High Frequency EMF Meters

[rtareen]

TL;DR Summary

Looking for emf meters, none detect up to my required frequency.

Hello all,

I don't know if this is the correct place to post, but I'm looking to detect all electromagnetic waves around me that have a frequency that is under the visible spectrum. The reason is to try and get some kind of idea of what kind of radiation is around me, so that I can be more aware of my surroundings.

I tried looking for emf detectors but none can read anything that's over a few GHz. My requirement is atleast upto 100 THz. I am willing to buy multiple meters to cover the entire range if necessary, but I have no clue how to start looking.

 

[Baluncore]

What units of energy will you use, joules/octave ?
You can do much of that with a bolometer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolometer

 

[f95toli]

It is not a very well defined question.
100 THz is up into the infrared meaning some of that "radiation" will come from everything in your room radiating heat. Sure, you can detect this with a bolometer, but what is the point? You already know that your room will be around 300K (about 23 degrees C) so will emit 300K radiation...
Detecting "all EM radiation" with single instrument is not possible: at the low frequency end you will have things like 50Hz/60Hz (depending on where you live)magnetic fields from electrical equipment and at the high end just thermal radiation.
There is no single instrument that can detect the whole range (you would need LOTS of instruments for this), and for some of this range you will need some some very , very specialised kit (200-1500 GHz is especially tricky)

Moreover. the way the EM radiation behaves and interact is very, very different so it makes no sense to try to be "aware" of it all in the same way.

It might help if you explained a bit more what it is you are trying to do.

 

[rtareen]

What units of energy will you use, joules/octave ?
You can do much of that with a bolometer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolometer

I don't know what Ocatve is, so I would prefer joules. However I thought the meter would read just field strength and intensity at certain frequencies? What would the energy be, of the photons?

 

[rtareen]

It is not a very well defined question.
100 THz is up into the infrared meaning some of that "radiation" will come from everything in your room radiating heat. Sure, you can detect this with a bolometer, but what is the point? You already know that your room will be around 300K (about 23 degrees C) so will emit 300K radiation...
Detecting "all EM radiation" with single instrument is not possible: at the low frequency end you will have things like 50Hz/60Hz (depending on where you live)magnetic fields from electrical equipment and at the high end just thermal radiation.
There is no single instrument that can detect the whole range (you would need LOTS of instruments for this), and for some of this range you will need some some very , very specialised kit (200-1500 GHz is especially tricky)

Moreover. the way the EM radiation behaves and interact is very, very different so it makes no sense to try to be "aware" of it all in the same way.

It might help if you explained a bit more what it is you are trying to do.

I don't really want to get into the reason. Its very personal to me. About how many instruments do you think I will need to measure everything under visible? What is the range of a bolometer? All infrared?

 

[Baluncore]

What would the energy be, of the photons?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck–Einstein_relation

 

[berkeman]

About how many instruments do you think I will need to measure everything under visible?

I do this type of work fairly frequently. It requires several different spectrum analyzers, antenna systems and preamps. Total cost is several $100,000 at least. That's why we use local test labs to do this type of testing. If you are serious about doing this and are wealthy, I can provide contact information for the labs that we use.

BTW, this equipment is not real portable, unless you want to try to rent time from military SIGINT folks...

 

[rtareen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck–Einstein_relation

Thanks, but I wasn't asking what the energy of a photon is. I was actually asking what we are measuring the energy of.

 

[rtareen]

I do this type of work fairly frequently. It requires several different spectrum analyzers, antenna systems and preamps. Total cost is several $100,000 at least. That's why we use local test labs to do this type of testing. If you are serious about doing this and are wealthy, I can provide contact information for the labs that we use.

BTW, this equipment is not real portable, unless you want to try to rent time from military SIGINT folks...

Can I ping you in direct messages?

 

[berkeman]

Can I ping you in direct messages?

Normally we prefer that discussions happen in the open forums, but if you want to confide in me what your particular application/concern is, that would be appropriate for a private message (PM). Just click on my avatar and select "Start a Conversation".

 

[rtareen]

Normally we prefer that discussions happen in the open forums, but if you want to confide in me what your particular application/concern is, that would be appropriate for a private message (PM). Just click on my avatar and select "Start a Conversation".

Well what I was going to say was that while I cannot afford that price at the moment, hopefully in the future I will be able to. And then I was going to ask you where I can find my local testing lab. Or if not local, what are the names of some of these larger labs? If you really want to know why I want to do this I can tell you that in the PM.