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What is SINAD: SINAD Measurements

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9-12 minute

SINAD - Signal to Noise and Distortion is a measure of receiver

sensitivity performance used for many radio receivers and
radio communications systems.

Radio Receiver Sensitivity Includes:

Receiver sensitivity basics Signal to noise ratio SINAD
Noise Figure, NF Noise floor Reciprocal mixing

SINAD, Signal to Noise and Distortion is a widely used measure of

radio receiver sensitivity performance. It is often used for FM and
VHF / UHF based systems but also used for many other radio
systems as well.

SINAD is a very convenient method of including a variety of signal

degradation issues into a single measurement so that an overall
measurement of the system performance can be assessed.

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Analogue PMR446 radio performance can be specified in terms of

SINAD

What is SINAD?

SINAD is a measurement that can be used for any radio

communication device to look at the degradation of the signal by
unwanted or extraneous signals - in particular noise and distortion.
However the SINAD measurement is most widely used for
measuring and specifying the sensitivity of a radio receiver.

The actual definition of SINAD is quite straightforward. It can be

summarised as the ratio of the total signal power level (Signal +
Noise + Distortion) to unwanted signal power (Noise + Distortion).
Accordingly, the higher the figure for SINAD, the better the quality
of the audio signal.

The SINAD figure is expressed in decibels (dB) and can be

determined from the simple SINAD formula or equation:

Where:
SND = combined Signal + Noise + Distortion power level
ND = combined Noise + Distortion power level

It is worth noting that SINAD is a power ratio and not a voltage ratio
for this calculation.

Basic SINAD measurement techniques

To make the measurement a signal modulated with an audio tone is

entered into the radio receiver. A frequency of 1 kHz is taken as the

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standard as it falls in the middle of the audio bandwidth. A

measurement of the whole signal, i.e. the signal plus noise plus
distortion is made. As the frequency of the tone is known, the
regenerated audio is passed through a notch filter to remove the
tone. The remaining noise and distortion is then measured.

Although it is most common to measure the electrical output at the

radio receiver audio output terminals, another approach that is not
as widely used, is to pass the signal into the loudspeaker and then
use a transducer connected to SINAD meter to convert the audio
back into an electrical signal. This will ensure that any distortion
included by the speaker is incorporated, and it may overcome
problems with gaining access to the speaker connections in certain
circumstances where this may not be possible.

Obtaining the figures for the signal plus noise plus distortion and
the noise plus distortion it is then possible to calculate the value of
SINAD for the radio receiver of other piece of equipment.
Only noise &
distortion
Audio tone with
noise & distortion

Notch Audio level

filter meter

Signal
Receiver
Generator

Audio level
Signal modulated meter
with a tone
System for measuring SINAD

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While the measurements for SINAD can be made using individual

items of test equipment, a number of SINAD meters are made
commercially. These SINAD meters incorporate all the required
circuitry and can be connected directly to radio receivers to make
the measurements. Accordingly SINAD meters are a particularly
convenient method of making these measurements.

SINAD measurement filter

It can be seen that a filter is required to notch out the tone in the
SINAD measurement. As might be expected this filter shape and
performance have an effect on any measurements that are made.

In an ideal world the filter would have an infinitely sharp notch so

that only the modulating tone is removed. However in the real world
the filter will have a finite bandwidth. As its bandwidth increases, so
it will remove noise and distortion as well as the tone. As the
distortion products will typically result from the second and third
harmonics of the tone, the filter will not have a noticeable effect on
this element of the reading, but it will affect the noise level readings.

In view of this problem some standards set down specifications or

guidelines for the filter used in the SINAD measurement. ETSI
-European Telecommunications Standards Institute - defines a
notch filter (ETR 027). With the standard tone frequency of 1 kHz, it
states that a filter used for SINAD measurements shall be such that
the output the 1000 Hz tone shall be attenuated by at least 40 dB
and at 2000 Hz the attenuation shall not exceed 0.6 dB. The filter
characteristic shall be flat within 0.6 dB over the ranges 20 Hz to
500 Hz and 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz. In the absence of modulation the
filter shall not cause more than 1 dB attenuation of the total noise

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power of the audio frequency output of the receiver under test.

