Meters

Very Sensitive, Affordable, Feature-Packed RF/MW Meter

Covering a bandwidth of 50 MHz to 3.5 GHz, digital and analog, this instrument is incredibly versatile. It’s 3-axis, which means you won’t miss brief pulses that could disappear before you turn the meter to check another direction, but you can also select one axis at a time to help locate the source of the radiation. With 2½ samples/second it’s also fast, which is very important when tracking microwaves. But there’s more. It has a selectable audio alarm with adjustable sensitivity,selectable auto-off, and backlighting that automatically turns off after 30 seconds. Its 4-digit LCD display reads in either mV/m, A/m, W/cm², or W/m². The display also includes an analog bar graph, and is switch-selectable between instantaneous value, maximum value, or average value. But there’s more still – it also has a 200 point manual memory function, and is extremely sensitive. On the millivolt per meter scale its sensitivity is: 38 mV/m to 11 V/m (equivalent to .38 nanoWatt/cm² to 30 microWatt/cm²). It’s accuracy, incidentally, is a respectable ± 2.4 dB or better. Power is from a standard 9V battery, giving about 15 hours of continuous use. Comes with a 1-year warranty.
Quick Start Instructions for 3-Axis RF Meter (pdf)
3-Axis RF Meter(Cat. #WAH495) …………… $199.95

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Extremely wide frequency rage radiofrequency (RF) meter—from 10MHz to 8 GHz. An exceptional value for the price in terms of the range of frequencies covered. Will pick up the new 5.8 GHz phones as well as other RF equipment such as DECT portable phones, wireless routers, baby monitors, etc. Will also measure some radar exposures that sweep through certain communities. 3-axis (isotropic) measurement. Extremely sensitive: 20 mV/m to 108 mV/m (or, 0.1 nanoWatt/cm2 to 3 milliWatt/cm2). Measures exposures in V/m, A/m, W/m² or W/cm². Displays instant value, max value or average value, where the average value interval is adjustable from 4 seconds to 15 minutes. Excellent ±1dB accuracy or better. One year factory warranty. (Uses 9V battery)

8 GHz RF Meter (Cat. #WAH489) …………… $499.00

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The ESI 24 checks for all 3 types of EMF: magnetic fields, electric fields, and radiowaves/microwaves at the same time. Easy to read display indicates field strength with either a red, yellow, or green led lights, along with an audio confirmation of the field strength. The audio function is optional. The display shows 5 levels, ranging from extremely low to too strong for prolonged exposure and distinguishes how much for each radiation type. Very user friendly and very sensitive.

The ESI 24 has an Enhanced RF, allowing the user to measure only RF using all 15 LEDs, giving greater range and resolution. Sources detected by ESI 24: cell phone towers, cordless phones, wireless LAN, Wi-Fi systems, power lines, electrical installations and appliances, baby monitors and alarms, microwave ovens, cell phones, etc.

Operates for about 10 hours on one 9V battery (included). 2 year warranty.

ESI 24 EMF Monitor (Cat. #WAH498) ……………………………. $329.95

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For finding and measuring AC magnetic fields accurately and quickly, its hard to surpass this meter, for size and price. Designed by FW Bell, one of the best names in the business, this is a professional meter at an affordable price. It has the same accuracy and resolution (0.1 mG) as the earlier 4080 model, with a prettier case, a little higher range (599 mG), and a smarter display that includes Minimum, Maximum, and Peak Hold, a relative mode (for measuring field changes relative to a field level other than zero), and selectable milligauss or microtesla readout. It’s 3-axis design also lets you select any of the X, Y, or Z axes individually, making it easier to find the orientation of magnetic fields and their likely sources. It operates on four AAA batteries, with a jack for an external 5 VDC adapter (not included), and a USB port for operating on USB power (cable not included).

FW Bell has also decided with this upgrade to raise the low-frequency filter to 30 instead of 25 Hz, which makes it more stable during movements in the field.

