LAB # 1

BAHRIA UNIVERSITY KARACHI CAMPUS

Department of Electrical Engineering

WAVE PROPAGATION & ANTENNA

LAB EXPERIMENT # 01

Measuring the Characteristics of a Transmission Line

OBJECTIVES:

(a) To understand the characteristics of Transmission.

(b) To measure the characteristics of Transmission line.

TOOLS:

(1) Transmission Line Trainer ST-2266.

(2) Digital Oscilloscope
(3) LCR Meter
(4) Digital Multimeter

THEORY:
Characteristic of a shielded line: The coaxial lines used for the transmission of electromagnetic
waves consist of an external conductor of cylindrical shape, with an inner conductor arranged along
the axis of the former. The two conductors are separated by dielectric material of suitable features.
One of the advantages of this kind of lines is that these lines are intrinsically self-shielding, due to the
geometry of the arrangement of the two conductors. Moreover the shielding features of the coaxial
lines improve when the frequency increases.

Equivalent Circuit Representation of a Transmission Line:

Since each conductor has a certain length and diameter, it must have resistance and inductance, since
there are two wires close to each other, there must be capacitance between them. Finally, the wires
are separated by a medium called the dielectric, which cannot be perfect in its insulation; the current

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leakage through it can be represented by a shunt conductance. The resulting equivalent circuit is as
shown in Fig. 1. Note that all the quantities shown are proportional to the length of the line, and
unless measured and quoted per unit length, they are meaningless.

Figure 1.1: General equivalent circuit of transmission line

From the electric point of view, a coaxial line can be considered as a cascade of line trunks. Each one
of them can be represented as being composed of resistive, inductive and capacitive circuit elements
of concentrated kind, as shown in the figure 1.1.

Characteristic Impedance of a Transmission Line:

Characteristic impedance of a transmission line is its input impedance if it was infinitely long. Refer
to the transmission line equivalent circuit of Figure 1.2. It can be proved with simple mathematics
that the characteristic impedance of this line is given by:

Z = √(𝑅 + 𝑗𝜔𝐿)/(𝐺 + 𝑗𝜔𝐶 Eq. 1.1

Where,

R = Distributed resistance per unit length

L = Distributed inductance per unit length
G = Distributed shunt conductance per unit length
C = Distributed Shunt capacitance per unit length

In a loss less transmission line R = 0, G = 0

Therefore,
Characteristic Impedance (Z0) is,
Z0 = √𝐿/𝐶 Eq. 1.2

The input impedance of a finite line terminated in its characteristic impedance is equal to its
characteristic impedance only. See Fig. 1.2.

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Figure 1.2: Characteristic impedance circuit

The transmission characteristics of a line are described in terms of propagation constant  and of
characteristic impedance Z0. These parameters are typical values for each single line. The same is
true for the capacitance, the inductance, the resistance and the conductance for length unit. In the
telecommunications field, these values are generally expressed per meter or kilometer, for practical
reasons. In this case, the symbol used to indicate these magnitudes are the common symbols.

This experiment measures the characteristic parameters such as R, L, C, G, Z0 and r for the
transmission line included in this trainer.

PROCEDURE:

1. Figure 1.3 shows the modalities for the measurement to be performed.

2. Make connections as in figure 1.3.
3. Both the inductance and the ohmic resistance of the line are measured in series by short-
circuiting end of the line and connecting the measuring instruments to the start of the line. The
capacitance and the conductance are measured in parallel by operating on the open line.
4. The resistance R and the conductance G can be measured with an ohmmeter or DMM. For the
conductance to be measured an ohmmeter is required which is able to perform resistance
measurements with a range greater than 100 M.
5. For the measurement of series inductance L and the parallel capacitance C, a LCR meter or
measuring bridge is required. The results of these measurements give values of R, L, C and G
referred to the cable length that, in our case, is of 100 meters.

Z0 can be measured by using the following formula:

Z0 = √𝐿/𝐶

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Figure 1.3: Transmission Line Trainer

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CALCULATION:

Cable Length Resistance (R) Inductance (L) Capacitance (C) Conductance (G)

25 Meters

50 Meters

75 Meters

100 Meters

Cable Length Characteristics Impedance (Z0)

25 Meters

50 Meters

75 Meters

100 Meters

CONCLUSION:
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