In addition to the filter performance another critical area of a SINAD

measurement is the measurement of the output signal power
levels. These have to be a true power measurements that
accommodate the different form factors of the variety of waveforms,
i.e. sine wave for the 1 kHz tone and its harmonics, but the noise
will be random and have a different form factor.

SINAD applications & measurements

Although SINAD measurements are most widely used to give an

assessment of receiver performance, they can be sued in a variety
of manners to provide useful system performance information.

Receiver sensitivity: The most common use of the SINAD

measurement is to assess the sensitivity performance of a radio
receiver. To achieve this the sensitivity can be assessed by
determining the RF input level at the antenna that is required to
achieve a given figure of SINAD. Normally a SINAD value of 12 dB
is taken as this corresponds to a distortion factor of 25%, and a
modulating tone of 1 kHz is used. It is also necessary to determine
other conditions. For AM it is necessary to specify the depth of
modulation and for FM the level of deviation is required. For FM
analogue systems ETSI specifies the use of a deviation level of
12.5% of the channel spacing.
A typical specification might be that a radio receiver has a
sensitivity of 0.25 µV for a 12 dB SINAD. Obviously the lower the
input voltage needed to achieve the given level of SINAD, the
better the receiver performance. The figure of a 12dB SINAD is
normally used for a given input voltage. The input voltage required

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for this tends to be the comparison factor.

Receiver blocking: SINAD can be used to form the basis of a

receiver blocking measurement. As with other similar
measurements a reference SINAD sensitivity level is found. The
level of the SINAD signal is increased by 3 dB at the antenna. An
un-modulated off channel signal is then added and its level raised
until the receiver desensitises to an extent whereby the reference
SINAD level is reached.

Adjacent channel rejection: This parameter is a measure of the

ability of the receiver to reject signals on a nearby channel. As the
adjacent channel performance degrades, so the levels of noise and
extraneous signals will increase, thereby degrading the SINAD
performance.
An initial measurement of SINAD is made at a given level and this
is known as the reference sensitivity. The RF input level of the
signal for the SINAD measurement is then increased by 3 dB at the
receiver antenna input. A second source or signal with modulated
with a 400 Hz tone is added with its frequency set to an adjacent
channel or at a specific offset from the carrier source used for the
basic SINAD measurement. It will be found that the interfering
signal will cause the 400 Hz tone to appear in the audio of the
receiver as its level is increased. This will be seen as a degradation
in the SINAD as the 400 Hz tone will pass through the SINAD
meter notch filter.

With the measurement system set up, the interfering signal level is
raised until the SINAD value is degraded to the original value
obtained at the reference sensitivity. Then the ratio of the interfering
signal level to the wanted signal is the adjacent channel rejection.

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SINAD is a particularly useful measurement format that can be

used to determine the performance of a radio receiver under a
variety of conditions. Although SINAD is primarily used to specify
the basic sensitivity performance of many radio receivers, it can be
used for other parameters as well.

Although it has traditionally typically been used for FM based

systems, its use is equally applicable to AM and SSB, and it finds
applications for many fixed or mobile radio communications
systems including two way radio communications links. It may also
be used for digital radio systems as well, although this is not
common practice as a measurement known as bit error rate, BER,
is more widely used.

SINAD is a particularly useful form of measurement. Although

normally used to define the sensitivity of a radio receiver, it can also
be used to look at other items like individual elements in a radio
system as well as for issues like radio blocking and other similar
occurrences.

Although not really applicable to many digital radio systems where

measurements like bit error rate and EVM may be more applicable,
SINAD is nevertheless very useful for many analogue areas of a
communications system.

More Essential Radio Topics:

Radio Signals Modulation types & techniques Amplitude
modulation Frequency modulation OFDM RF mixing
Phase locked loops Frequency synthesizers Passive
intermodulation RF attenuators RF filters Radio receiver
types Superhet radio Receiver selectivity Receiver
sensitivity Receiver strong signal handling

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