CONCEPTS AND
APPLICATIONS OF
LOGARITHMIC UNITS
BY- B. B. KHANNA
Our ears can compress sound
waves
The muscles of the iris can contract or dilate the pupils to adjust the
amount of light coming into our eyes. In an analogous way, the middle
ear has a mechanism which can adjust the intensity of sound waves
striking our eardrums. This adjustment enables us to discriminate very
small changes in the intensity of quiet sounds, but to be much less
sensitive to volume changes in louder noises. This means that the
human ear can safely hear a huge range of very soft to very loud
sounds.
Logarithms and the decibel
scale
If you hear a sound of a certain loudness, and
then are asked to choose a sound that is twice as
loud as the first sound, the sound you choose will
in fact be about ten times the intensity of the
first sound. For this reason, a logarithmic scale,
one that goes up by powers of ten, is used to
measure the loudness of a sound. The exponent
of a number (here we use only 10) is its
logarithm. Example of a base 10 logarithm:
10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 10,000 = 10 4
log10 10,000 = log 10,000 = 4
What is a decibel?
Decibel (dB), is a specific function that operates
on a unitless parameter
dB= 10 log10 (x)
where x is
unitless
Why unitless parameter?
Ans. Many values are unitless, such as ratios and
coefficients
For example, amplifier gain is unitless
value!
e.g. amplifier gain is the ratio of the output
power to the input power:
So, Gain in dB= 10 log10 G= G (dB)
Bels and Decibels
The unit used to compare the
intensity of sounds was
originally the Bel (in
commemoration of the work
of Alexander Graham Bell),
which was the logarithm of
the intensity ratio 10:1. This
unit was considered too large
to be useful, so a unit one
tenth the size of a Bel, the
decibel (dB), was adopted.
Value of dB indicates:
1)
+ve dB = P2 > P1
2)
-ve dB= P2 < P1
3)
0 dB= P2 = P1
Thus, dB is used to indicate gain or loss in a
system like amplifier or attenuator,
respectively
Voltage or current ratios
The power dissipated in a circuit is given by
The value in dB can be calculated as
Standard dB values
10 log10 (10) = 10 dB
so, amplifier with gain G=10 will be said to
have a gain of 10 dB
G= 10n
G (dB) = 10n
10 log10 (2n) = n 10 log10 (2) 3n
STANDARD
REFERENCE LEVELS
USED IN
BROADCASTING
dBw
i.e., power is normalized w.r.t 1 W of power
used when amount of power involved is
high
e.g. if P= 100 W
Then, P(dBw) = +20 dBw
Or P= 1mW
Then P (dBw)= -30 dBw
Example: EIRP of transmitter
used
in
satellite
communication is expressed in
dBw
EIRP= Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
Let a 10 kW power of a transmitter is
connected to a cable of loss 3 dB and an
antenna of gain 10 dB. The power output
from the antenna to space is calculated as:
Input power to cable: 10 kW
Loss in cable: 3 dB
Output from the cable: 5 kW
Gain of antenna =10 dB
Output from antenna or EIRP = 50 kW
dBm
i.e., power in dB w.r.t 1 W of power which is
0.774 volt across 600 ohms
e.g. if P= 100 Watts
P (dBm) = +50 dBm
If P= 1 mW
P(dBm) = 0 dBm
dBu
0.7746 volts is reference level (need not be
measured across 600 ohms)
In AIR and DD : used in Meltron/ Keltron
Audio Consoles
+ 8 dBu = 1.946 volt or 8 dB above
reference level
The output of monitoring amplifier= 8 watts
= +39 dBu
dBv
When reference level is taken as 1 V
dBv/m
When reference level is 1 v/m
Unit is used in field strength measurements
dBk
When 1 kW is used as reference level
Used in high power calculation
To convert power in watts to dBk,
dBk= 10 (log P - 3)
To convert from dBk to watts,
P(watts)= antilog (dBk/10 + 3)
Volume Unit (VU)
The VU is the conventional unit for measurement of
speech level. A VU can be related to a dBm only with a
sinusoidal tone (a simple tone of one frequency)
between 35 Hz and 10,000 Hz. The following
relationship will be helpful:
Power level in dBm = VU 1.4 dB (for complex audio
signals).
One might ask: If the level reading on a broadcasters
program channel is 11 VU, what would the equivalent
be in dBm? Reading in VU 1.4 dB = reading in dBm.
Thus the answer is 11 VU 1.4 dB = 12.4 dBm.
Multiplicative products and
decibels
10log10 [x y ] = 10log10 [x ]+10log10 [y ]
10log10 [x/y] =10log10 [x ] - 10log10 [y ]
Pout = G Pin
EXAMPLES
Question 1
Find gain of amplifier which delivers output
power of 5 watts to its load when given an
input power of 5 milliwatts
Solution 1
Question 2
The power supplied to a sound programme
line is 6 mW. The power at the receiving end
is 6 mW.
What is line attenuation?
Log 2= 0.3010
Log 6= 0.7781
Solution 2
Question 3
The input and output impedance of an
amplifier are equal. A tone signal of 0.1 V
produces an output voltage of 50 V. What is
gain of amplifier in dB
Log 5= 0.698
Solution 3
Question 4
In TVRO, the signal received at the
parabolic dish antenna is about -120 dBm.
Find out the equivalent power.
Solution 4
QUESTION 5
Power P1= 6 dBm is combined with power
P2= 10 dBm
What is resulting total power?
Solution 5
P1= 6 dBm
=4 mW
P2= 10 dBm
= 10 mW
PT= P1 + P2
= 4 mW + 10 mW
= 14 mW
PT(dBm)= 11.46 dBm
