The Return Loss Bridge is compact and rugged. It features passive components and simple construction. It is designed to measure impedance errors in a 75 Ω system in terms of return loss, using a wide-band, high-gain differential amplifier and oscilloscope (Tektronix 7A13/7000 Series) as the error detector. The Tektronix 011-0103-00 and 011-0103-01 are 75 Ω, 0.2% double-ended termination resistors supplied as removable bridge arms. Two matched coax cables extend the bridge arms and are permanently attached to the bridge. Either or both bridge arms can be disconnected for maximum flexibility, during calibration and in making measurements.

The bridge can be driven by a number of different sources such as TV test signals, squarewaves, sinewaves, sin2 pulses, multiburst or swept frequency sinewaves. With the Return Loss Bridge coupled to the differential amplifier and oscilloscope, a television test signal such as the multi-burst can be used to measure impedance errors over the complete video spectrum with a single measurement.