RF Sniffer

This is a tunable RF sniffer which acts as a field strength meter.  It is the design of the New Jersey QRP Club.  The sniffer was built Manhattan style on a board etched by Joe Porter, W0MQY.  Instead of punching out pads & gluing them to the board, they were etched into it along with traces.

The board was placed into a case that once housed the transmitter for a remote-controlled winch system.  The rubber duckie antenna in the top of the case is original equipment.  The meter is from an old CB and a 9V battery clip was installed on the bottom of the case.  The power switch was a surplus rocker switch found in my junk box.  I installed a lamp behind the meter and connected it to one of the original membrane pushbutton switches on the front of the unit.  I also drilled a hole for the tuning knob.  I then painted the front white and used rub-on lettering for the labels, then painted over that with clear spray paint.  I've found the sniffer to be quite sensitive.  It is supposed to operate in the HF range but I've found that it will also detect VHF signals.

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