RF-manDecibels
If decibels and logs confuse you, here's one last try at explaining it!
:o)
I'm sure you've spotted what's going on, there. 10 to the power of 2 (i.e. 10 squared)
is 100. 10 to the power of 3 (i.e. 10 cubed) is 1000, etc.
Lo and behold, the 'log' (in base 10) of 100 is 2, the log of 1000 is 3, etc.
The log of a number is simply a measure of the magnitude of that number,
how many powers of 10 are involved, how far removed in steps of multiplying by 10.
Let's have a closer look...
... so it goes the other way too, as we keep dividing by 10 the logs decrease into
negative values. I can't easily explain how 10 to the power of 0 is 1, but you'll
just have to accept that it makes sense to mathmeticians ... it all looks fine when plotted
on a graph ... the table above is perfectly reasonable and easy to follow (assuming
you're happy enough with decimal numbers!)
(if you were wondering what happening to Square Roots, that
is actually the power of 1/2 (half) - try 10 to the power of 0.5 on your
calculator, you'll get the same 3.16 result as the square root button.
Yes, it IS a nasty concept and I'm as confused as you are, so don't let
it put you off!)
So if a graph is plotted of numbers and their log values, the resulting line
(a bit of a curve!) can be used to find what the log is for ANY number, not just
nice round powers of ten. Of course a calculator is much easier :o)
You just have to be willing to accept that 10 to the power of 1.3 is 20
- it's nasty to understand but the graph says so! Note how each time a
number is doubled, the log goes up by 0.3 ...
It actually works out rather easily : multiply a number by 10 and its
log goes UP by 1, whereas DIVIDE a number by 10 and its log goes DOWN by 1,
so it all makes sense really. Multiply by 100, up goes the log by 2.
Here's where decibels come in. If you amplify a signal by 100 times, the log of the
amount of power increases by 2. A way of explaining
gains and losses to an amount of power in this way (only applies to power *),
is to use a unit named a bel (symbol B), the name
bel was coined in the early 20th century in honour
of the telecommunications pioneer Alexander Graham Bell. The signal is now 2 bels
stronger. However, in the real world it turns out to be a lot easier to work in
tenths of bels, and as the metric prefix for a tenth is deci, we end up with dB decibels (similarly
a dm decimetre is a tenth of a metre). Our signal, 100 times stronger than it
was, could be said to have risen by 2B, but you won't find whole bels used - more conventionally
we would say it has risen by 20dB (or gained 20dB).
* you may see decibels used with voltages, but the numbers are
adjusted such that they correspond to the correct rise/fall in power
We find dB being used when we record our amateur radio power in our logbooks using
dBW - the number of dB greater than 1 Watt. 10W is 10 times (1B or 10dB) more than
1W for example, so 10W is 10dBW. 2W is 2 times (0.3B or 3dB) more than 1W, so 2W
is 3dBW (remember above where a doubling made a change of 0.3 to the log?!).
Half a Watt is 2 times LESS than 1W, so it is -3dBW. 4W is 1W doubled and
then doubled again (3dB gain plus another 3dB gain), so 4W is 6dBW.
Here is where it starts to make sense that the log of 1 is 0 ... a 1W signal
is NO decibels at all (0dB) stronger or weaker than 1W!
If you get confused, use the formula :
dBW = 10 x log(Watts)
Or, on a scientific calculator :
enter the Watts ... press [log] ... [X] [1] [0] [=]
Once you've got the hang of it, you'll see you can often get by (or get close enough)
by just memorising a few combinations of gain/loss ratio versus dB gain/loss, i.e.
the ratio of 10 and 10dB, 2 and 3dB (and logically enough, 4 and 6dB, 8 and 9dB etc).
Multiplying by 5 is very close to gaining 7dB, but the remaining numbers
3,6,7 and 9 as ratios are not close to whole numbers of dB :
It's as simple as that! Once you understand the beauty of it, you'll probably find
it's easier to say a signal is "150dB weaker" than "1,000,000,000,000,000 times weaker".
Make it twice as strong again and you just add 3dB (-147dB now) rather then having
to divide 1,000,000,000,000,000 by two in your head!
In the real world it makes all sorts of huge numbers fit into a small range of digits.
For example, a test set measuring cell phone base station signal
strengths might display -20dBm (100 times less than a milliwatt) right next to
a base station, all the way down to -110dBm when the signal is so weak it is
not deemed fit to use for GSM. That's a collosal range of 90dB (1,000,000,000)
and yet it can be all be displayed with just 4 characters on the display (assuming
that the user knows that -102 is meant to mean -102dBm).