4180 ELF GaussMeter (Cat. #WAH171N) ………….. $325.95

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This German meter, by GigaHertz Solutions, offers 2% accuracy (±20 digits) at 50/60 Hz, with a very flat frequency response, within 1 dB from about 16 Hz to 2,000 Hz (printed as a graph on the cover of the case). It’s overall sensitivity is much wider, though, from about 5 Hz to 7,000 Hz (at 3 dB accuracy). Its very low frequency cutoff makes it versatile but slow (on the magnetic setting), because whenever you move it you have to wait a couple seconds for it to settle down and give you an accurate reading. Remember that with a single-axis meter you really need to take three readings 90º from each other (find the orientation with the highest reading and visualize the meter flat against one surface of the corner of a box, then take readings flat against each of the other two sides) to get the true flux density. If two of the readings are much lower than the highest one, you can usually get away with just increasing the highest reading a bit and calling it right, but if one or more of the lower readings is close to the highest one, you need to do the calculation – square each reading, add them together, and take the square root of the sum. Its magnetic resolution is extremely fine at 10 microgauss, but its top end at 20 mG will leave you wondering at an out-of-range indicator in areas with stronger fields. Another slow-down for those used to readings in milligauss is that this meter reads in nanotesla. That can be remedied by putting a decimal point on the display with a felt-tip pen between the second and third numerals from the right – as long as you remember to ignore it when reading electric fields.

The electric field setting ranges from 1 to 2,000 volts per meter, and actually uses the operator’s body in its detection, making it unique but a bit awkward. You have to plug a ground wire (generously long, at least) into the meter, with the other end grounded somewhere, and always keep the wire behind you while you hold the meter close to your body, making it necessary to get up close and personal with whatever you’re measuring. This does away with the need for a long handle so your body doesn’t interfere with the field, but since no one’s bodily electric field is exactly the same, how accurate can it be on the electric field setting? It is an accurate gaussmeter, however.

As with many of this company’s instruments, it’s well-made but design flaws limit its usefulness in the field. Their more expensive combination meter is actually less useful than this one because it’s bandwidth is too broad for ELF testing, which is what most AC gaussmeters are designed and used for. The audio output of this meter, incidentally, is not really sensitive enough to be very useful. The much cheaper Gauss Master, and Budget Buzz Stick (see below), are much better at audio indication of magnetic fields.

All in all, for the price, this is a very useful and accurate, if slow, gaussmeter, and also actually measures electric fields, if you don’t mind the inconveniences. It operates on a standard 9 volt battery, and comes with an excellent, very informative manual and a 2 year warranty.

Digital Combination Meter (Cat. #WAH480) …… $189.00

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This little unit won’t actually measure anything numerically, but is a great sniffer-outer of magnetic fields, letting you listen in to their hums, buzzes, clicks and squeals. It will even give you a relative indication of their field strength – louder means stronger. And because it doesn’t have to measure anything, it’s very fast, giving you a real-time indication of your ELF magnetic environment. It will show you magnetic phenomena that a gaussmeter is incapable of detecting, like very low 1 Hz clicks from a digital clock, computer clock, or thermostat, pulses from a cell phone battery, and very strange noises from some GFCI outlets that may make you wonder if there’s a listening device in your kitchen. The pitch of the sounds can even be like an audio frequency counter, giving you an indication of what frequency spikes and harmonics are present. The little pickup coil on a 2-foot cable can also find fields in hard-to-reach spots you could never get a gaussmeter into, much less read it. There’s a mono earphone jack that cuts off the speaker if you want to listen privately or don’t want to scare the cat.

And if grandma has trouble hearing phone conversations, you can always attach the little coil’s suction cup to the back of your phone, turn up the Buzz Stick’s volume, and everyone can listen in. It uses a standard 9 volt battery.

Budget Buzz Stick (Cat. #WAH175-B) ……………… $16.94

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This is a very sensitive meter, designed to detect everything from 1-2500 MHz and can differentiate between distant sources like cell towers and nearby sources like cell phones. The meter has an analog readout on a relative scale to make direction finding fast and easy. Comes with instructions and 9V battery. Made in America..

UltraSensitive Wideband RF Meter (Cat. #WAH177) …………… $185.00

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This meter has actually been around a long time. It was originally called “Dr. Gauss,” and is probably the cheapest actually useable gaussmeter available (there are cheaper ones, but the key word is “useable”). Don’t depend on it for accuracy, though the analog meter is calibrated in milligauss, but it will definitely show you where magnetic fields are and give you a ballpark sense of their strength. It has a selectable super-sensitive setting (1 mG full scale); the normal scale is 1-10 mG. It also has a very useable audio output, which can impress children more than a meter needle when they hear it squeal insanely close to the microwave oven or the electric range. Some annoying things about it are that it has no power LED (it actually does have one, but it’sinside the case, and you’d have to drill a hole right above it to see it), or anything else to tell you that it’s on if you’re in a low-field environment. That wouldn’t be much of a problem except that it shuts itself off automatically after five minutes, so you can sometimes think the fields are very low when the meter has just said goodnight. You can get around that, though, by j

ust pressing the ON button more than once every 5 minutes (holding it down is what selects the more sensitive range). Another annoyance is that the audio output can’t be turned off.

