Choosing a RF Detector Circuit for my Sweep Generator
I'm going to be radical, and suggest a break with the 1970's.

RF detectors have become a much more mainstream kind of thing.  Your smartphone (and probably the cellphone you used to have) has an RF level detector in it to monitor its own power output.   There are absolute boatloads of integrated RF detectors to choose from.

For your use case, you'd probably want a detector with log response, and a fairly wide dynamic range (say maybe 40dB.)  Too little would be frustrating.  Too much would be expensive.

You also only want to cover the RF range your generator can produce.

As an example, Analog Devices has a bunch of detectors with various frequency ranges and dynamic ranges.

At a quick look, the LT5537 seems like a good place to start.

0Hz to 1GHz, 83 dB, and cheap.

The circuit itself is pretty simple:



You get linearity, and predictable response.  Uncalibrated, it'll probably outperform anything you could build out of discrete parts.

You will have to make a small PCB, and solder SMD parts.



I don't work for Analog.  Don't get kickbacks for recommending them, either.  They were just the first example of the kind of part I meant that Google found.

Max, and Linear, and probably others make them, too.