Hopefully you now know why putting your power up from 10W to 100W (10dB gain) makes the
same RELATIVE difference as from 100W to 1000W.
It is very handy to use dB figures when taking into account the many gains and
losses in a system. Instead of working with many multiplications, the nature of
the dB means we can simply add and subtract instead.
Suppose you start with a 1W UHF transmitter, boosted by a 10W amplifier. You connect
an antenna with x8 forwards gain, with a run of feeder cable that is long enough
to lose you half the power. Your signal travels far enough to a distant receiver that the signal
is a mere 1,000,000th of what it was at the sending antenna. What a pain to think in terms
of multiplying by 10, dividing by 2, multiplying by 8, dividing by 1,000,000 to consider the
received signal strength. Much easier to add the dB figures together : +10 -3 +9 -60 dB etc.
Any improvements made to the system such as using a shorter run of better coax, or raising the
power, mean that you can simply add the extra dB improvement figure directly to the existing
total. A proposed system can be easily budgeted by considering all the gains and losses from
one end of the link to the other (known as a Link Budget) to see if there is a sufficient overall gain to make
communication possible. It is simply easier to work with decibels rather than with
multiplication ratios.
dB are only used for POWER related comparisons - you wouldn't say that 2km is 3dBkm.
However, you may find dB used with voltages. In this case the number of dB is adjusted
to reflect the actual powers involved.
Because power is proportional to the SQUARE of
voltage *, the voltage decibels are double - 6dB means twice the voltage because
this results in 4 times the power (x2x2 = 3dB+3dB). So a 20 appears in formulas,
rather than a 10 :
dBuV = 20 x log(Voltage/0.000001)
* remember the formula "power = voltage squared divided by resistance"
As an example, a voltage is amplified 5 times (the power rises 25 times).
You can either take the log of 5 (0.7 approx) and multiply by 20 to get 14dB,
or you can square 5 to get the power increase straight away...
the log of 25 is 1.4 (approx), so it's still a 14dB gain in power either way.
A 10 times voltage increase makes a 20dB gain (100 times more power).
Note that we are using base 10 logs here. A log can be expressed relative
to any number, in fact many calculators have a [ln] key for logs in base "e",
where e (exponential) is a "natural" constant (Euler's) of about 2.718282 - don't ask!
You only hear scary stuff like 'the expression
"(1+1/m) to the power of m" approaches e' and 'ln(x) is the integral of 1/x' - yuk!
A useful unit for radio power, as the range from 1,000,000 W all the way down to the lowest
level of noise possible (in 1 Hz bandwidth at Absolute Zero) is contained numerically within the
range of +90 to -199 dBm.
There are 1000 mW to the Watt, so dBm is always 30dB more than the equivilant dBW figure.
The field strength is the root of Power density times the 377 Ohms impedance of freespace (120 x Pi),
because
Spreading Loss is all about how the power from a point in freespace is spread over an imaginary
sphere. A sphere of radius 1000m has a surface area of 4 x Pi x 1000 x 1000 = 12,566,371 square metres,
so the power is divided over this area and consequently any square metre of this 'surface' gets 1/12,566,371 of
the power radiated from an isotropic radiator (which radiates equally in all directions), 71dB less
than the ERP.
To work out the power density (or field strength) at other distances, consider that a sphere twice the radius (or
diameter) of a smaller sphere has FOUR times the surface area - so there is 'square law'. At 10km then, there is
100 times less power per square metre (and so 3.16 times less voltage field strength; the square root of 10), at
10 times closer (100m with our table) there is 100 times more. Frequency is irrelevant, a Watt is a Watt no matter
what the wavelength is - however a dipole antenna resonant at a particular freequency will pick up less signal
the higher the band, because the dipole will be smaller.
Received signal levels in cable connected to an antenna will thus vary depending upon 'aperture' (or capture area)
which is wavelength squared, divided by 4 pi for an isotropic antenna;
for example -21dB at 950 MHz, -4.67dB at 145 MHz, +9.6dB at 28 MHz (dB losses rise by 20 times the log of frequency rise).
So the power density in dBm/sq.m plus the antenna aperture, gives the received signal strength.
Alternatively working in voltages, we can use 'antenna factors' which amounts to the same thing as aperture,
taking the antenna size into account and a conversion from the 377 Ohms impedance 'in the air' down
to typically 50 Ohms in one go.
Most people associate the dB with loudness - the POWER of audio.
