I almost had a nice 8753C VNA repair project
A few months ago, I was using my 8753C VNA, when I noticed that the "loss of phase lock" indication would occasionally appear.? Something was wrong, but I was busy with other things.? So, I set the unit aside for a future repair effort, when I would have some available time.
Well, under the current circumstances, I now have lots of time.? Here in Guadalajara, Mexico, as in many other places, we are under orders to remain inside our homes; except for essential visits to places like the grocery store, pharmacy, etc.? While outside, the use of face masks has been ordered.? I live only a hundred meters away from a shopping mall.? But, the mall cinema, its bowling alley, the shops and restaurants are closed.? With this test equipment repair, I finally had something to do!
I was ready to begin.? I moved the heavy instrument to the repair bench and downloaded its thick, but detailed product service manual, from the Keysight website.? I turned on the 8753C and discovered that its original problem had deteriorated further into a "Phase Lock Calibration Failure".?? I could see myself working for hours, if not for days, on resolving the phase lock problem.? This was going to be so much fun!? Midnight oil would be burned! Hair would be pulled!? Finally, my life would have both purpose and meaning!
Then, I stumbled across this entry in Jose Gavila's (EB5AGV) repair blog:? , where he details his repair of an 8753C, that was experiencing the same issues as my unit.? I don't know if EB5AGV still actively reads this forum.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I basically set the 8753C service manual aside and duplicated some of Jose's repair steps.? Temporarily moving an internal jumper plug and running a couple of internal calibration routines completely cured the phase lock problem.? No solder was melted, no fragile electronic components were placed in harm's way.? What I thought would be a big effort turned out to be less than an hour's work.
So now, thanks to EB5AGV, I once again have nothing to do!? Thanks, Jose! :-)
Matt
|
Re: Decline, was Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] new File called App notes
A memory to add to this discussion...? After moving to California in 1957 I quickly arranged to make a trek down to see the Hewlett-Packard plant on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto? -- the one with all of the skylights in the roof as seen in catalogs of the era.? When I asked to see some of the instruments like their parallel-plate slotted line, one of the engineers took me through the laboratory.? I remember clearly that it was populated with Tektronix scopes at that time.? It looked like a great place to work.
Bruce, KG6OJI
|
Re: 438A Power Meter Fan Transplant
I¡¯m in my hospital rm after having knee surgery yesterday. You¡¯re right, four corner screws no eight.?
If you can¡¯t move the back panel enough to get the fan in and out, you¡¯ll need to unplug the sensor cables from the input board. They should be labeled but, if not, just note where they go. You should be able to move the back panel Enough without completely
pulling the sensor leads back.?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Apr 25, 2020, at 2:11 PM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
?Dave,
I'm working on this this afternoon. I forgot to mention that all three of the 438As I have are Option 002...so there's a bunch of extra cabling in the way of pulling the rear panel off. Ugh. Also can you clarify what you mean by "eight corner screws"? I see
4 screws holding the fan in, and 4 screws holding the rear panel into the frame.
Thanks,
Sean
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 07:40 AM, Dave Smith W6TE wrote:
Hi Sean,
?
It¡¯s relatively easy to change the fan and takes about 15 ¨C 20 minutes.
?
- Remove the two power supply plug-in boards.
- Remove the four metric screws on top and bottom of the frame.
- Remove the eight corner screws.
You will now be able to remove the fan from the rear panel.
?
Dave
?
|
Re: Maximum depth of HP rack mountable gear?
We just moved to a new house. I dumped a lot of my stuff, over-energetically apparently, don't have some instruments I really miss. My lab is still totally disorganized. Main issue it that it's longer but narrower. Old lab, could have racks on one wall, me, then bench. Now, just bench and me, racks at either end. And, only 16' of bench. Sigh. I should have skipped my woodworking shop, it's bigger. I set my bench up for specific tasks, voltage stds, freq stds and synthesizers, spectrum analyzers, then workspace. Not ideal, I'm going to have to rethink some of this.I do keep my oscopes on carts, that helps.
|
Re: Decline, was Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] new File called App notes
Just a thought how about doing the best test
equipment in a year and repeating it for every 5 years Eg
?
1990 ??? Spectrum analyser HP xxxx ????? oscilloscope
teck XXX ??? counter EIPXXX ???????????? signal generator HP XXX ??????????? audio
oscillator? B&K XXX
?
