbers would grow quite large when actually using this unit Consequently the unit is often prefixed resulting
17. is only a few V m and so on As a practical example following are three official exposure limits Frequency Hz Application Limit V m 16 7 Traction power 8 500 50 Mains power 5 000 40 000 Energy saving lamp 87 It is easily noticable that each application may only operate in EXACTLY ONE frequency range The significant differences between the individual limits are also clearly visible Why spectrum analysis There are two principal reasons 1 You would like to know WHICH EXACT applications are operating 57 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 4a AARONIA AG 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics 2 You would like to measure the exposure created by each individual appli cation for example to evaluate excess of exposure limits Regarding 1 Let s reconsider our giant motorway example Remember that every lane was only intended for the use of a single kind of vehicle Now imagine that a huge bridge crossed this motorway and you stan ding on the bridge and looking down on the motorway Wow what a mess Now imagine you would like to know what exactly happens on the motorway seperately per lane As the motorway is incredibly wide you will need some quite good binoculars even if you only want to have a small overview Let s ima gine that you can evaluate a range of 400m with your binoculars Next you would like to determine what lanes have traffic right now and how fast it is
18. lar magnets you will need our internal static magnetic field sensor option 006 Static mode is automatically activated when you set fLow 0Hz and fHigh 0Hz Now choose the sensor and or axes in the SENSOR menu or key 6 Available choices are X MSta Y MSta Z MSta Obviously as a static magnetic field has a frequency of OHz there is no spectrum display Instead a time domain dis play is provided if the selected sampletime is above 77mS i e level changes are displayed on a time axis The speed of this time domain display can be chan ged in the SpTime menu or key 6 If you set the sampletime lower then 77mS you will get a direct level display instead Setting up the sampletime can be done in the menu SpTime key 8 The measurement The earth is a huge magnet surrounded by a magnetic field The magnetic flux density varies between 30 uT and 60uT depending on your location In Germany a flux density of approx 45uT is common This so called geomagnetic field can be drastically influenced by construction materials in buildings Therefore the results of indoor measurements will dif fa fer significantly depending on the location G R Even in the field measurement results can differ UCD widely as the earths geophysical characteristics distort the magnetic field That s why even detailed maps of the geomagnetic field are available see image example Distortion of the geomagnetic field due to a bigger metallic ob
19. leave then the main menu and all settings are saved The sweep mea surement will be carried out with our specified parameters All following measurements only use the specified frequency sweep range from 20kHz to 70kHz that means all operating modes exposure limit display and spectrum display now only refer to this specified frequency range Now you can measure precisely which fields with which frequencies are being generated by your monitor or TV set Next experiment a bit For example change the Sampletime key 8 to 100mS or 1S or change the filter key 9 to 10kHz or 1kHz and observe the displayed changes You will notice very soon a simple regularity 1 The higher the sampletime the more accurate are the measured values but the longer time takes the sweep 2 The bigger the RBW the lower is the required sampletime to get accu rate measurements Please note that only full kHz will be displayed for all frequency redisplays in the menue because the display is limited to 4 digits 9999 For example an entry of 50Hz will result a 0 OKHz display and 6 788kHz will be displayd as 7kHz roun ded HINT You can permanently save this setup as a custom preset as a hotkey of your choice Find more details on the following pages HINT2 You can switch between the modes Spectrum analysis Exposure limits and Audio at any time by pressing the Enter key Further hints and other information related to set a frequency range and
20. panning approach When evaluating exposure limits usually only the maximum signal level is important This maximum can be determined by using the so called panning approach which is already established as a legally binding means of measu rement in many countries Proceed as follows Choose the desired frequency range In our example we have already done so key 2 Activate HOLD mode dot key as described previously Afterwards plea se also activate 3D measurement by pressing the key 8 This will save you the hassle of having to move the device constantly around in all directions near the measurement subject Now keep measuring until the value stops changing completely You have now determined the signal maximum at a particular position location However should you wish to determine the signal maximum in an entire room you additionally need to measure at every possible position Walk through the entire room pay special attention to the walls and electrical appliances where you often will find the strongest signals due to electrical wiring During measu rement the displayed signal strength will rapidly increase until at some point it will stop changing and freeze at the signal maximum This can take several minutes when testing an entire room After completion of this procedure the maximum signal strength found in the entire room is shown on the display As field strength diminishes very rapidly with increasing distance depe
21. program number 1000 After setting FILEId the memory status field will show RECORD and the log ger is armed Press the menu button again and the recording will start After each recorded event the remaining number of events to record will be display ed briefly in the pixel display counter to estimate how long the recording will take Furthermore a short beep will be emitted each time when an event is recorded When recording is finished RECORD will disappear from the DES I memory status field The recorded data can now be downloaded using the PC software LCS Launch in the LCS soft ware the File manager in the Extras menu and click on logger data in the Spezial directory Logger data is then immediately displayed as a table first column amplitude in dBm second column frequency ETEFEFEREER OO Sisi ci D tt ini greets D cP te COD i Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 31 4a AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu By using the standard Copy and paste feature you can now transfer the data for further processing for example into a spreadsheet application ATTENTION Please note that depending on the size of data downloading and displaying all data can take some time dBm values are transfered with two deci mal places ATTENTION Please note that the internal 64K memory can quickly get filled u
22. www aaronia com 24 eh 8 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE Cat vi 7 6 Dim 1D 2D or 3D measurement Key 7 The Dm setting determines in how many dimensions you want to measure magnetic fields 1 dimensional 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional isotropic mea surements are available Naturally measurements will be slower in 2D or 3D as the number of sweeps and therefore the total sweep time necessary increa ses 2 or 3 fold to complete a measurement However units equipped with DDC Option 005 will be as fast in 2D as in 1D mode as two channels can be used simultaneously Likewise in 3D mode sweep time is only double the normal sweep time instead of triple without DDC Further related information can be found in Measurement in 1D 2D or 3D 7 7 VBW Video filter The so called Video filter is intended for optical smoothing of the signal The lower the Video filter setting the broader and smoother becomes the display of the signal Using this filter you can mostly suppress unwanted noisefloors harmonics or sporadic peaks However with a low Video filter setting the dis play can become less meaningful In our example there might be there three separate signals However the low video filter straightens these signals out to become one single smooth signal The alleged noise band around the signal has also been smoothed out Thus when dealing with weak signals the Video filter should be use
23. zi you can change the current setting by using the keypad or make a selection by using the up down arrow keys To confirm your entry or selection press Enter once again and you will come back to the menu All changes will only take effect after you leave the menu completely A complete step by step description of each menu entry follows Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 21 4a AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu 7 1 Sensor choose sensor and axis Key 6 Use Sensor to select the sensor or input which you want to use By choosing this you select at the same time which kind of field you want to measure magnetic field static magnetic field electric field Starting with the NF 3020 you can also select an external input SMA connec tor Here you can attach arbitrary external sensors like large highly sensitive coils E field and H field probes or other specialized antennas This connector opens lots of possibilities and applications and converts SPECTRAN to a multi talent measurement device At the same time you can select the desired measurement axis plane XY YZ ZX in the Sensor menu when doing 2D measurements Available choices are Mag internal 3D air core coil for magnetic alternating fields XY Mag X axis resp X amp Y axes when doing a 2D measurement YZ Mag Y axis resp Y amp Z axes when doing a 2D measurement ZX Mag Z axis resp Z amp X axes when doing a
24. 0Hz limit whenever possible Try not to use 0Hz as starting frequency If possible try to measure from 1kHz or even better 10kHz to 100kHz instead of OHz to 100kHz Spectrum analyzers try to dampen the noise floor close to the OHz spike when doing large sweeps that start close to OHz This has the side effect of a very low sensitivity in the lower frequency range Thus do not expect a 50Hz signal to be measured correctly when using a sweep of OHz to 100kHz However should you despite of this wish to measure close to the OHz spike for example 50Hz mains or 16 7Hz traction power you should use the smallest possible filters 0 3Hz 1Hz or 3Hz However this naturally leads to an extre mely slow sweep As this is not very practical we have developed a very fast sweep mode for exactly this case the DFT sweep Basically it uses FFT but avoids its typical aliases DFT mode is automatically activated if both of the fol lowing apply a The 0 3Hz 1Hz or 3Hz filter is used AND b a SPAN smaller than 200Hz but at least 10Hz is chosen In the current software revision there are still two further restrictions c only use SPANs which are multiples of 15 like 15Hz 30Hz 45Hz etc d always use a SPAN which is SMALLER than the difference between OHz and the chosen starting frequency flow Otherwise you will get erroneous results 34 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com
