What Are Radio Frequency Fields?

Radio frequency fields (or “RF” fields) – including microwaves and 5G – refers to the high frequency EMFs emitted by cell towers, cell phones, smart meters, Wi-Fi routers, wireless computers, iPads, baby monitors, TV and radio broadcast towers, microwave ovens, and many other wireless sources, including 5G.

RF Test Meters

For detecting RF fields, it is important to use a meter which can detect a wide range of frequencies.  For example, the 5.8 GHz cordless phone frequency is not detected by many lower cost RF meters (especially the older ones).  We generally recommend using an RF meter that detects frequencies from at least 200 MHZ up to 8 GHz.

Single-Axis Antenna is Okay

And although it is very helpful to use a triple-axis antenna type of RF meter (contains three internal antenna directions), these meters are relatively rare and much more expensive.  For most RF testing, a triple-axis antenna is not critical, especially if you know how to use a single-axis RF meter (only one antenna direction) by twisting it around into various orientations and looking for the strongest reading.

Our Recommendation for Most People

For most people, we recommend the Safe and Sound Pro II meter.  The Acoustimeter AM-10 and AM11 meters also had a similar performance to the Safe and Sound Pro II, but are no longer available.  And have a similar frequency range, detecting RF fields from 200 MHZ up to 8 GHz.  (This includes Low-Band and Mid-Band 5G, which are the overwhelming majority of the 5G signals today.) They are all very good meters for detecting modern digital wireless signals.

Millimeter Wave Meters

The new High-Band frequency range of 5G uses frequencies called millimeter waves. At this time, it you want to detect these higher frequencies you need to get a special millimeter wave detector. We recommend the Safe and Sound Pro Millimeter Wave Meter for this purpose.  FYI at this time, only a very small percentage of 5G uses the millimeter waves (probably less than 1%). 

GigaHertz Solutions Meters

In general, the Gigahertz Solutions meters provide the most accurate measurements. But they tend to have 2 important drawbacks. First, they are generally more expensive. And second, they are usually more difficult to set up and use properly (requiring multiple settings and attachments).

Lower Cost Alternatives

If you are looking for a good small simple meter, with sufficient accuracy, and at a lower cost — we recommend the the 
Safe and Sound Classic III.  The Acousticom-2 meter is similar but it is no longer available.  Both of these meters detect frequencies form 200 MHz up to 8 GHz.

Lowest Cost Alternative

Although we don’t usually recommend it for RF testing (it is more useful for magnetic field testing), the TriField TF2 meter can offer some useful RF measurements – as long as you are not trying to measure very low level (weaker) signals. For example, if you are committed to finding a very “clean” RF environment, the TriField TF2 may lead you to believe that there are no significant RF signals in a particular location while a higher quality meter might detect a certain amount. Even for stronger RF signals its performance is limited, but it is still a great value considering its price, and for all that it does (roughly measures 3 different kinds of EMFs).

Meters to Avoid

While the quality of meters varies greatly, most RF test meters under $200 – especially the combination meters that measure more than one type EMF in the same instrument – often have serious accuracy and quality issues.  Therefore we generally don’t recommend them.

We do not recommend the TriField 100XE (older model) for measuring RF signals, due to a variety of concerns, including not having been designed for digital signals.

And although it still has some very valuable features, we no longer recommend the TES 593 meter due to recent quality and manufacturing concerns, and an outdated design (difficulty with some modern digital signals).

For more information on the meters, please refer to the individual links above for each meter.