When someone with a handheld measuring device tells you your test shout
was 90dB this is technically meaningless because this is simply saying
that it was 1,000,000,000 times louder than something, something not actually
specified by just saying xx dB without saying xx dB relative to what.
A dB figure is a ratio, a comparison, and is
only ever properly used to compare one power amount to another. In audio terms
it's actually all relative to the quietest sound anyone can detect if made in an
otherwise absolutely silent room, but the proper dBA term is shortened to just dB.
Light isn't usually measured in dB, but it's still a POWER, and it may be interesting
to see the range involved. Light is measured in all sorts of complicated ways, with Lumens
of power being radiated from light sources being not as important as what falls upon, or
is reflected from, surfaces. Unless you take a lot of pictures of flames, lamps or take ill-advised
risks with the sun, you'll more usually be dealing with light levels falling onto other objects
that reflect the light back. Luminance is the light coming FROM a surface, which is
ILLuminance (light falling ON to a surface) times the reflective factor.
Illuminance is the equivilance of power density in radio terms - the power falling upon
on a square metre. The amusing old term Footcandle was 1 Lumen on a square foot of surface,
now metricated into Lux (1 Lumen on 1 square metre) with 10.76 FC = 1 Lux because there are
10.76 square feet in one square metre. I'll stop at around this level of complexity because
if you try to understand candelas, steradians and the like, it may make your head hurt at the first attempt
(as it still does for me).
Out of interest, apparently the equivalent of 1 Lux unit in Watts is a matter of human perception;
the response of our eyes varies with wavelength. A webpage
says that 0.0029 Watts of green light,
0.0015 Watts of yellow light, or a whopping .015 Watts of red light per square metre
will provide an illuminance of 1 Lux. The strength of the Sun (white light) at planet Earth's distance
is 62,840,000 Watts per square meter, with a Watts-Lux factor of about 0.002 giving 127,000 Lux.
Then I found "In very approximate terms it can be assumed that 270 Lux equates to 1 Watt/M2 light
power over a wide spectrum." ... argh!!
As for typical levels of light in Lux, not all webpages agree. The following table lists what seems
to be a general consensus.
This is a very basic table, with very vague categories, after just an hour or two of
limited research... so make of it what you will. One thing's for sure,
the human eye copes with a range of light levels over a million to one - although I've
yet to find what range it's comfortable with within a viewed scene at any one instant.
1000:1? (60dB?!!! argh...)
I'm still researching this (actually I've given up for now) so here are some pertinent
things and quotes for further confusion ... when I'm prepared to try and fathom it out..
would it make sense IN ANY WAY to think in terms of dB light levels? dB Lux?
"The typical range of brightness levels of adjacent areas that can be distinguished by eye is about
100:1 (with dark areas being swamped by bright areas). The human visual system has a very large
dynamic range, but limited precision within that range."
As far as photography is concerned, a 'stop' is a basic level of adjustment that amounts
to a doubling or halving of light levels.. i.e. investigate f stops, film speeds such as
100,200,400 etc., this will be a 3dB step? Exposure values (EV) also rise in sequence with
a doubling of light level; Lux = 2.5 x 2 ^(EV)
"Assumptions are that for the method of reflection measurement the important parts of the scene
will reflect 1/6 of (17%) of the incident light."
"The human eye does not perceive twice the intensity as being twice as bright. For a common example, photographers use their light meters on a "standard gray card" made to reflect 18% of the light falling on it. Metering from that card is used to calibrate middle gray (50% to our eye) in the hypothetical "average" scene. We see that 18% intensity as apparent 50% brightness."
Unlike film, video gain is expressed in decibels or dB, not f-stops: 6 dB equals one f-stop.
Each 6db of gain will double your sensitivity, therefore double your ASA.
(??!)
"A printed magazine image has a dynamic range well less than 2.0, maybe half of that (1.7). The blackest ink still reflects some light, the white paper is not so bright that it blinds us, and the difference is relatively small. Photographic color prints have a dynamic range of less than 2.0 too. Film negatives might have a range up near 2.8. Slides may be near 3.2. These are not precise numbers."
"Slides have less photographic range than negatives. Slides have perhaps about 5 or 6 f-stops of total scenic range, compared to perhaps 9 or 10 f-stops for negatives. Expose a slide half a stop off and the results are objectionable. Do that with negatives, and you never even realize it."
"But slide film itself has more contrast, a steeper gamma curve, and while the captured scenic tonal range may be less, the density extremes on the film can be greater. The extremes of slides are more likely to be clear or black, and contain greater dynamic range as seen at the scanner."
28 Apr 2004 Click > Return to the home page menu < Click |