25. 1 V m 0 000 1 kV m 1 000 mV m 1V m 0 001 kV m 10 000 mV m 10 V m 0 01 kV m 100 000 mV m 100 V m 1 000 000 mV m 1 000 V m 10 000 000 mV m 10 000 V m 100 000 000 mV m 100 000 V m 1 000 000 000 mV m 1 000 000 V m 1 000 kV m V m Volts meter k kilo thousandfold m milli one thousandth 54 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com ef g 17 0 Tables AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE Table 5 Gain and corresponding dB values 2 2 5 10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000 10 000 000 dB decibel Table 3 dBm to dBW and W and corresponding prefixes 0 dBm 30dBW 0 001W imW 10dBm 40dBW 0 000 1W 100uW 20dBm 50dBW 0 000 01W 10uW 30dBm 60dBW 0 000 001W 1uW 40dBm 70dBW 0 000 000 1W 100nW 50dBm 80dBW 0 000 000 01W 10nW 60dBm 90dBW 0 000 000 001W 1nW 70dBm 100dBW 0 000 000 000 1W 100pW dBm decibelmilliwatts dBW decibelwatts W watts mW milliwatts uW microwatts nW nanowatts pW picowatts Table 4 Frequency wavelength and official band abbreviation 3 Hz 30 Hz 100 000 km 10 000 km ULF 30 Hz 300 Hz 10 000 km 1 000 km ELE 300 Hz 3 kHz 1 000 km 100 km VF 3 kHz 30 kHz 100 km 10 km 30 kHz 300 kHz 10 km 1 km 300 kHz 3 MHz 1 km 100 m 3 MHz 30 MHz 100 m 10m 30 MHz 300 MHz 10m 1m 300 MHz 3 GHz 1m 10cm 3 GHz 30 GHz 10 cm 1 cm Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 5
26. 2D measurement MSta internal static magnetic field sensor only available with Option 006 Measurement of static magnetic fields geomagnetic field magnets X MSta X axis resp X amp Y axes when doing a 2D measurement Y MSta Y axis resp Y amp Z axes when doing a 2D measurement Z MSta Z axis resp Z amp X axes when doing a 2D measurement E Feld Internal 1D E Sensor measurement of alternating electric fields Analog SMA input only applicable to NF 3020 or higher highly sensitive measurement of an external alternating field up to 0 2V max Note At magnetic fields you can change the dimension 1D 2D 3D at any time with hotkey 7 22 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com ttt 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE to There are TWO ways to set the frequency range manually Center Center frequency and Span Frequency range width or fLow amp fHigh Start and stop frequency 7 2 Center Center frequency Chooses the frequency displayed in the middle of the readout When changing the Center frequency the SPAN parameter see following description is pre served That way you can quickly evaluate different frequency ranges with identical SPAN and without tedious re adjustment of Start Stop frequencies Center Frequency 7 3 Span Frequency range width Span adjusts the width of the sweep Changes are relative to the before men tioned Ce
27. 3 8 1 Noise floor 33 8 2 The OHz spike and the noise floor 33 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 3 4a AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE Chapter 8 3 Choosing the right filter RBW 8 4 Choosing the right sampletime Sptime 8 5 Measurement of electric fields and above 500kHz 8 6 Sensitivity 8 7 Measurement inaccuracy 8 8 The cursor and zoom features 8 9 DFT mode rapid measurements with small RBWs 8 10 Choosing the right attenuator 8 11 The Autorange function 8 12 Spurious 9 0 Measurement of static magnetic fields 10 0 Measurement in 1D 2D or 3D 11 0 Aligning the sensor 12 0 Physical units 13 0 Tips and tricks 14 0 Exposure limits 14 1 Limits for personal safety 14 2 Device limits 14 3 Construction biological limits 15 0 Connections 15 1 SMA input measurement of external signals 15 2 External DC input battery charging 15 3 Audio output 15 4 Jog Dial Volume control 15 5 USB connector 16 0 Typical readouts in practice 17 0 Conversion tables 18 0 Tables 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics 20 0 Registration and warranty 21 0 Developer Net User Forum and more 22 0 Antenna and Analyzer frequency charts Contents Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com ee 1 0 Safety instructions AARONIA AG Cag ATTENTION Always screw antennas and adapters in a non violent way Please use for loosening or screwing of SMA connec
28. 5 4e AARONIA AG 18 0 Tables WWW AARONIA DE a mE Table 7 Frequencies of various interference sources examples Frequency range Description 16 67Hz Traction power Germany 50Hz Mains power Europe 60Hz Mains power US and others 50Hz 200Hz Welding and high voltage utility network 200Hz 1kHz Power converters and high voltage utility network 31kHz CRT TV 40kHz Energy saving lamp 21W Osram 42kHz 30 TFT monitor Dell 45kHz Energy saving lamp 8W Osram 49kHz 17 TFT monitor Dell 52kHz 24 TFT monitor Dell 56kHz 20 TFT monitor Dell 60kHz Battery charger noname 77 5kHz DCF77 German reference time broadcast 125 135kHz RFID 13 56MHz RFID We provide significantly more exhaustive lists on the Aaronia homepage If you want true luxury you can also find our free PC analysis software right there Table 8 Field strengths of magnetic fields and distance Single conductor 1 r Two conductors opposite polarities dite Electric coils transformers motors te 56 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 8 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics AARONIA AG What is a frequency range Imagine a giant motorway several kilometres wide with thousands of individual lanes On this motorway all imaginable kinds of vehicles can be found pede strians motorcycles cars trucks etc To not let them go into one others way every lane is reserved for only a s
29. ATTENTION For quick searching of signals you could even use a too low set ting for sweep time in DFT mode This allows very fast sweeps but inherently may produce wrong results For preventing users from misinterpreting these the UNCAL display is automatically activated as soon as a too short sweep time is chosen indicating that measurement results are not reliable However it is still possible to locate quickly a signal source or verify its presence More information about DFT mode can be found in the section The OHz spike and the noise floor 8 10 Choosing the right attenuator SPECTRAN contains a highly accurate internal attenuator allowing the attenuation of input signals to prevent overdrive of the internal amplifier Without using the attenuator serious measurement errors and even destruction of the internal amplifier could occur To choose the right attenuator for your mea surement proceed as follows Initially always select the highest attenuator 40dB and if there is a usable rea dout remember its value Afterwards change to the next smaller attenuator 30dB If the new readout value is significantly lower than the previous one the amplifier is already suffering from overdrive so you should change back to the higher attenuator However should the readout be almost identical this attenua tor is the correct choice Further indications of having chosen the wrong attenuator is an unsteady read out and a clutter
30. Center frequency In the following paragraphs you will find an explanation of such a manual mea surement using a TV set or computer monitor as an example Proceed as fol lows First of all have a look at the frequency list on page 56 From this list you can derive that TV sets or computer monitors work in the frequency range from approx 31kHz to 56kHz We choose a slightly more liberal frequency range of 20kHz to 70kHz These are the searched start and stop frequencies which you have to set as follows 1 8 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com BKL RK 6 0 Manual frequency selection AARONIA AG ae 1 Please choose in the menu fLOW to enter the START frequency A suffix list will be displayed then Please use the arrows keys to select kHz Confirm your selection by pressing the Enter key The large main display will now show zero In addition the large status field will display START Now by using the number keys enter the START frequency in kHz in our example 20kHz Hence enter 20 you can correct typing errors by using the CLR key and entering the number again Press then the Enter key once again to confirm your entry at Leave the the entry by pressing the menu key and you are back in the main menu 2 Please choose in the menu fHigh to enter the STOP frequency Again the suffix list with Hz KHz MHz etc will appear Choose kHz once again Press the Enter key to confir
31. DKW AARONIA AG Please read the following manual carefully before starting up your measurement device The manual gives you useful instructions how to operate the unit correctly IMPORTANT Please send us the enclosed registration card if you have NOT purchased this unit directly from Aaronia Version 1 31E Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 1 e 8 AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE tet H Congratulations You ve already won With your purchase of this SPECTRAN low frequency measurement device you have bought professional equipment which allows you measuring low fre quency fields Please note For measuring high frequency fields cellphones mobile commu nication RADAR TV and others you would need additionally one of our high frequency HF SPECTRAN models Therefore we recommend purchasing one of our cost effective measurement BUNDLES which you can obtain from Aaronia at any time by paying the cor responding price difference Upgrading to a higher grade SPECTRAN model for example an NF 5030 instead of the NF 3010 is possible at any time Likewise OPTIONS like memory expansions frequency expansions or a higher grade battery can also be purchased and added to your unit whenever you need them In case of replacement our devices are optimally recycled including all circuitry In this regard also check our warranty s terms and conditions in the chapter T
32. HOLD advanced HOLD mode INFO display Displays the current physical unit and various menu information DISPLAY MODE status field Displays the current operation mode of SPECTRAN Possible values _ are SPECTRUM spectrum analysis EXPOS LIMITS exposure limits and AM FM audio output D MAIN display Displays signal strength or voltage in T G V m A m or V MARKER block 1 to 3 Displays frequency and signal level or voltage of the strongest signals Up to three markers can be displayed simultaneously GRAPHICS display here spectrum display This highly versatile display field can provide a multitude of textual and graphical information spectrum or exposure limit display menus Now were ready for making measurements of SPECTRAN s own power supp ly First plug the power supply into a power socket Now you can measure the magnetic field of the power supply as follows Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 9 DKW AARONIA AG 5 0 Your first measurement Modes Switch on the unit and press key 2 That s all you have s to do Now the most popular measurement will be carried out The frequency range between 45 and 65Hz is measured sweeped The large main display shows the strength of the magnetic field in Tesla T the so called readout Above the readout on the main display the physical unit is shown Depending on field st