1995 etc
?
?
That could be interesting and fun
?
Paul
?
This topic has sure mutated. Can't let it die now, I'll jump in with a
bunch of random babbling, some I've done before, but hey, can't remember which
topics. Senility, I suppose.
I posted a few days ago how horrible Win-based equipment was. Just what was anyone
thinking? Maybe HP did get paid off my MS. XP was pretty atrocious, massively
buggy, security issues all over the place. Both HP and Tek did good embedded
sw, then went lame. OTOH, could be part of that move to outsource development,
driven by clueless bean-counters. I transitioned from all HW to mostly all SW
over my career, always fighting the 'we can hire 5 3rd-world devs for what we
pay you'. Ok, do that, hmm, nothing works. So, still pay a real dev plus those
5 useless hacks. Bean-counters apparently can't figure out that they're paying
2x one good dev for 0.9 total output, since all the code has to be dealt with
(rewritten) by the good dev.
Next rant, sw bloat. I ended up doing a lot of sw for telecom, massive servers,
all in Java. Talk about bloated code, gigs of open-source libs, some dragged in
just to get one trivial method. And, modern pseudo-devs have no understanding
of hardware at all, and just as little understanding of basic sw algorithms,
Just blindly use whatever they stumble across, then wonder why we needed a
server farm to run what should have been possible on one machine.
Moving on, those DS 'top-hat' pseudo-nvrams. Who ever thought those were a good
idea? 10 yrs, dead. I'm suspecting bean-counters again, make sure to obsolete
the equipment. There's a guy selling ferromagnetic rams to replace said DS
horrors for Tek scopes. Time to start doing the same for our HP stuff. And yes,
my latest acquisition, 53310A, appears to have one of those damn things in it.
Have I run out? Of course not.
On to C vs C++. I really never liked C++, and don't get me started on C#. My
definition of C++, a pseudo-OO variant done by someone that really didn't
understand C. Stroustrup is on my hate-list. I've written hundreds of thousands
of lines of C, and still my favorite lang for embedded tiny stuff. I started
with IBM 360 assembler (BALR sound familiar, waiting for responses to that),
then Fortran, then PDP-8, PDP-11, Multics, Unix, Linux. Used Unix at Bell Labs
early on. It is truly amazing how it has evolved.
Hmm, any more? Oh, wait, of course.....
Cheap instruments from China.
All based on various US
highly-integrated chips. Some of the stuff is useful. most is just junk.
Amazing 'specs' in the ads. Any real test data? Of course not. Get some of them,
Ok, yes, they do the basic operations, but, example, cheap signal generators,
horrible purity and stability. About as much out-of-peak energy as is in the
fundamental.
Finally, modern instruments of any kind.
What happened to the great engineering we used to have? Now it's all about
design-to-cost. Selling points seem to be 'internet connected'. I'll stack my
$300 5370 time-interval analyzer up against anything you can get today. GUI?
Nope. Internet? Nope. Amazing? Yes. Same for my 54542, and still amazing even
today, given what one costs vs new junk. BTW, friend of mine from college
worked at HP instrument division, he's told me many a sad tale about the
decline of HP. Blames one person, Carly.
In closing, maybe I can start another flame war. My 54542 is the first HP scope
I'd ever considered.Everything else I now have in my home lab is HP, but
Tek? scopes really dominated. I love my Tek 2465A, one of the last great
analog scopes. My HP friend said they got tired of everyone complaining about the
lame triggering performance of HP scopes, decided to do a 'Tek killer', and
succeeded. True? Don't know. I do know that one of the early Tek digital scopes
that I had used this what seems to me to be a total hack, linear CCD to capture
the analog, then read it out slowly enough for the lame A/D to handle. And, I
do know I just love my 54542. Well, until the already-fading CRT dies. At least
it doesn't run Win. :)
Hope I've amused you,
Bill
Oh, and I want to put a plug in for some of the classic Brit engineering. My 2
Datron 4910 voltage refs used to be national-standard level. My Solartron 7081
8.5 digit meters rock (although it is sloooow at 8.5, and really isn't quite as
good as a 3458A, but at a fraction of the price if you can find one. BTW, it
didn't use the LTZ ref both the 3458 and my Datron 4910's used. It had a
'zero-temp-factor' Zener, selected, and then compensated more by a temp
measurement, trimmed per-Zener to get the best zero TC. Love it.