The Gauss Master can also be affected by higher frequency radiation (cell phones and other RF), but this can be remedied if you suspect it by finding the highest reading and then shielding the meter with your body – holding it close and turning around in a circle (always keeping the meter oriented in the same absolute direction). If the readings don’t change significantly, you can usually assume that RF is not a problem. Remember, as with any single-axis meter, to take three readings 90º from each other (see the DIGITAL COMBINATION METER above).

It uses a standard 9 volt battery, and comes with useful instructions on how to conduct a magnetic field survey.

Gauss Master (Cat. #WAH130) ……………………………. $34.95

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The Acoustimeter shows average, peak and peak hold levels of radio frequency electromagnetic fields. It covers the spectrum from TETRA up through and beyond the 5.6 GHz WiFi and WiMax frequencies. It is user-friendly and accurate. It has a digital readout with LED light and LED text, which is sensitive 0.02 V/m – 6.00 V/m and a sound output enabling you to hear the signal. These instrument is useful to even those with severe electrosensitivity. The Acoustimeter is a broadband instrument that measures the radiation in the range 200 MHz to about 8000 MHz (8 GHz), which covers the frequencies used by most modern communication systems encountered in our daily life. The Acoustimeter was designed using the experience from many years of practical RF and microwave measurements.

The readings are shown on both an LCD display and two series of graduated LED lights. The LEDs update rapidly, and allow you to quickly gauge the levels in an area and find hot-spots.

Comes with a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty.

The internal antenna is at the top rear of the case. It is best to measure signals with the source behind the instrument or to one or other side (particularly the left side away from the switches and volume control). It under-reads if the source is in front of the meter as the LCD display acts as an RF screen.

Technical specifications

• Two line LCD displaying actual levels:
  • Peak exposure levels in V/m
  • Peak hold levels in V/m
• Two lines of LEDS displaying actual levels:
  • Peak exposure levels in V/m
  • Average exposure levels in µW/m2
• Measurement range: 200 – 8 000 MHz ±3 dB
• Sensitivity* (Peak Display): 0.02 V/m – 6.00 V/m
• Sensitivity* (Average Display): 1 µW/m2 – 100,000 µW/m2
• Pulsing signal may be heard through the internal speaker
• Power source: 2x AA Alkaline or Rechargeable (1.2 – 1.5V)
• Power draw: 105 mA at 3 V
• Battery life: 20 hours
  • Typically 15 hours on two new 1500 mAhr AA alkaline cells and
  • Typically 25 hours on two charged 2700 mAhr NIMH rechargeable cells
• Size (mm): 190 x 102 x 33 (LxWxD)
• Weight: 280g, excluding batteries

Acoustimeter (Cat. #WAH139) ………………… $469.95

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This highly sensitivity Geiger counter detects alpha, beta, gamma and X-rays. The meter is very simple and user-friendly in basic mode, but comes with advanced features such as the ability to adjust averaging time and switch between mR/hr to mSv/hr. The data can be transferred to and analyzed on a computer or a datalogger (USB cable and Pc software included). Can operate in mR/hr, CPM, or total counts. Easy to read 4-digit LCD display and audible tone.

Runs with a 9V battery. Comes with padded vinyl case and one year warranty

Specifications:

Detector: halogen-quenched uncompensated GM tube

Window: thin mica (1.4-2.0 mg/cm²); effective diameter 45mm

Averaging: display updates every 3 seconds; averages every 30 seconds or less

Ranges:

CPM: 0 – 300,000

Total Counts: 1 – 9,999,000

mR/hr: 0.001 – 100

microSv/hr: 0.01 – 1000

CPS: 0 – 5000

Accuracy:

mR/hr: ±15% from 0-50 and ±20% from 50-100

CPM: ±15% from 0-130,000 and ±20% from 130,000-300,000

Outputs: Dual miniature jack drives CMOS or TTL devices

Temperature: -10°C to +50°C

Size: 150 x 80 x 30 mm

Weight: 301 g (excluding 9V battery)

Software screenshot

Inspector+USB (Cat. WAH196-USB) ……… $575.00

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