33. a 8 0 Correct measurement AARONIA AG Examples flow 30Hz and fhigh 60Hz SPAN 30Hz OK ex 50Hz mains flow 15Hz and fhigh 30Hz SPAN 15Hz OK ex 16 7Hz traction power flow 29Hz and fhigh 59Hz WRONG The distance to OHZ is too small compa red to the SPAN It is 29Hz but the SPAN is set to 30Hz The distance to OHZ should be therefore at least 30Hz flow 16Hz and fhigh 30Hz WRONG The SPAN is not a multiple of 15 as it is set to 14Hz resulting in WRONG measurement results Also see the chapter on DFT mode rapid measurement with 1 3Hz RBW 8 3 Choosing the right filter RBW The correct filter setting depends on various factors among them the selected SPAN Usually the filter should be SMALLER than the selected SPAN as other wise signals outside the visible SPAN will be also received and erroneously displayed which is only tolerable in very rare cases Most of the time a filter at least 10 times smaller than the SPAN should be chosen For example SPAN 100Hz set filter to 10Hz or smaller SPAN 500kHz set filter to 100kHz or 30kHz or smaller However note that the selected filter directly influences the sweep speed and display accuracy the larger the selected filter the faster the sweep but the less accurate the display The following illustrations explain the filter problem assuming a sweep from 50 to 60 kHz The grid lines show the visible range Graphical appro Good visible
34. a free field high voltage line the measurement inaccuracy without the panning approach is often below 5 and therefore often tolerable WARNING Please note that various so called construction biologists and their measuring instruments wrongly measure potentials with ground reference This approach violates any applicable EMC security standards and is thus ly WRONG and legally worthless Consequently the results obtained from such measurements are not compa rable at all to results obtained with SPECTRAN as SPECTRAN measures according to standards potential free without ground reference 8 6 Sensitivity Please be aware that with spectrum analysers the noise floor and sensitivity is subject to significant fluctuations depending on the frequencies measured In general you can say the lower the frequencies the higher the noise floor and the worse the sensitivity In practice Using the same filter settings for exam ple 100kHz you can measure significantly weaker fields than at the 50Hz setting Also please see the section The OHz spike and the noise floor 8 7 Measurement inaccuracy Aaronia provides a typical accuracy rating for each SPECTRAN model However this also means that higher deviations could happen Especially when approaching the so called noise floor or the highest measura ble levels accuracy will naturally decrease Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid w
35. aking into account the highest measured signal level A very convenient feature especially when the signal level is not known However automatic adjustment cannot always provide optimal scaling By constantly changing the reference level the display can always keep jumping which might be interfere when doing slow sweeps Another problem is that background noise would be displayed as a full signal when there is no other signal To alleviate this problem you can set a fixed reference level by using one of the Unit m Unit p Unit or n Unit settings and get a background noise less display With these settings the reference level will be set according to the phy sical unit selected in the UNIT menu see also 7 15 For example if you are measuring in Tesla using the m Unit setting will set the reference level to 1mT In theory only signals stronger than 1uT and below 1mT will be displayed in practice however due to the low resolution of the LCD 20uT is a more reali stic If you would like to display signals smaller than 1uT again please just change the reference level accordingly D 1T Unit Reflev reference level 1mT m Unit IT u Unit 1nT n Unit Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 26 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE ek 7 10 Range dynamics The range setting determines the scaling of th
36. ay mode status field _ reads SPECTRUM SPECTRAN will now provide a rea dout similar to the one shown in the picture on the left Should the large main display show 0000 then no signal is found In this case you probably have to mea sure closer to the signal source During every measure ment a small dot will constantly move from the left to the right edge of the upper part of the graphics display Only when this point reaches the right edge the mea surement is completed and all readout values are updated very often it will be so fast that you won t even notice The main display shows the current field strength in our example it is 45 15yT Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 11 DKW AARONIA AG 5 0 Your first measurement Modes Directly below up to 3 so called markers are displayed These show the fre quency and corresponding signal strength of the strongest signal sources In our example we have two markers Marker1 at 30Hz and 45uT and marker2 at 50Hz and 75uT 75p T is at the same time the strongest signal overall that s why it is also displayed on the main display Marker1 Marker2 30Hz 50Hz 45yuT 75T Graphical display with SPECTRUM graph Below the markers the graphics display shows a graphic consisting of a num ber of little hills This graphic is called SPECTRUM DISPLAY The higher the hills the stronger the correspon
37. d only at a higher setting VBW 3Hz VBW 300Hz 7 8 SpTime Sampletime Key 8 Determines the time per sample As a single sweep consists of several sam ples total sweep time is a multiple of the sampletime The higher the sample time setting the more accurate the measurement however the longer it will take You can enter values either in mS milliseconds or S seconds Possible values range from 0 001 to 999 9 The longer the Sampletime the more accu rate the measurement Please note The maximum usable sampletime in DFT mode is 5s The maximum sampletime in non DFT mode is 240s 25 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com RAA AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu WWW AARONIA DE tatt 7 9 Reflev reference level Up Down arrow keys By setting the so called reference level you can adjust the position of the dis played signals in relation to the upper screen edge the so called reference level This feature can be uses to eliminate visually distracting background noise or other small signals from the display so that only the peaks of the stron gest signals remain Other signals will be cut off at the bottom Available opti ons are Uu 5 SE Auto Reflev reference level Unit m Unit y Unit n Unit With the Auto mode default SPECTRAN will automatically calculate the opti mum reference level AFTER taking the sweep this might be corrected during the next sweep by t
38. ding program using keys 0 to 9 However the previous key assignment will be overwritten 32 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com ef e 8 8 0 Correct measurement AARONIA AG 8 1 Noise floor The so called noise floor indicates the lower range limit below measurements become physically impossible Only interference can be found below this limit Visually this will be shown as a collection of little dote or bars in SPECTRAN s display which either stay at fixed places or change with every sweep noise Depending on the actual frequency however the noise floor can very dif fer Usually the noise floor will increase significantly in lower frequency levels For example the noise floor at 50Hz mains power is significantly stronger than at 500HZ This is often called the OHz spike 8 2 The 0Hz spike and the noise floor When using a spectrum analyzer the closer you go to a frequency of OHz the so called OHz spike the stronger the natural noise floor becomes and the worse the measurement accuracy will be Measurements quickly hit physical limits in this range To achieve still the best possible sensitivity at least the resi dual noise of the amplifiers i e the measurement electronics themselves has to be kept to a minimum by using only high grade extremely low noise ampli fiers like in SPECTRAN which actually goes quite close to the actual physical limits When doing m
39. ding signal The markers mentioned previous ly show the frequency and level at the peaks of each hill By using frequency charts it is also possible to make assumptions on the origin or source of the corresponding signal See our frequency charts on page 56 for more details Please note that marker frequencys are always shown with one decimal place 5 4 HOLD mode The MODE status field displays HOLD As you have probably already noticed the display chan ges constantly This is completely normal as the field strength also changes with distance to the signal sour ce Simply try it out yourself move the device around the signal source and keep an eye on the display and the changing readouts Often the user just wants to check the highest possible readout However as the display always keeps chan ging this might cause difficulties To solve these pro blems you can use the so called HOLD mode To activa te it press the dot key The mode status field will display __ HOLD From now on only the strongest measured sig nal will be displayed Furthermore the spectrum display will not be erased it seems to literally freeze By pres sing the dot key a second time HOLD will disappear from the MODE status field and HOLD mode is turned off 12 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com nr 5 0 Your first measurement Modes AARONIA AG ae 5 5 The
40. e visible part of the spectrum It also provides linear and logarithmic display modes In the linear display mode level changes of weak and strong signals are visua lized equally without artificial scaling distortion To visualize very weak signals more clearly you can use the logarithmic display mode where small level changes will result in large changes in the graphical dis play Furthermore the stronger the signal becomes the more compressed it will be in the display But please note that changes in very strong signals will not be that clearly visible as with linear mode the display is distorted to better visua lize small level changes in very weak signals Linear linear display log10 logarithmic display with maximum enlargement log100 logarithmic display with medium enlargement 1g1000 logarithmic display with optimum overview Setting the range to Ig1000 maximum provides the clearest possible overview of all signal sources The Ig100 and oi settings in turn provide more detail however parts of the signal sources above or below could now be cut off The range setting can be therefore compared with a magnifying glass that only affects the Y axis The vertical bars caused by the individual signals are virtual Range dynamics 7 11 Atten attenuator Key 0 An attenuator as the name implies attenuates the signal by the corresponding amount in dB This makes sense particularly with very strong s