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: Maximum depth of HP rack mountable gear?
I have a friend who built two huge workshops into his house each with 15ft x 30" or more deep. When I go to visit there is no place to put my piece of paper to write on.? My other friend with a fraction of the space always has a 3' x 5' bench empty and clean. He keeps each project in a box and brings out whichever he and his friends are working on at the time. I am somewhere in between and have two work surfaces with current projects and a third that tends to get a pile of things 'to do later'. There is usually one clear at any time.
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 1:50 AM John Parkins G8KVP < john@...> wrote: Hello Dave,
No nothing bad at all, just making it more difficult for ourselves.
When we moved house I took over a room for my gear, so I was able to
build benches, shelves etc as I wanted them. At first it was fine, but
I think as we all do a flat surface is for putting things on. So the
amount of available work area reduces and reduces until we're trying
to work on a large bit of gear in a space which isn't quite big
enough...... I've over come this by having a removable 'bench' which
is only put into place when I need the extra room and removed
afterwards. If it were left in place it would end up covered in stuff!
We can't help it, I think it's in all our natures to collect.
Friday, April 24, 2020, 6:53:46 PM, you wrote:
DM> On 4/24/20 12:27 PM, John Parkins G8KVP wrote:
>> WORKBENCH! How ever wide you make them they just aren't wide enough.
DM>? ?Unfinished flat doors make very good workbenches.? And desks, for that
DM> matter.
>> Why do we do this to ourselves?
DM>? ?You say this as if there's something bad about it.
DM>? ? ? ? ?-Dave
--
Best regards,
?John? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? mailto:john@...
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Sorry I didn¡¯t mean it to, and you
have to put up with my bad spelling as I am dyslexic
?
All my mechanical engineering until after I
left school came from my father and that was grate as my best subjects where science
and metalwork
?
Paul
?
Wow, did this turn into a contest? I was doing that in
the early 60¡¯s. That¡¯s enough from my book. All yours -
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold
Blvd.
Howell NJ
07731
848-245-9115
?
?
Hi
?
In 75 I was playing with gun diodes and
Klystrons? at the age of 17 only test equipment where diode detectors on
the end of a meter and an oscilloscope I had rebuilt after someone had used it
for spare parts ??
?
Paul
?
Well, in the early 70¡¯s, to be able to do this
at home, was fun and rewarding. From some heavy math to a final product.
¨C Mike
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold
Blvd.
Howell NJ
07731
848-245-9115
?
?
Hi
?
yes a lot of filter work can be verified
using peak hold can be time consuming on a adjusting complicated filter
?
Regards Paul
?
In my early days of
designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T
spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to
make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even
able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I
knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell NJ 07731
848-245-9115
No
virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: 438A Power Meter Fan Transplant
Dave,
I'm working on this this afternoon. I forgot to mention that all three of the 438As I have are Option 002...so there's a bunch of extra cabling in the way of pulling the rear panel off. Ugh. Also can you clarify what you mean by "eight corner screws"? I see 4 screws holding the fan in, and 4 screws holding the rear panel into the frame.
Thanks,
Sean
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 07:40 AM, Dave Smith W6TE wrote:
Hi Sean,
?
It¡¯s relatively easy to change the fan and takes about 15 ¨C 20 minutes.
?
- Remove the two power supply plug-in boards.
- Remove the four metric screws on top and bottom of the frame.
- Remove the eight corner screws.
You will now be able to remove the fan from the rear panel.
?
Dave
?
|
Re: Decline, was Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] new File called App notes
This topic has sure mutated. Can't let it die now, I'll jump in with a bunch of random babbling, some I've done before, but hey, can't remember which topics. Senility, I suppose.
I posted a few days ago how horrible Win-based equipment was. Just what was anyone thinking? Maybe HP did get paid off my MS. XP was pretty atrocious, massively buggy, security issues all over the place. Both HP and Tek did good embedded sw, then went lame. OTOH, could be part of that move to outsource development, driven by clueless bean-counters. I transitioned from all HW to mostly all SW over my career, always fighting the 'we can hire 5 3rd-world devs for what we pay you'. Ok, do that, hmm, nothing works. So, still pay a real dev plus those 5 useless hacks. Bean-counters apparently can't figure out that they're paying 2x one good dev for 0.9 total output, since all the code has to be dealt with (rewritten) by the good dev.
