While LCR meters are readily available at reasonable cost, they do not measure the Q of an inductor. This circuit enables you to measure the Q of inductors with the aid of an RF signal generator. A capacitor is connected in parallel with the inductor to form a tuned circuit. By varying the frequency, you can measure the resonance frequency of the tuned circuit and its -3dB bandwidth. The Q is then the resonance frequency divided by the -3dB bandwidth. Transistor Q1 is an emitter follower acting as input buffer to drive RF transformer T1. The secondary winding of T1 then drives the parallel tuned circuit formed by the inductor under test (Lx), T1’s secondary and tuning capacitor VC. The tuned circuit so formed is buffered by JFET Q2 and transistor Q3 which form a cascode stage with about 3dB of gain. The JFET provides a high impedance so that the loading of the tuned circuit is minimal (note: an MPF102 can be substituted if you cannot obtain a 2N5485). The RF output from Q2's collec...