41. easurements close to OHz pay attention to the following recom mendations The closer you get to the 0Hz spike the stronger the received noise and the less accurate the measurement OH Lfriche The simulated graph shows the OHZ spike as a o 20 4DHz d steep curve starting at OHz left side which quickly flattens towards higher frequencies Also visible the simulated sweep from 20 40Hz results in a much higher value of back ground noise about 2 5 than another from 50 EN 70Hz 0 2 even though the SPAN of both a sweeps is identical Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 33 4a AARONIA AG 8 0 Correct measurement Always use the smallest possible SPAN when measuring close to the 0Hz spike in order to reduce the noise floor OHz noise floor The SPAN itself also influences the strength of Big SPAN high noise smoother the noise floor due to the steepness of the fil e gg gd ters These become smoother with a bigger Small SPAN low noise SPAN and also start capturing neighbouring signals While this hardly matters with higher fre quencies the difference much more significant near the OHz spike In spite of an identical star ting frequency setting the noise floor is much stronger with a bigger SPAN than when using 10 20 30 w 50 60 70 80q small SPAN z sharper filter cut off Try to avoid measurements near the
42. ed graphical display When supplying external signals via the SMA connector we recommend the following attenuator settings 100kHz signal gt 1mV 10dB gt 5mV 20dB gt 10mV 30dB 50mV and above 40dB Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 39 4a AARONIA AG 8 0 Correct measurement When measuring magnetic fields by using the internal sensor the attenuator should be configured as follows gt 200nT 10dB gt 700nT 20dB gt 2uT 30dB 7uT and above 40dB 8 11 The Autorange function Magnetic fields are measured in Tesla or Gauss electric fields in V m However as these fields can quickly vary in lots of factors and SPECTRAN additionally provides an extremely wide dynamic range display of all possible levels would require a huge display with DOZENS of digits To allow an usable readout with just 4 digits SPECTRAN provides the Autorange function which is popular in professional measurement technology SPECTRAN simply prepends an inter nationally standardized prefix to the actual value k 1000 Kilo thousandfold m 1 1000 one thousandth u 1 1 000 000 one millionth n 1 1 000 000 000 one billionth p 1 1 000 000 000 000 Let s use 0 000 000 797 T as an example This huge row of zeroes can simply be replaced by one of the prefixes above which simplifies the display enor mously One possible illustration would be 0 797uyT 0 7 millionth of a Tesla anothe
43. f ximation of the The 46kHz signal outside the visible 10 4kHz filter sweep range is not taken into account as the 1kHz filter only catches a small frequency band 1pT signal at outside the visible 50 60kHz sweep 58kHz range The display would show the right value of 1pT 10T signal at 46kHz 50 Ger weg Graphical approximation of 30kHz filter In contrast when using a 30kHz fil ter the 46kHz signal outside the visible sweep range will be caught as well as the wide 30kHz filter will also encompass a wide range outsi de the visible 50 60kHz sweep The display would show a wrong value of 10uT ma 50 60kHz eg Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 35 4a AARONIA AG 8 0 Correct measurement Do you like however to perform a very accurate level measurement you should not set the filter bandwidth too narrow as very narrow filters can due to the inherent phase noise display levels lower than actually present For example consider measurement of a signal at 100kHz using a 10kHz filter Changing to a 3kHz or 1kHz filter might not cause any significant change in the displayed level However at some point for example with the 300Hz or 100Hz filter the displayed signal level will suddenly drop slightly thereby delivering an incorrect readout due to phase noise 8 4 Choosing the right Sampletime SpTime If you want to measure levels it is very important to choose
44. gether will often not be distinguisha ble anymore However if you narrow the frequency range you will be able to analyze the sweep range more precisely You will be able to see far more details and higher accuracy A large frequency span is thus mostly useful for a broad overview not for exact measurements flow Start Frequency fHigh Stop Frequency 7 5 RBW Bandwidth Key 9 By adjusting bandwidth you can adjust detail clarity and sensitivity at the same time When bandwidth is setted at a very high value or even FULL the sweep will be very fast however the display becomes comparatively inaccurate and sensitivity is low Hence very weak signals will not be picked up anymore The smaller the bandwidth the longer the sweep will take but the display will be more precise and weaker signals can still be displayed Thus for example a single signal initially sweeped with high bandwidth can turn out to be a number of several narrow close together signals However this gain in accuracy has its disadvantage in the far longer sweep times RBW 300Hz RBW 3Hz HINT To accelerate measurement of small frequency ranges with extremely small filters DFT FFT mode is automatically activated when using a SPAN bet ween 10 200Hz and a 0 3Hz 1Hz or 3Hz filter Thanks to this mode signifi cantly faster sweep times can be achieved in spite of extremely narrow filters Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid
45. have first taken the opportunity to accept this offer in the year 2000 when upgrading from the older Multidetektor 1 series to the new Multidetektor II models These customers only needed to pay half the price for the new Multidetektor II with Aaronia recycling the old instruments in an ecolo gically compatible manner Remember that this service is only available for registered customers So be sure to fill the registration card included with this product and send it back to Aaronia 10 years warranty on all models We offer 10 years warranty for all our instruments We promptly exchange defec tive units in a non bureaucratic way promised 62 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com BR AAA 21 0 Developer Net User Forum and more AARONIA AG Please visit our support website http spectran developer net SPECTRAN DEVELOPER NET Softvare Currently the MCS softw Installationsassistant for SPECTRAN Preview to the new Spectrumenalyzer Software and Device driver Software MCs The catagory MCS offers In the category software you can find detailed information to our products New product is the installationassistant oftwaredevelepment forthe Spectrumanatyzer development but you can Software LCS The teke a look to our first torum assistant installs the screenshots software and the device driver completly automatic The assistant
46. he Aaronia warranty Here you will see yourself With Aaronia client is king 2 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com pr 8 Contents AARONIA AG Section Page 1 0 Safety instructions 5 2 0 Scope of delivery 6 3 0 LC display 7 4 0 Key layout 8 5 0 Your first measurement Modes 9 5 1 Choosing the sensor 10 5 2 Choosing the mode of operation 11 5 3 Spectrum analysis mode 11 5 4 HOLD mode 12 5 5 The panning approach 13 5 6 Exposure limits mode 14 5 7 Audio output mode demodulator 16 6 0 Manual frequency selection 18 7 0 The main menu 21 7 1 Sensor choose sensor and axis 22 7 2 Center center frequency 23 7 3 Span frequency range width 23 7 4 fLow amp fHigh start and stop frequency 24 7 5 RBW bandwidth 24 7 6 Dim 1D 2D or 3D measurement 25 7 7 VBW video filter 25 7 8 SpTime Sampletime 25 7 9 Reflev reference level 26 7 10 Range dynamics 27 7 11 Atten attenuator 27 7 12 Demod demodulator audio output 28 7 143 Detec RMS or MinMax detector 28 7 14 Hold activate HOLD mode 28 7 15 Unit select physical unit 29 7 16 UScale set scaling of physical unit 29 7 17 MrkCnt set number of markers 30 7 18 MrkLvi set starting level of markers 30 7 19 MrkDis marker display mode 30 7 20 Bright set display brightness 31 7 21 Logger invoke recording data logger 31 7 22 RunPrg run program 32 7 23 Setup configuration 32 8 0 Correct measurement 3
47. icture The sensor is located in the upper left corner of the device right below the AUDIO STATUS dis play H field sensor alternating magnetic fields The sensor for alternating magnetic fields can measure in 3 dimensions isotropically Thus you will always get an accurate measurement independantly on how you align the device When measuring the X axis only the magnetic field needs to be aligned that it goes through the front of the unit Likewise it needs to go through the sides for Y axis measurements or through the top bottom for Z axis measurements see picture The sensor is located at the center of the devi ce below the INFO display M field sensor static magnetic fields e g magnets geomagnetic field The sensor for static magnetic fields can mea sure in 3 dimensions isotropically Thus you will always get an accurate measurement no matter how you align the device When measuring the X axis the magnetic field needs to be aligned such that it goes through the front of the unit Likewise it needs to go through the sides for Y axis measurements or through the top bottom for Z axis measure ments see picture The sensor is located in the upper left corner next to the SMA input below the nameplate 43 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 4a AARONIA AG 12 0 Physical units SPECTRAN offers the possibility to choose between several different physica
48. ignals for example to avoid overloading the external SMA input Possible choi ces are Auto An appropriate attenuator is chosen automatically 10dB and 20dB 0dB No attenutator highest sensetivity 10dB Attenuate input signal by 10dB 20dB Attenuate input signal by 20dB only NF 5020 5030 30dB Attenuate input signal by 30dB only NF 5020 5030 40dB Attenuate input signal by 40dB only NF 5020 5030 NOTE You always have to set the 0dB 30dB and 40dB attenuator manually They will not be set with the Auto function Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 27 4a AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu 7 12 Demod demodulator audio output The demodulator allows you to audibly reproduce pulsings and modulations of up to approx 3 5kHz SPECTRAN offers two modulation modes AM Amplitude modulation and FM Frequency modulation You can switch between AM and FM at any time by pressing the dot key By selecting Off or pressing the menu key the demodulator can be turned off Please note that in oposition to the usual broadband detectors demodulation only occurs around the center frequency The bandwidth is adjustable using the RBW setting Hence you can selectively monitor small frequency ranges However in this mode the filter is slightly softer compared to other modes so unwanted strong signals on neighbouring frequencies might audibly spill into the c
