NARDA NBM-550 User manual

NBM-550
Narda Broadband Field Meter
Operating manual
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals
www.atecorp.com 800-404-ATEC (2832)
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Narda Safety Test Solutions GmbH
Sandwiesenstraße 7
72793 Pfullingen, Germany
® Names and Logo are registered trade-
marks of Narda Safety Test Solutions GmbH
and L3 Communications Holdings, Inc. –
Trade names are trademarks of the owners.
© 2009
Order no.: 2401/98.21
Version: 04/09.08, A ...
Previous version: 03/08.10, A ...
Subject to change.
Our normal guarantee and delivery terms
apply.
Printed in Germany
This product is protected by the following patents:
China Design Patent ZL 2006 3 0303322.X
China Design Patent ZL 2006 3 0190679.1
European Design Patent 000594254-001
European Design Patent 000597836-0001
U.S. Design Patent No. US D570,235 S

Narda NBM-550 I
Contents
1 Useful information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Measuring electromagnetic fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 About this instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 About this operating manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Structure of this operating manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
User interface language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Characters and symbols used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Safety instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Using this operating manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Proper use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Improper use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 Dangers from electromagnetic fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Strong Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Measurement Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Probe is not operating properly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.5 Dangers when handling rechargeable batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.6 Dangers from AC Adapter / Charger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 Preparing the NBM-550 for use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1 Unpacking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Items included. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Unpacking the probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Transport damage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Equipping the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
After transport and storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Contents
II NBM-550 Narda
3.2 Instrument overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 Power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Operation from rechargeable batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Charge state and power source indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4 Connecting the probe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Probe with “Push-Pull” connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Probe with threaded coupling connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.5 Fitting the GPS module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6 Using the table top tripod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1 Switching on. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Self test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
GPS reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 The NBM-550 operating concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Measurement screen overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The menu levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Navigating in the menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.3 Making basic settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Selecting the language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Setting the auto zero adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Setting the auto off function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Setting the backlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Setting the contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Changing the display units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Changing the units format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Setting the date and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Changing the GPS display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Selecting the field type and units for combination probes . . . . . 34
Locking the keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Contents
Narda NBM-550 III
5 Measuring with the NBM-550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.1 Avoiding measurement errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Electrostatic charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Changes in temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Strong low frequency fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2 Measuring in Normal display mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Selecting the result type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Freezing a measured value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Storing a measured value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Add voice comments (optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Setting the averaging time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.3 Measuring the spatial average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Measuring discrete values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Measuring values continuously. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.4 Measuring in History display mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Display overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Evaluating the curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Storing the graphical record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.5 Measuring in XYZ display mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Display overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.6 Measuring in Monitor display mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Display overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.7 Activating the alarm function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.8 Audible Indicator (hot spot search) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.9 Measuring with a test standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Possible displays when using a test standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.10 Measuring with a correction frequency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Contents
IV NBM-550 Narda
6 Recording and managing measured values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.1 Storage types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.2 Recording measurements by timer control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Setting the recording parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Starting the recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.3 Recording conditional measurements (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Setting the recording parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Starting / stopping the recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.4 Managing result data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Using the Memory Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Using the Data Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Data Viewer display examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7 Setup and configure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.1 Configuring the interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.2 Saving and loading instrument settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Menu overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.3 Displaying instrument and probe information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.4 Using the NBM-550 as a controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.5 Activating instrument options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8 PC software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.1 Using the PC software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Minimum system requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.2 Connecting the NBM-550. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.3 Working with the PC software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.4 Updating the firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.5 Performing a reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Contents
Narda NBM-550 V
9 Overview of all menus and functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
9.1 Measurement menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
9.2 Main menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9.3 Measurement Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Page 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Page 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
9.4 Data Logger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
9.5 Memory Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
9.6 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.7 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9.8 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
9.9 Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10 Instrument maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10.1 Cleaning the instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.2 Replacing / removing the batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10.3 Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Rechargeable batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Instrument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
10.4 Checking instrument functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Appropriate test sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
11 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
11.1 Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
11.2 Measurement functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
11.3 Result memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.4 Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.5 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11.6 General specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.7 Standards compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
11.8 AC Adapter / Charger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
11.9 CE Declaration of Conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
11.10 Declaration of origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Contents
VI NBM-550 Narda
12 Ordering information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12.1 NBM-550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
12.2 Probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
12.3 Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
13 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Narda NBM-550 1
1Useful information
This chapter contains basic information about measuring
electromagnetic fields, about using the NBM-550, and about
the structure of this operating manual.
1.1 Measuring electromagnetic fields (page 2)
1.2 About this instrument (page 2)
1.3 About this operating manual (page 4)

1 Useful information
2 NBM-550 Narda
1.1 Measuring electromagnetic fields
In today’s world, practically everyone lives and works in an
environment surrounded by technical equipment that
generates electromagnetic fields. Our recognition of the
problems associated with such fields and our depth of
information in this area has increased as the effects of such
fields on the human body have been examined more
closely. Various authorities have long defined limit values
designed to protect users from the dangers of exposure to
such emissions.
1.2 About this instrument
The Narda Broadband Field Meter NBM-550 provides
virtually everyone concerned with this subject with an
instrument for measuring non-ionizing radiation with utmost
accuracy within the frequency range from 100 kHz to
60 GHz (depending on the probe used). The instrument has
a wide range of functions, yet it is very easy to use. It also
features a handy design, robust casing, long battery life, and
high measurement accuracy.
Probes for various measurement applications are
connected to the NBM-550 basic unit. Flat frequency
response probes are available, as well as so-called shaped
probes that evaluate the field according to a specific human
safety standard. These probes are calibrated separately
from the measuring instrument, and include a non-volatile
memory containing the probe parameters and calibration
data. They can therefore be used with any instrument in the
NBM-500 family without any loss in calibration accuracy.
The PC software supplied with the instrument allows you to
remote control the NBM-550 as well as to export saved
measurement data and to analyze the results.