[Physics] How to find the intensity of this radio wave

electricityelectromagnetic-radiation

Now, I'm not sure if this is enough information to go off, but I'll give it a shot.

I'm trying to find the intensity of an electromagnetic wave using the formula $\frac{1}{2} c \epsilon_0 E_0^2$, however I'm not sure how to find E.

The radio wave has a frequency of 1600 kHz, giving it a period of 625 nanoseconds and wavelength of 187.37 meters. According to my oscilloscope, the radio wave (travelling through air) has an amplitude of 2.5 mV.

Is it possible to find E and the intensity of the wave from this info?

Best Answer

A handheld "transistor" radio receives around 1MHz band, wavelength 300m. All receive antennas in that band are tiny compared to the wavelength for the dominant noise is atmospheric not thermal noise in the amplifier, so it does not matter much how efficient is the receive antenna.

For such signals most receive antennas are ferrite loaded resonant coils whose received open circuit voltage and power in the load are approximately: $$V_{oc}=-\iota \omega \mu_e \mu_0 N (\pi a^2) |H_i| $$ $$P_{rec} = \frac{(Q k_0 Z_0 N (\pi a^2))^2 |H_i|^2 }{8R_L}$$ where $Q=\frac{R}{\omega L}$, the magnetic field $H_i$ points along the axis of the coil of radius $a$ and length $\mathcal l$ whose inductance is $L=\mu_e \mu_0 N^2 \frac{\pi a^2}{\mathcal l}$.

For further details I suggest you read Collin: Antennas and Radiowave Propagation, chapter 5.3

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