49. in kHz 1 000Hz or MHz 1 000 000Hz This way working with these numbers becomes much more comfortable Likewise 1 000 000Hz could also be expres sed as 1 000kHz or 1MHz and so on Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 58 8 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics AARONIA AG Back to our example the individual vehices are called applications and have handy abbreviations for instance the application traction power has its own frequency range of 16 7Hz We will also replace the formerly used expression speed with something else field strength So far we are done with all the physical units and wording Next spectrum ana lysis itself it works exactly like our motorway Say our spectrum analyser should measure all frequency ranges from OHz to 400Hz in our metaphor the 400m range of the giant motorway It will step by step measure each frequency range individually Starting at O 1Hz then 1 2Hz and so on until it reaches 400Hz It will also exactly record the signal strength in each frequency range also providing us with the signal strength in each of the frequency ranges Some practical examples Let s assume we want to accurately study the frequency range from OHz to 400Hz and let s further assume that the following 3 applications are currently active in this range with varying signal levels in practice you will often find a far bigger number of applications Frequenc
50. ingle group of road users e g lane 1 ONLY for cyclists lane 3 ONLY for pedestrians lane 40 ONLY for trucks etc Depending on the density of the individual kinds of traffic these lanes also have corresponding widths For example the lane reserved for cyclists is much nar rower than the one for trucks and so on Electromagnetic fields work exactly like this just that the lanes are called frequency ranges and the vehicles are called applications for example a traction power line mains cable or a TV are all applications just as every appliance that somehow makes use of electricity including their cables Every application utilizes its very own reserved exclusive frequency range By assigning a seperate frequency range for each application conflicts bet ween individual applications can be avoided just as with the different vehicles on the motorway so that for instance a cellphone cannot disrupted by a high voltage line Big differences between exposure limits Back to our motorway Of course all road users also have their own specific speed limits For our example a pedestrian may only walk at up to 5 km h cars might go at up to 300km h Exposure limits for applications work similarly just that the word speed is replaced with field strength a traction power line operating at 16 7Hz for instance may only emit a field strength of 7 500V m while a 50Hz power line s limit is 5 000V m an energy saving lamp s maximum
51. keep your SPECTRAN always updated We also recommend our free PC analysis software which offers lots of additional fea tures Another approach to precisely locate a signal or determine its origin is demodu lation This feature allows you to hear potential pulsing or modulation of a signal source As with other features SPECTRAN has a special mode for this kind of operation Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 15 DKW AARONIA AG 5 0 Your first measurement Modes 5 7 Audio output mode demodulator the DISPLAY MODE status field displays AM or FM z All SPECTRAN models offer a so called demodulator This demodulator turns pulsings and modulation of signal sources into tones Frequency accurate and selective acoustic representati on of a signal can be helpful for identification and locati on of a signal source As demodulation occurs in realtime it is suited perfectly to find the signal source very quickly SPECTRAN offers two different demodulation modes AM amplitude modulation AM FM frequency modulation EMIL You can switch between the demodulation modes by pressing the dot key the DISPLAY MODE status field displays AM or EMIL You can adjust the volume by turning the volume knob on the left side ATTENTION During audio analysis the entire display will be frozen and the pixel field is turned off com pletely to save computing power for dem
52. l units You can select between various units for magnetic fields at any time in the Unit menu Possible choices are T G and A m Measuring field strength V m A m T G When using an antenna or sensor instead of direct signal input to make mea surements yo mostly wish to measure field strength instead of voltage or out put SPECTRAN allows measurement of electric fields in V m Magnetic fields can be measured in G Gauss T Tesla or A m Amperes meter As the readout can quickly turn into a gigantic row of digits when measuring field strengths SPECTRAN offers a very practical autorange feature instead of an endless row of digits it simply adds a corresponding prefix to the readout such as p n p or m for example mT Measuring voltage V When using direct signal input via the SMA connector you can directly measu re the applied signal in Volts V Input voltage can range from approx 200nV to 200mV The extremely high sensitivity of only 200nV allows measurement of even the weakest signals You can expand the measuerement range with our optional Differential Probe up to 240V The probe also protects the input from to high voltage up to 1500V The probe is a must have if you want to measure DSL lines etc 44 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com e 13 0 Tips and Tricks AARONIA AG ae Turbo sweep The basic factor behind sweep speed is of course
53. ll be able to check what exactly happened in the past 24 hours This way you can also use 28 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com BKL a 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG ae SPECTRAN as an EVENT RECORDER for recording intermittent signals just leave SPECTRAN running in HOLD mode until the requested event occurs HOLD mode is also indispensible for conducting measurements according to the panning approach see also the section about correct measurement Another application where HOLD mode is extremely helpful is exposure limit calculation You can use data acquired in HOLD mode for quick and easy com parison of exposure limits You do not even need to start a new measurement as all markers and other relevant information are preserved Please just switch to exposure limits mode after measurement and the corresponding result is displayed immediately Atypical measurement result after evaluating a room for 20 minutes with HOLD mode active You can clearly see that only two main signal B sources frequency bands have been detected during the entire mea lt surement 30Hz and 50Hz Be Se l iai HINT You can switch HOLD mode on and off at any time bye pressing y the dot key switching it off deletes the HOLD memory ATTENTION Please note that when using the Reference Level Auto setting in combination with HOLD mode the spectrum display can quickly get filled up
54. m your selection Again the display will show zero In addition the large status field displays STOP Again enter the STOP frequency in kHz by using the number keys In our case we want to measure up to 70kKHz so enter 70 Again press the Enter key to confirm your entry al Leave the the entry by pressing the menu key and you are back in the main menu As the next step we need to select the appropriate filter and sampletime display speed 3 Choose a filter RBW in the menu at RBW The filter should be at least 10 times smaller than the SPAN at our example 70 20 50kHz A list with various filter bandwidths will be displayed Please choose a bandwidth of 3kHz Confirm your selection by pressing Enter at Leave the the entry by pressing the menu key and you are back in the main menu 4 Choose the SampleTime SpTime in the menu at SpTime A list consisting of ms and s will be displayed Use the arrow keys to select mS and confirm your selection with Enter wel The large main display will now show zero In addition the large status field will display SWEEP Enter now the required sampletime in mS by using the number keys in our case 300mS Enter 300 and press the Enter key to confirm Poy Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 19 4a AARONIA AG 6 0 Manual frequency selection Leave the the entry by pressing the menu key and you are back in the main menu Please
55. me control ET The Jog Dial like on modern cell phones or PDAs repla ces the up down arrowkeys Cum the jog dial and the Enter key briefly press the jog dial You can e g con trol the complete menu system just with this practical litt le wheel However with the demodulator activated this jog dial can be used as a volume control As precaution before connecting anything to the audio output you should turn this volume control down to zero to avoid overload 15 5 USB connector The 5 pin mini USB B connector on the SPECTRAN allo ws fast communication with a computer or notebook With this feature you can e g download data from SPECTRAN s data logger perform software firmware updates or perform advanced signal analysis using your PC with our SPECTRAN PC software For this connection you need a high grade shielded USB 2 0 cable with USB A to Mini USB B 5 pin see Aaronia accessory list 52 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com e 16 0 Typical readouts in practice NARSA AS ag Measurements directly next to appliances Electric stove 500 V m 10 000 nT TV set 5 000 V m 10 000 nT Hi fi system 500 V m 5 000 nT Hair dryer 1 000 V m 100 000nT Electric blanket 5 000 V m 5 000 nT Dimmer 1 000 V m 300 nT Wall outlet 200 V m Fuse box 300 V m 500 nT Computer screen 200 V m 1 000 nT Measurements at larger distance Beneith a 10kV high voltage line