Next rant, sw bloat. I ended up doing a lot of sw for telecom, massive servers, all in Java. Talk about bloated code, gigs of open-source libs, some dragged in just to get one trivial method. And, modern pseudo-devs have no understanding of hardware at all, and just as little understanding of basic sw algorithms, Just blindly use whatever they stumble across, then wonder why we needed a server farm to run what should have been possible on one machine.
Moving on, those DS 'top-hat' pseudo-nvrams. Who ever thought those were a good idea? 10 yrs, dead. I'm suspecting bean-counters again, make sure to obsolete the equipment. There's a guy selling ferromagnetic rams to replace said DS horrors for Tek scopes. Time to start doing the same for our HP stuff. And yes, my latest acquisition, 53310A, appears to have one of those damn things in it.
Have I run out? Of course not.
On to C vs C++. I really never liked C++, and don't get me started on C#. My definition of C++, a pseudo-OO variant done by someone that really didn't understand C. Stroustrup is on my hate-list. I've written hundreds of thousands of lines of C, and still my favorite lang for embedded tiny stuff. I started with IBM 360 assembler (BALR sound familiar, waiting for responses to that), then Fortran, then PDP-8, PDP-11, Multics, Unix, Linux. Used Unix at Bell Labs early on. It is truly amazing how it has evolved.
Hmm, any more? Oh, wait, of course.....
Cheap instruments from China. All based on various US highly-integrated chips. Some of the stuff is useful. most is just junk. Amazing 'specs' in the ads. Any real test data? Of course not. Get some of them, Ok, yes, they do the basic operations, but, example, cheap signal generators, horrible purity and stability. About as much out-of-peak energy as is in the fundamental.
Finally, modern instruments of any kind.
What happened to the great engineering we used to have? Now it's all about design-to-cost. Selling points seem to be 'internet connected'. I'll stack my $300 5370 time-interval analyzer up against anything you can get today. GUI? Nope. Internet? Nope. Amazing? Yes. Same for my 54542, and still amazing even today, given what one costs vs new junk. BTW, friend of mine from college worked at HP instrument division, he's told me many a sad tale about the decline of HP. Blames one person, Carly.
In closing, maybe I can start another flame war. My 54542 is the first HP scope I'd ever considered.Everything else I now have in my home lab is HP, but Tek? scopes really dominated. I love my Tek 2465A, one of the last great analog scopes. My HP friend said they got tired of everyone complaining about the lame triggering performance of HP scopes, decided to do a 'Tek killer', and succeeded. True? Don't know. I do know that one of the early Tek digital scopes that I had used this what seems to me to be a total hack, linear CCD to capture the analog, then read it out slowly enough for the lame A/D to handle. And, I do know I just love my 54542. Well, until the already-fading CRT dies. At least it doesn't run Win. :)
Hope I've amused you,
Bill
Oh, and I want to put a plug in for some of the classic Brit engineering. My 2 Datron 4910 voltage refs used to be national-standard level. My Solartron 7081 8.5 digit meters rock (although it is sloooow at 8.5, and really isn't quite as good as a 3458A, but at a fraction of the price if you can find one. BTW, it didn't use the LTZ ref both the 3458 and my Datron 4910's used. It had a 'zero-temp-factor' Zener, selected, and then compensated more by a temp measurement, trimmed per-Zener to get the best zero TC. Love it.
