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Decibel Arithmetics
Decibel Arithmetics
Appendix B
The decibel, often called dB, is widely used in radar system analysis and
design. It is a way of representing the radar parameters and relevant quantities
in terms of logarithms. The unit dB is named after Alexander Graham Bell,
who originated the unit as a measure of power attenuation in telephone lines.
By Bells definition, a unit of Bell gain is
P
log -----0
Pi
(B.1)
where the logarithm operation is base 10, P 0 is the output power of a standard
telephone line (almost one mile long), and P i is the input power to the line. If
voltage (or current) ratios were used instead of the power ratio, then a unit Bell
gain is defined as
V0 2
log -----
Vi
I0 2
log ----
Ii
or
(B.2)
1
(B.3)
dB 10
V 0 V i = 10
dB 20
I 0 I i = 10
dB 20
503
(B.4)
Decibels are widely used by radar designers and users for several reasons.
Perhaps the most important of them all is that utilizing dBs drastically reduces
the dynamic range that a designer or a user has to use. For example, an incoming radar signal may be as weak as 0.000000001V , which can be expressed in
dBs as 10 log ( 0.000000001 ) = 90dB . Alternatively, a target may be located
(B.5)
(B.6)
10 log A = q 10 log A
(B.7)
Other dB ratios that are often used in radar analysis include the dBsm (dB squared meters). This definition is very important when referring to target
RCS, whose units are in squared meters. More precisely, a target whose RCS is
2
get is often referred to as 10dBsm target, and a target with RCS 0.01m is
equivalent to a 20dBsm .
Finally, the units dBm and dBW are power ratios of dBs with reference to
one milliwatt and one Watt, respectively.
P
dBm = 10 log -------------
1mW
(B.8)
P
dBW = 10 log --------
1W
(B.9)
To find dBm from dBW, add 30 dB, and to find dBW from dBm, subtract 30
dB.
2000 by Chapman & Hall/CRC