56. nding on the source r r or even r you can quite easy determine the exact location of a signal source the higher the signal level the closer the source Of course you will need to turn off HOLD mode in this case Next just try to find the signal maximum in various rooms to get acquainted with the panning approach and the importance of HOLD mode Now of course your measurement result is not that useful if you cannot relate it to any exposure limits Until today this used to be very complex with the need to browse complex tables and convert between physical units A highly daunting task for the novice and even for some experts SPECTRAN offers therefore a special and easy to handle mode for exposure limit calculation Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 13 AAA AARONIA AG 5 0 Your first measurement Modes 5 6 Exposure limits mode The DISPLAY MODE status field displays EXPOS LIMITS my Press the Enter key until the display mode status s field shows EXPOS LIMITS GC As usual the strongest signals will be shown along with their frequencies and levels as markers as in the spec trum analysis mode The large main display will again show the level of the strongest signal found However in the graphics display below the strongest sig nal will be shown now as a percentage in relation to an exposure limit As various very different exposure limits I and recommendati
57. nter frequency of the display By changing Span the Start Stop fre quency see following description is automatically adjusted to be able to con form to the Span Therefore the Span function can be compared to a magnify ing glass though only operating in the X axis La SPAN gt EXAMPLE You have chosen 2kHz as the Center frequency Now choose 2kHz as Span and it will be sweeped from 1 to 3kKHz Choose 3kHz as Span and the sweep will be performed from 0 5 to 3 5kHz etc In other words you always increase or decrease the resolution centered around the Center fre quency HINT The right left arrow keys can be used to move the sweep range directly one SPAN unit to the right or left For best level results you should choose the Span not bigger then 20 times the RBW size e g 1kHz RBW maximum 20kHz Span 23 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com e 8 AARONIA AG 7 0 The main menu WWW AARONIA DE t t 7 4 fLow amp fHigh Start amp Stop frequency fLow start frequency sets the frequency where the sweep should begin whe reas fHigh stop frequency sets its ending frequency By choosing these two parameter the complete frequency range which will be sweeped is defined Please note that a large frequency range will badly squeeze the display hori zontally in the X axis and thus significantly reduces measurement accuracy Individual signals especially when close to
58. odulation Then ONLY acoustic reproduction of the signal is car ried out a In contrast to simple broadband detectors SPECTRAN performs its demodulation only at a specific frequency center frequency Thus you can selectively listen small individual frequency ranges However please note that filtering in this mode is slightly less stringent As a result strong signals on neighbouring frequencies might bleed onto the actual selected frequency and be audible as well For optimal audio reproduction of signals you can choose between several fil ter bandwidths by using the up down arrow keys The currently selected filter will be shown in the large INFO display gt 16 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 5 0 Your first measurement Modes AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE Satt You will often see that it is difficult to find exactly the right center frequency and demodulation Hence by pressing the right left arrow keys you can fine adjust the center frequency The used step width is based on the filter you have zz previously selected For example should you have chosen a 1kHz filter sg fine adjustment will take place in steps of 1kHz and so on The new center fre quency will be shown on the large INFO display after changes ATTENTION For optimal audio reproduction of signals their levels should be significantly higher than the noise floor Firmware V 1 0
59. of the internal battery pack You can also connect other DC power sources from 8V to 12V max by using a 3 5mm phone jack Polarization of the jack needs to be as follows The inner conductor must be the outer conductor must be Using our optional car power adapter see price list you can also operate SPECTRAN devices in your car Should you wish to operate SPECTRAN via the wall power supply please note that the power supply will cause additional interference This may lead to mis measurement in extreme cases Please note that the included switching power supply operates between 55kHz and 65kHz 60kHz Center plus 10kHz Spread Spectrum All cables devices used for connection to the external DC input must supply a DC voltage between 8 and 12V via a standard 3 5mm phone jack inner con ductor PLUS outer conductor MINUS Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 51 AARONIA AG 15 0 Connections WWW AARONIA DE tet 15 3 Audio output FT This is a standard 2 5mm STEREO phone jack that can be connected to any device which offers an audio input Depending on model and manufacturer these are labeled differently e g PHONO CD LINE IN MIC etc Depending on the kind of input you need a fitting adap ter cable which you can purchase from any specialised trade The internal speaker will not switched off if you use the audio output 15 4 Jog Dial Volu
60. ons are existing for the various fields ee of interest and professional groups SPECTRAN offers an entire range of different exposure limits You can select the desired E exposure limit by using the right left cursor keys Find a more detai e led introduction to these exposure limits on pages 47 and following in this manual Please try it yourself Select all the different exposure limits and compare the results The available exposure limits are XTESLA Shows the readout in Tesla ICNIRP ICNIRP recommendation also German limit General population BGRB11 BGFE limit for workplace exposition exposition class 2 BlmSch 26 BimSchV Indutrial German limit only 16 66Hz 50Hz gt 10MHz TCO99 International limit for computer screens only from 5Hz 400kHz In our fictional example the exposure limit bargraph shows an approximation to the German ICNIRP limit of 69 When EXCEEDING the exposure limit the dis play will show percentages above 100 for example 128 00 limit exceeded by 28 When exceeding the exposure limit by more than 999 99 the display will show indicating overflow 14 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com e 5 0 Your first measurement Modes AARONIA AG bagt HINT You will always find current or updated exposure limits on the Aaronia homepage for downloading e g when legal changes occur and official limits are altered This allows you to
61. ore should be the most readable as well Freq larger frequency display Amp larger amplitude display 30 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 7 0 The main menu AARONIA AG ae 7 20 Bright Set display brightness The Bright option allows you to change display brightness Simply turn the Jog Dial until the desired brightness level is reached and confirm the setting by pres sing the Enter key The new setting will be permanently saved 7 21 Logger Invoke recording data logger not active With the logger option you can start a long term recording in the current fre quency range NF 5010 and better The logger will regu larly record the strongest signals together with their fre quency and amplitude over a freely adjustable timespan This feature can be used for example to create perfect full day diagrams After processing this data for exam ple by using a PC based spreadsheet software you could end up with a graphic similar to the one shown on the left After activating the device will query the following parameters Count Enter the number of logs recorded events Time Enter the duration of the pauses between the individual logs in seconds FILEId Enter the program number used to store the recorded data This number is later used to download the recorded data using our PC software ATTENTION Currently our PC software only supports
62. p Consequently we strongly recommend our 1MB memory expansion Option 001 for using the logger function 7 22 RunPrg Run program SPECTRAN provides its own file system which is loaded with various programs You can even write your own programs and store them right there Also saved SETUPs see the following paragraph use this program feature Every program is stored with a specific number When using this function any of these pro grams can be recalled and executed by just typing its number 7 23 Setup Configuration Use Setup to manage individual configurations and programs The Store option will save the current configuration flow fHigh RBW VBW SpTime Atten RefLev Range Detec as its own little program Please enter a number above 200 to store configurations The previously described RunPrg function can be used to recall a configuration Del deletes a previously stored configuration please just enter the corresponding program number Factor recalls the factory settings This option is especially useful for unex perienced users having messed up the device s configuration Attention Please note that you can only store full kHz frequency values with the Store comand but if you use our free LCS PC software there is not such a limi tation With the PC software you can store much more values like used sensor unit scale etc HINT When using program numbers 100 to 109 you can directly recall the cor respon
63. r 797nT 797 billionth of a Tesla As this example clearly shows the rea dout would literally drown in a huge pile of zeroes without the autorange func tion However using the p or n prefixes display is still accurately possible even with just 4 digits This of course also works with very large values like 20 000 V m Here the dis play would just show 20kV m 20 kiloVolts meter SPECTRAN automatically changes the prefix used you do not need to make any manual adjustments 8 12 Spurious Because of the very high sensitivity of the SPECTRAN the internal probes can even measure the very low emissions of its own circuits Typical are multiply sig nals of 1 6MHz 3 2MHz 4 8MHz etc which is the frequency of the onboard switching power supply and multiply signals of about 128kHz 256kHz 378kHz etc which is the LCD clock With the E Field sensor you can also measure mul tiply 65Hz signals which is the refreshrate of the LCD Usually all those signals are very small and should not disturb any mea surement Anyway we will add a function in one of the next software revi sions to remove them automatically Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 40 BKL RK 9 0 Measuring static magnetic fields AARONIA AG 4 Measurement of static magnetic fields Option 006 Activating the sensor To measure static magnetic fields like the earth s magnetic field or that of regu