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Wow, did this turn into a contest? I was doing that in the early 60¡¯s. That¡¯s enough from my book. All yours - ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115 ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Bicknell
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2020 4:19 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale? Hi ? In 75 I was playing with gun diodes and Klystrons? at the age of 17 only test equipment where diode detectors on the end of a meter and an oscilloscope I had rebuilt after someone had used it for spare parts ?? ? Paul ? Well, in the early 70¡¯s, to be able to do this at home, was fun and rewarding. From some heavy math to a final product. ¨C Mike ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115 ? ? Hi ? yes a lot of filter work can be verified using peak hold can be time consuming on a adjusting complicated filter ? Regards Paul ? In my early days of designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115 No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
All sounds good to me
Regards Paul
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected][mailto: [email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce Sent: 25 April 2020 21:06 To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale Paul - Yes - I am the author of th statement Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>: Hi Bruce I assume you are quoting the following
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network
analyzer. SA +FG = S12 measurement
Because I did not as most amateurs would not understand network analysers
having never used one
In England as part of a two week satellite work experience program for
school children and a summer school for collage students
the practical demonstrations start of with the understanding of Dbs
followed by network analyser measuring throw loss and return loss
and also TDR measurements on fibber optic cables
These courses have even been rolled out to girls schools to educate them
that engineering is a profession they can do
and engineers no longer work with a greasy rag and go home stinking of oil
Personally I am sylph taught as never worked with RF test equipment as part of my R & D work in the aerospace and automotive industry
Regards Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce
Sent: 25 April 2020 18:51
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network
analyzer. SA +FG = S12 measurement (sorta)
Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>:
Hi Dave I think you have it ! it is the tracking generator obsession As we have only had one person com back saying he requires it but shame it
only goes to 1000 mhz I would think the minimum now days would be 2000 Mhz
for sat comes IF work Regards Paul -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave
McGuire
Sent: 25 April 2020 15:48 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale On 4/25/20 5:59 AM, Paul Bicknell wrote: During the last year on a number of sites I have seen several requests
for people buying their fist spectrum analyser and all have spoken about
wanting a tracking generator
I personally have only used an analyser with a tracking generator a few
times in my life and that was 35 years ago a Marconi 110 Mhz spectrum
analyser for setting up IF filters
In my early days I started using swappers and diode detectors or power
meters with an oscilloscope then moved onto Scaler analysers
Could it be the new people are not familiar with other test equipment
and think a spectrum analyser is the only tool they require and unaware
of sweepers and Scalier analysers
I've wondered about this myself. I've always just assumed that the tracking generator obsession was from people who don't know about (or are intimidated by) network analyzers. -Dave Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18 Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Hi
?
In 75 I was playing with gun diodes and Klystrons?
at the age of 17 only test equipment where diode detectors on the end of a meter
and an oscilloscope I had rebuilt after someone had used it for spare parts ??
?
Paul
?
Well, in the early 70¡¯s, to be able to do this
at home, was fun and rewarding. From some heavy math to a final product.
¨C Mike
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold
Blvd.
Howell NJ
07731
848-245-9115
?
?
Hi
?
yes a lot of filter work can be verified
using peak hold can be time consuming on a adjusting complicated filter
?
Regards Paul
?
In my early days of
designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T
spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to
make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even
able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I
knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell NJ 07731
848-245-9115
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Paul - Yes - I am the author of th statement Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>:
Hi Bruce I assume you are quoting the following
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network
analyzer. SA +FG = S12 measurement
Because I did not as most amateurs would not understand network analysers
having never used one
In England as part of a two week satellite work experience program for
school children and a summer school for collage students
the practical demonstrations start of with the understanding of Dbs
followed by network analyser measuring throw loss and return loss
and also TDR measurements on fibber optic cables
These courses have even been rolled out to girls schools to educate them
that engineering is a profession they can do
and engineers no longer work with a greasy rag and go home stinking of oil
Personally I am sylph taught as never worked with RF test equipment as part
of my R & D work in the aerospace and automotive industry
Regards Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce
Sent: 25 April 2020 18:51
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network
analyzer. SA +FG = S12 measurement (sorta)
Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>:
Hi Dave I think you have it ! it is the tracking generator obsession As we have only had one person com back saying he requires it but shame it only goes to 1000 mhz I would think the minimum now days would be 2000 Mhz
for sat comes IF work Regards Paul -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave McGuire Sent: 25 April 2020 15:48 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale On 4/25/20 5:59 AM, Paul Bicknell wrote: During the last year on a number of sites I have seen several requests
for people buying their fist spectrum analyser and all have spoken about
wanting a tracking generator
I personally have only used an analyser with a tracking generator a few
times in my life and that was 35 years ago a Marconi 110 Mhz spectrum
analyser for setting up IF filters
In my early days I started using swappers and diode detectors or power
meters with an oscilloscope then moved onto Scaler analysers
Could it be the new people are not familiar with other test equipment
and think a spectrum analyser is the only tool they require and unaware
of sweepers and Scalier analysers
I've wondered about this myself. I've always just assumed that the tracking generator obsession was from people who don't know about (or are intimidated by) network analyzers. -Dave Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18
Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Well, in the early 70¡¯s, to be able to do this at home, was fun and rewarding. From some heavy math to a final product. ¨C Mike ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115 ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Bicknell
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2020 3:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale? Hi ? yes a lot of filter work can be verified using peak hold can be time consuming on a adjusting complicated filter ? Regards Paul ? In my early days of designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Hi
?
yes a lot of filter work can be verified
using peak hold can be time consuming on a adjusting complicated filter
?
Regards Paul
?
In my early days of
designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T
spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to
make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even
able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I
knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike
?
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell NJ 07731
848-245-9115
?
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-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
<[email protected]>
On Behalf Of Paul Bicknell
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2020 2:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
?
Hi Jim
?
Yes filters that is exactly the thing I have used a
spectrum analyser with a tracking filter for and they where all below 100 Mhz
?
Regards Paul
?
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Re: Test Equipment For Sale
?
?
Hi Bruce ??I assume ?you are quoting the following
?
I think what they are trying to sayis they
REALLY want a network?
analyzer.? SA +FG = S12 measurement
?
?
Because I did not as most amateurs would not understand network
analysers having never used one
?
In England
as part of a two week satellite work experience program for school children and
a summer school for collage students ?
the practical demonstrations start of with the understanding
of Dbs ?followed by network analyser measuring throw loss and return loss
and also TDR measurements on fibber optic cables ?
?
These courses have even been rolled out to ?girls schools
to educate them that engineering is a profession they can do
and engineers no longer work with a greasy rag and go home stinking
of oil
?
Personally I am sylph taught as never worked with RF test equipment
as part of my R & D work in the aerospace and automotive industry
?
Regards Paul
?
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-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Bruce
Sent: 25 April 2020 18:51
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
?
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network?
analyzer.? SA +FG = S12 measurement (sorta)
Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>:
?
> Hi Dave
>?
> I think you have it !??? it is the tracking
generator obsession
>?
> As we have only had one person com back saying he requires it but
shame it
> only goes to 1000 mhz? I would think the minimum now days
would be 2000 Mhz
> for sat comes IF work
>?
> Regards Paul
>?
>?
>?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Dave McGuire
> Sent: 25 April 2020 15:48
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For
Sale
>?
> On 4/25/20 5:59 AM, Paul Bicknell wrote:
>> During the last year on a number of sites I have seen several
requests
>> for people buying their fist spectrum analyser and all have
spoken about
>> wanting a tracking generator
>>?
>> I personally have only used an analyser with a tracking
generator a few
>> times in my life and that was 35 years ago a Marconi 110 Mhz
spectrum
>> analyser for setting up IF? filters
>>?
>> In my early days I started using swappers and diode detectors
or power
>> meters with an oscilloscope then moved onto Scaler analysers
>>?
>> Could it be the new people are not familiar with other test
equipment
>> and think a spectrum analyser is the only tool they require
and unaware
>> of sweepers and Scalier analysers
>?
>?? I've wondered about this myself.? I've always
just assumed that the
> tracking generator obsession was from people who don't know about
(or
> are intimidated by) network analyzers.
>?
>??????????????
-Dave
>?
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington,
PA
>?
>?
>?
>
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-----
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Re: Test Equipment For Sale
In my early days of designing filters, I used to use a broadband noise generator with a 141T spectrum analyzer. Worked great in max hold after a few sweeps. Just had to make sure the total in-band energy did not overload the front end. Was even able to adjust the zeroes pretty accurately. Since I only built Elliptics, I knew were the poles and zeroes were. 73 ¨C Mike ? Mike B. Feher, N4FS 89 Arnold Blvd. Howell NJ 07731 848-245-9115 ?
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Show quoted text
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Bicknell
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2020 2:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale ? Hi Jim ? Yes filters that is exactly the thing I have used a spectrum analyser with a tracking filter for and they where all below 100 Mhz ? Regards Paul ?
