WEAK SIGNAL RADIO - PAPERS, CALCULATORS AND APPLICATION NOTES

Microwave Roundtable test day at Finningley ARS

Data approximated from Naval Research Laboratory (Washington DC) Report 5868 December 1962, Author L.V.Blake NOTES TO GRAPH: The antenna is lossless with no Earth directed sidelobes. The two solid curves are for geometric mean galactic temperature, sun noise 10 times quiet level, sun in unity gain sidelobe, cool temperate zone troposphere, 2.7K cosmic blackbody radiation, zero ground noise. The red dotted curve (MAX) is for maximum galactic noise, sun noise 100 times quiet level, zero elevation. The green dotted curve (MIN) is for minimum galactic noise, zero sun noise, 90 degree elevation angle. The data does not include man made noise or ground noise. Caution is strongly recommended before introducing a VLNA to a terrestrial system below 200MHz to avoid destroying your RX dynamic range and introducing what may be on occasion difficult to recognise out of channel degradation!

Select gallery images above for higher resolution and descriptive captions

RFD Application Notes:
AN-1 Introduction to noise generators
AN-2 RXGen    RXGen data sheet
AN-3 NF testing with SAT1
AN-4 2 port testing with SAT1
AN-5 Noise floor reduction with SAT1


Mini-Circuits cascaded noise figure calculator
Pasternack cascaded noise figure calculator
System noise temperature and G/T calculator
Custom MMIC cascade analysis calculator
Analog Devices RF impedance matching calculator
NoiseFigureMeter (NFM) Owen Duffy VK1OD
VK1OD calculators & software
WJ Tech Note RX Dynamic Range Part 1
WJ Tech Note RX Dynamic Range Part 2
Noise Measurement and Generation Paul Wade
K2RIW on noise figure (Reproduced by kind permission of Dick Knadle)
VHF antenna noise temperature YU1AW
CCL LNA gain setting tables
Data sheets
Uncertainty in the noise sampling process VK1OD
Agilent Preamplifiers and System Noise Figure AN
R & S AN on Y factor NF measurement
Keysight NF measurement uncertainty on-line calculator
Keysight NF measurement uncertainty spreadsheet
AN57 HP noise figure primer 1965
AN57-1 HP fundamentals of NF measurement 1983
AN57-1 HP fundamentals of NF measurements 2006
AN1303 HP spectrum analysers and noise measurements
AN150 Agilent spectrum analyser basics 2014
AN150-9  spectrum analysis ... noise figure measurement 1976
AN201 HP accuracy of noise figure measurement systems 1988
AN57-2 HP noise figure measurement accuracy
PN 85719A-1 Agilent Maximising accuracy in NF measurements
Anritsu noise figure corrections
Maxim AN2875 Y figure noise figure method
Orbit antenna measurement theory
ARRL Test Procedures Manual 2020