64. re limits AARONIA AG Cag 14 1 Limits for personal safety There are international recognized limits for power wires and the appliances connected to them as well as various precautionary limits and recommendati ons Depending on the country professional sector or the various interest groups however they all can differ significantly The German exposure limits are dictated by the Regulierungsbeh rde f r Telekommunikation und Post Reg TP roughly regulating body for telecommu nications and post which is a subsidiary of the Bundesministerium f r Wirtschaft und Arbeit BMWA roughly ministry of commerce and labour Most national and international bodies recognize these recommendations They are part of the German 26 BimSchV ordinance for electromagnetic fields and fol low the international ICNIRP recommendation The German exposure limits are intended for quadratic means of measurements taken during intervals of 6 minutes and subdivided by frequency ranges Furthermore there are seperate limits depending on the group of persons affec ted As an example we will use the limit for the generic population Frequency E field V m H field uT M field A m Below 1 Hz 40 000 32 000 1 8 Hz 10 000 40 000 f 32 000 f 8 25 Hz 10 000 5 000 f 4 000 f 0 025 0 8 kHz 250 f 5 f 4 f 0 8 3 kHz 250 f 6 25 5 3 150 kHz 87 6 25 5 0 15 1 MHz 87 0 92 f 0 73 f 1 10 MHz 87 IVF 0 92 f 0 73 f 10 400 MHz 27 5 0 092
65. rength it will automatical ly switch between for example pT and mT autorange feature If you approach the power supply the field strength will increase likewise it will rapidly decrease when you move further away It might be necessary to set the correct mode of operati on by using the Enter key Push it repeatedly until the dis play mode status field reads SPECTRUM Of course SPECTRAN is far more capable than this so please follow the more detailed introduction about how to use further features sensor Key 6 J In general you should know that there are two different kind of fields which are measurable with SPECTRAN in the proximity of electrical appliances and installations electric alternating fields and magnetic alternating fields For each of these field types you need an appropriate sensor Both sensors are already integrated into our SPECTRAN devices The appropriate sensor can be cho sen at any time by using the key 6 use the up down a gt arrow keys to choose and apply your selection with e the Enter key SH For magnetic fields you need the Mag sensor Press the key 6 and select the Mag sensor further options are XY Mag YZ Mag and ZX Mag If you want to measure electric fields press the key 6 and select the E Fld sensor Please note that measure ment of electric fields can be easily interfered Please have a closer look at the Measurement of electric fields section for more information
66. rs Possible values are 1 2 or 3 If you only need to measure one frequency you should reduce the number of markers to 1 Then you will get a very stable display with no jumping markers after every sweep 7 18 MrkLvl Set starting level of markers MrkLvl is used to set a specific signal strength from which markers are gene rated and exposure limit calculations are performed Available settings range from 20 to 80 and correspond to the relative height of the peaks in the bar graph display At the 80 setting markers are only generated with relati 100 vely strong signals compared to the 20 setting where far 80 weaker signals but also potential interference are shown ati 9 aay its as markers The default 60 offers the best balance of 20 both extremes in most cases 7 19 MrkDis Marker display mode The marker display mode determines how markers are displayed As the avai lable display space for showing markers differs in size and readability two diffe rent modes are available Freq frequency displays the frequency of each marker in the large display Its amplitude or similar applicable property is small displayed beneith the fre quency Ampl amplitude displays the amplitude or similar property of each marker in large and the frequency in the smaller display field Usually the Freq mode will be preferred as the frequency usually is the most important piece of information and theref
67. s and Tricks Exposure limit calculations and display with weak signals In such a situation simply set the marker level Marker to a higher sensitivity The 20 setting corresponds to the highest sensitivity Conversion of measurement results into other physical units As you already know using the HOLD feature you can freeze a measurement result After doing this you can simply change to a different unit T G A m dBm dByV or Mim dBm dBuyV and the old value will instantly be converted to the newly selected unit after you leave the menu You can repeat this procedure as often as you wish Very practical for a quick conversion from e g Tesla T to Gauss G Correct settings for manual input measurements We recommend our PC analysis software LCS or MCS for such tasks Here you can find many optimized profiles from mains power to TCO99 or energy saving lamps In addition information such as channel numbers etc are also displayed These parameters can then simply be copied and transferred to SPECTRAN However we also have a special setting just for 50HZ 60HZ mains power Simply use quick measurement via key 2 In this mode 50Hz resp 60Hz sig nals from power lines electrical appliances or high voltage lines can be measu red and displayed quickly and easily PC analysis 46 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com nr a 14 0 Exposu
68. stacle such as a spade can still be detected by SPECTRAN even from some distance The 24Bit option option 009 increases the sensitivity yet further and allo ws the detection of even very minimal changes Therefore it is perfect sui table for geomagnetic analysis or for accurate measurements of regular magnets Currently the static magnetic field sensor does not have a zero reference i e it can only display DIFFERENCES in field strength A zero reference and conse quently a calibration is only possible with our zero gauss chamber Then even the direct value of static magnetic field can be displayed Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 41 4a AARONIA AG 10 0 Measurement in 1D 2D or 3D Measurement in 1D 2D or 3D All SPECTRAN models feature an integrated 3D measurement coil which allo ws isotropic measurement of magnetic fields in all directions axes at the same time You can also choose whether you want to measure in only 1 axis 1D two axes 2D or in all 3 axes 3D simulta neously Likewise you can also adjust the number of axes when measuring with the optional sensor for STATIC magnetic fields option 006 When doing measurements in all three axes a so called isotropic measurement the spacial orientation of the measuring instrument has no influence on the mea surement results Therefore wrong orien tation of the measurement instrument and thus wrong measurement re
69. sults become impossible The only disadvantage of this technology is the higher sweeptime A 2D or 3D measurement will general ly be slower by nature as obviously the number of necessary sweeps will increa se 2 or 3 fold However should your instrument be equipped with the DDC opti on option 005 the sweep times in 1D and 2D mode will be the same as two channels can be measured at the same time In 3D mode likewise sweep time will only be twice as long as in 1D mode and not three times as long as when not using DDC Results of 2D and 3D measurements are calculated as a quadratic mean using the following formula 3D X Y Z NX Y Z 2D X Y XY 2D Y Z VY zZ 2D Z X Z X In the Dm menu or key 7 you can select if you wish to measure in 1D 2D or 3D The default setting is 1D ATTENTION Please note that during 2D or 3D measurements both the main display and the spectrum display represent the TRUE quadratic mean of the single axes Hence it would be wrong to interpret the value shown in the main display as the quadratic mean of the displayed markers 42 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 4i AARONIA AG 11 0 Aligning the sensors Aligning the internal sensor E field sensor The sensor for electric fields only measures in one dimension You can achieve optimal results by making sure that the field goes through the sides of the devi ce Y axis see p
70. than 10V can destroy SPECTRAN s highly sensitive amplifier circuitry You can expand the measurement range with our optional Differential Probe up to 240V The probe also protects the input from to high voltage up to 1500V The probe is a must have if you want to measure DSL lines etc DSL Tester The Upstream of a DSL1000 line Measured with a SPECTRAN NF 50xx with DDC and our active Differential Probe Our free PC Software LCS WB even shows the smallest change with extremly high resolution 50 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com wf eg 15 0 Connections AARONIA AG WWW AARONIA DE 15 2 External DC input battery charging All SPECTRAN RF measurement devices contain a J high performance battery package which is already installed in the unit However this battery is not yet charged due to safety reasons Please charge it W with the included charger For this connect it to your NW Usual mains and plug the small phone jack into the DC input on the SPECTRAN Now turn OFF your SPECTRAN and the battery pack will be automatical ly charged Full charge is reached after about 24 hours for the standard 1300mAh battery and about 36 hours for the 3000mAnh version Operating with an external power supply As described above the DC input is suitable for charging the internal battery pack However it can also be used for operating SPECTRAN independently
71. the right sampleti me If you use a too small sampletime you can get to low level results Especially if you use low filter RBWs you have to set the sampletime quite high depen ding on filter even up to a view seconds The right sampletime depends on the used Filter RBW You should set the fol lowing RBWs and sampletime 10Hz 70s 30Hz 30s 100HzZ 7s 300Hz 3s 1kHz 700ms etc If the Span is bigger then 20 times the RBW you must use a higher sampletime Please note that the sampletime in DFT mode 1Hz and 3Hz filter is limited to 5s A too small sampletime in DFT mode is easy to detect The levels will fre quently change a lot after each sweep If you use our free PC Software you will then see a snake like graph in the spectrogram window Simply change the sampletime to a higher value until you get a stable reading after each sweep 8 5 Measurement of electric fields amp all fields above 500kHz Correct measurement of potential free electric fields or magnetic fields above 500kHz requires a bit of technical knowledge as measurement results can quickly become inaccurate due to objects in immediate proximity such as walls trees or the operator her himself Consequently please take care of the follo wing You should maximize the distance between your body and the measurement instrument Consequently you should measure by using a non conduc tive wooden tripod or similar and increase the distance between your body and the
