frequentietellers

Frequentieteller is a Dutch term for a frequency counter, a measuring instrument or software that determines the frequency of a periodic signal or the rate of occurrence of discrete events. In electronics and metrology, a frequentieteller reports frequency in hertz by counting input cycles within a precisely defined gate time and computing frequency as counts divided by the gate duration.

Two common implementations are hardware frequency counters (in dedicated test equipment) and software-based counters (in data acquisition or signal analysis programs). Many modern oscilloscopes include built-in frequency counting modes.

Important performance characteristics include accuracy, resolution, and stability of the reference clock, as well as gate time. Longer gate times improve accuracy but reduce update rate.

Applications include calibration of oscillators and RF sources, monitoring transmitter channels, lab experiments in physics and engineering, and audio analysis.

Limitations: counters can be affected by input signal shape, duty cycle, jitter, and aliasing at very high frequencies. For non-periodic or highly irregular event streams, frequency counting becomes ambiguous; other tools such as spectrum analyzers may be more appropriate.

Etymology: from Dutch frequentie (frequency) + teller (counter). See also frequency meter, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope.