{"id":16731,"date":"2026-03-25T08:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/?p=16731"},"modified":"2026-03-25T08:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:52:20","slug":"improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving sensitivity of my homebrew N5ESE RF probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cDwxjTtTKFQ?si=ELhTBtDsn86Mtgg1\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My homebrew <a href=\"https:\/\/n5ese.com\/rfprobe1.htm\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/n5ese.com\/rfprobe1.htm\">N5ESE Classic RF probe<\/a> had shown very low voltages when I measured 5W output from my FT-710 radio to a homebrew 5W dummy load. Possible reason was that I was using 4.7 M resistor in the circuit, though N5ESE had suggested lowering the value according to the impedance of the multimeter. 4.7 M resistor was for a nominal 11 M multimeter impedance. The maximum which I could get for my digital multimeter was only about 1 M in the highest DC voltage range. So I removed the 4.7 M resistor in the probe and replaced it with a 470 K resistor, near to the 430 K resistor suggested by N5ESE. Now the measurements look much more reasonable!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My homebrew N5ESE Classic RF probe had shown very low voltages when I measured 5W output from my FT-710 radio to a homebrew 5W dummy load. Possible reason was that I was using 4.7 M resistor in the circuit, though N5ESE had suggested lowering the value according to the impedance of the multimeter. 4.7 M [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amateur-radio-ham-radio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Improving sensitivity of my homebrew N5ESE RF probe - Johnson&#039;s Techworld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improving sensitivity of my homebrew N5ESE RF probe - Johnson&#039;s Techworld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My homebrew N5ESE Classic RF probe had shown very low voltages when I measured 5W output from my FT-710 radio to a homebrew 5W dummy load. Possible reason was that I was using 4.7 M resistor in the circuit, though N5ESE had suggested lowering the value according to the impedance of the multimeter. 4.7 M [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Johnson&#039;s Techworld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T02:52:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T02:52:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-N5ESE-RF-probe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"841\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Johnson Francis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Johnson Francis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Johnson Francis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6201c843e80ccd3578e6196b1d007027\"},\"headline\":\"Improving sensitivity of my homebrew N5ESE RF probe\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-25T02:52:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-25T02:52:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":124,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6201c843e80ccd3578e6196b1d007027\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/Improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-N5ESE-RF-probe.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Amateur Radio (Ham Radio)\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/johnsonfrancis.org\\\/techworld\\\/improving-sensitivity-of-my-homebrew-n5ese-rf-probe\\\/\",\"name\":\"Improving sensitivity of my homebrew N5ESE RF probe - 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