Bird Technologies 5019D-Manual - Manual (Page 19)

7
Function Descriptions
Figure 1 Average and Peak Envelope Power -
Square Wave Signal
Average Power
Average power is a measure of the equivalent “heating”
power of a signal, as measured with a calorimeter. It mea-
sures the total RF power in the system, and does not depend
on number of carriers or modulation scheme. The WPS is a
broadband sensor that measures power across its entire fre-
quency range. Its diodes operate in their ‘square law’ region
so that the detector output is directly proportional to the
average power, without any additional error correction.
Average power is the most important measurement of any
transmission system since the average power is normally speci-
fied on the operating license. It is also valuable as a mainte-
nance tool, showing overall system health, and for calibration.