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
Hi Jim
Yes filters that is exactly the thing I have used a spectrum analyser with a
tracking filter for and they where all below 100 Mhz
Regards Paul
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Show quoted text
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected][mailto: [email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Shorney Sent: 25 April 2020 18:48 Cc: [email protected]Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale Paul, The Midnight SNA was a neat little kit I built a couple of years ago mainly because I needed something to test vintage IF crystal filters with. As such its top end of 60 MHz was more than adequate. It is an outgrowth of the PHSNA project. NanoVNA is all the rage these days, a fun little toy. I'm still figuring it out. My company manufactures low power VHF/UHF professional wireless intercom radios which have some pretty tight bandpass filters on the receivers and sometimes the transmitters. The SA + TG is how we align them both on the production line and in the service center. I also use if for checking the bandpass response of wideband powered antenna splitter/combiner boxen. Stuff that most hams/hobbyists don't usually see. 73 -Jim NU0C On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 17:33:28 +0100 "Paul Bicknell" <paul@...> wrote: Hi Jim
interesting about you using the tracking generator daily
Love to know how you use it in your daily job
Regarding Street credibility I think we all have it if we have HP test
equipment and I must admit I do have 6 HP spectrum analysers
But Midnight SNA and Nano VNA are both new to me
Regards Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Shorney
Sent: 25 April 2020 17:03
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
I have used HP tracking analyzers at work almost daily for many years. Last year I acquired one surplus that needed minor repair for a stupid low price. I also own a Midnight SNA and NanoVNA. And a vintage Eico sweep generator.
:)
Each tool has its own niche. Each is plenty good enough for most hobbyist
needs within those niches. The HP continues to be my favorite instrument and my go-to for sanity checks on the others. And yes, I do use the tracking
generator in radio service work. I likely would not have purchased this HP
if it did not have the TG.
And then there's always the street cred that comes with using a name brand
instrument.... :D
73
-Jim
NU0C
On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 10:59:31 +0100
"Paul Bicknell" <paul@...> wrote:
Hi all
During the last year on a number of sites I have seen several requests for people buying their fist spectrum analyser and all have spoken about
wanting a tracking generator
I personally have only used an analyser with a tracking generator a few
times in my life and that was 35 years ago a Marconi 110 Mhz spectrum
analyser for setting up IF filters
In my early days I started using swappers and diode detectors or power
meters with an oscilloscope then moved onto Scaler analysers
Could it be the new people are not familiar with other test equipment
and think a spectrum analyser is the only tool they require and unaware of
sweepers and Scalier analysers
Your comments please Regards Paul
----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.8048 / Virus Database: 4793/15886 - Release Date: 08/14/18 Internal Virus Database is out of date.
|
Re: WTB HP 11852A or B 50/75 Ohm minimum loss pad
How good do they have to be?
How about?the Mini-Circuits UNMP-5075?? They have a ship from UK option.
Hi
I'm looking for a pair of the HP 11852A or B 50/75 Ohm minimum loss?pad adapters or their
equivalents. If there is someone that doesn't need them I'm willing to buy them. I'm located at Athens GREECE so will have to ship them with post if possible for economy... reasons :)
Thank you in advance
Sotiris Pdmt
|
Re: Test Equipment For Sale
I think what they are trying to sayis they REALLY want a network analyzer. SA +FG = S12 measurement (sorta) Quoting Paul Bicknell <paul@...>:
Hi Dave
I think you have it ! it is the tracking generator obsession
As we have only had one person com back saying he requires it but shame it
only goes to 1000 mhz I would think the minimum now days would be 2000 Mhz
for sat comes IF work
Regards Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave McGuire
Sent: 25 April 2020 15:48
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Test Equipment For Sale
On 4/25/20 5:59 AM, Paul Bicknell wrote:
During the last year on a number of sites I have seen several requests
for people buying their fist spectrum analyser and all have spoken about
wanting a tracking generator
I personally have only used an analyser with a tracking generator a few
times in my life and that was 35 years ago a Marconi 110 Mhz spectrum
analyser for setting up IF filters
In my early days I started using swappers and diode detectors or power
meters with an oscilloscope then moved onto Scaler analysers
Could it be the new people are not familiar with other test equipment
and think a spectrum analyser is the only tool they require and unaware
of sweepers and Scalier analysers I've wondered about this myself. I've always just assumed that the
tracking generator obsession was from people who don't know about (or
are intimidated by) network analyzers.
-Dave
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
|
ebrucehunter
Dave Smith
Paul Bicknell