72. the sample time The smaller the sample time the faster the sweep However the selected filter and SPAN settings also influence sweep speed the broader the filter the faster the sweep the larger the SPAN the slower the sweep Thusly fast measurement of broad frequency ranges is only possible with large filter settings Simply choose a different RBW setting Also don t forget to set SpTime to a smaller value However due to the higher filter bandwidth the fre quency display can be a bit less accurate than with narrower filters Also signals now need to be stronger in order to be still measurable Mapping keys with your own parameters and settings Keys 0 till 9 can be also mapped with custom configurations including start stop frequency RBW etc Program numbers 100 till 109 correspond to keys 0 till 9 and can be used for assignment to these keys Simply store the current confi guration in one of these program numbers using the menu entry Setup amp Store You will then be able to recall these settings at any later time using the corre sponding number key If you want even more convenience you should use our PC analysis software LCS or MCS where you can additionally add practical notes to your settings You can always recall the factory settings using the menu command Factor in the Setup menu Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 45 AM A AARONIA AG 13 0 Tip
73. tions ONLY the enclosed SMA tool which offers an over tightening protection Don t bring ever the analyzer in contact with water Don t use it if it is raining The sensitive electronic system could otherwise be damaged Avoid excessively high temperatures Do not leave the device on heating radia tors in direct sunlight or in your car Due to the high sensitivity the sensors and display of this device are shock sen sitive therefore it should be handled with care Don t let the device or antennas falling down as they could be damaged or destroyed Consequently we strongly recommend to use our special transport case for storage and transportation It is also available as a very durable versi on made of special plastics available at an extra charge Even though all SPECTRAN models are pretty safe due to their counter sunk screws they should not be kept in the reach of children as they might be a potential threat in this case Your measurement device is maintenance free Only clean it outside with a damp cloth Do not use any cleaning supplies WARNING Avoid overloading the input by applying signals with excessive power as otherwise the highly sensitive circuitry could be destroyed The maxi mum applicable voltage is only 200mV 0 2V Voltages bigger than 1V can destroy SPECTRAN s highly sensitive amplification circuitry Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 5
74. to marker functionality is available in this mode Once you have positioned the cursor you can zoom into a signal by pressing the Jog Dial This will set the CENTER frequency to the current cursor positi on frequency halve the SPAN and initiate a new sweep In other words you zoom into the signal by 50 This procedure can be repeated as often as you wish until the desired resolution has been reached A very useful feature But please note that a zoom back out is not possible You can turn off the cursor by pressing the menu key twice ATTENTION The cursor should NOT be used in HOLD mode as it will not be erased just like the rest of the display and thus produce an entirely black and useless display very quickly 38 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com nr ea 8 0 Correct measurement AARONIA AG 4 8 9 DFT mode rapid measurements with small RBWs All series 50xx SPECTRAN models provide a superfast DFT mode digital fou rier transformation DFT mode is automatically activated when the follo wing settings are used a an RBW of 0 3Hz 1Hz or 3Hz AND b a SPAN smaller than 200Hz with 10Hz being the minimum The DFT mode allows a significantly faster sweep when using extremely narrow filters and is especially suitable for measurement of mains power 50Hz or trac tion power 16 7Hz In contrast to regular FFT DFT does NOT produce the infa mous aliases known from FFT
75. urrently selected frequency range This frequency exact selective acoustic evaluation can be helpful when iden tifying signal sources As demodulation occurs in real time it is also perfectly suited for locating signal sources very quickly 7 13 Detec RMS or MinMax detector Shift key Here you can choose between two different detectors Possible choices are RMS Default MinMax This mode allows you for instance to find out if a certain signal is modulated When the displayed signal level is larger in MinMax mode than in RMS mode the signal must be modulated If both modes show a nearly identical display the signal is unmodulated HINT You can change the detector at any time by just pressing the Shift key 7 14 Hold activate HOLD mode By selecting On you can activate HOLD mode indicated by the word HOLD in the status field Likewise Off turns it back off In HOLD mode the spectrum display does not get erased thus all measured signals stay visible at all times Only signals stronger than those already recor ded will be able to overwrite the display Likewise only the highest markers since the last activation of HOLD mode will be displayed including frequency and field strength voltage HOLD mode turns SPECTRAN into a very sophisticated tool it is really an ADVANCED HOLD You can use this mode for creating full day diagrams Just leave SPECTRAN in HOLD mode for lets say 24 hours and the next day you wi
76. witch between the three main modes Spectrum analysis Exposure limits and Audio 2 While navigating menus confirm selection or entry usual enter key 8 Menu key Call up dismiss main menu for changing various settings 8 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 9 5 0 Your first measurement Modes AARONIA AG tett To explain the use of SPECTRAN we will measure its own power supply During this procedure you will get to know the 3 different operation modes of SPECTRAN as well as the important HOLD feature and the panning approach It is really very simple just follow the following instruction step by step How to prepare SPECTRAN for measurement Remove the protective film from the display Should you not yet have charged the integrated battery you can also operate SPECTRAN with the included power supply further information on page 51 Next press the on off switch located in the lower left corner SPECTRAN is now switched on and will perform a brief calibration procedure For easier orientation we will now briefly show the most important aspects of the SPECTRAN display BARGRAPH trend display when Reflev is not in Auto mode Depending on signal strength the half circle will grow or shrink A very handy function for quickly changing levels MODE status field MinMax and HOLD Displays the detector and mode which is used Possible values are MIN MAX and
77. ww aaronia com 37 DKW AARONIA AG 8 0 Correct measurement Even though SPECTRAN instruments already are impressively accurate consi dering their price in practice an even higher measurement inaccuracy than the one specified for the instrument has to be assumed There are various reasons for this such as temperature dependance reproducability and many others This has to be taken into account at every measurement 8 8 The cursor and zoom features p In spectrum analysis mode you can use the Jog Dial to activate a cursor This cursor allows you to determine the exact frequency and signal strength at an arbitrary point in the display To activate the cursor simply rotate the Jog Dial and the cursor will appear as a thin line in the spec trum To deactivate it simply press the menu key twice The part of the display covered by the cursor gets drawn in reverse colour thereby preserving its information Frequency and level at the current cursor position Cursor Parts of the graphic covered by the cursor are drawn inverted By rotating the Jog Dial the cursor can be placed at any desired position on the display The readout on the large main display the exposure limit display and demodulation now EXCLUSIVELY represent the frequency at the current cursor position The current frequency and level display at the cursor position only get updated after each sweep and are displayed in the first leftmost marker field Naturally no au
78. y range MHz Application Measurement 16 7Hz Traction power 40 50Hz Mains power 20 350 360Hz Unknown 80 How could such a result be displayed optimally on a measurement device Well first of all we apply the frequency range of OHz to 400HZz on the X axis from left to right OHz 400Hz OK now that was simple Now we tag each of the 3 applications on the X axis according to their frequencies and their positions in the frequency range beco me visible 59 Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com DKW AARONIA AG 19 0 Spectrum analysis basics WWW AARONIA DE tet OHz P a 400Hz xh wh e e GN s v v i Not that difficult either Finally we represent the strength of each signal in terms of vertical bars with corresponding heights along the Y axis 80 20 OHz 400Hz wh E G x E e D In addition we have made the markers as wide as the frequency range of each application the so called bandwidth our unknown signal occupied the fre quency range from 350 to 360Hz accordingly its bandwidth was 10Hz 360 350Hz 10Hz Well it was all quite simple at the end wasn t it We now have a single display consisting of ALL information available about the three signal sources In practice this display could look similar to the following image on an idealized measurement device p This example image also shows 3 main signal sources from left to right Signal 1 16 7Hz at 63dBm
79. ys they will be displayed instantly ECOLOG ECOLOG institute precautionary limit 0 1uT or 20V m BUND BUND precautionary limit for relaxation areas 0 01yT or 0 5V m Please note that these values could change at any time Thus please consult the respective entities when in doubt Only applicable to 50Hz Firmware V 1 0 2005 2010 by Aaronia AG D 54597 Euscheid www aaronia com 49 AARONIA AG 15 0 Connections WWW AARONIA DE 12 0 SMA input measurement of external signals Starting with the NF 3020 an SMA input is available Here you can connect arbitrary external sensors like large highly sensitive coils specialized antennas or taps and similar devices The incoming signal strength is then sl shown in volts This additional input allows a wide range of additional applications and converts SPECTRAN into a true all round instrument To activate the SMA input simply press the key 6 and select the analog sensor the Status dis play reads ANALOG The highly sensitive ultra low noise input of SPECTRAN depending on model down to 0 74nV VHz has specifically been designed for measurement of extre mely weak signals thus the maximum allowable input voltage is very small The maximum input voltage is 200nV to 200mV 0 2V with a frequency of max 30MHz if the SPECTRAN is equipped with this option WARNING Be sure not to overload the input The maximum allowable voltage is just 200mV 0 2V Voltages more

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