I have a 8660C which I use frequently. One of the plugins will allow you to go down to 10 kHz, another up to 2.6 GHz and that is very nice. Yes, these are very heavy. I found that mine (and apparently most others) barely meet their spurious spec, so watch that if your application is sensitive to it. Likely the specs are way better than you need anyway. The big problem with this unit is its complexity and very involved alignment. I've had several failures while I owned it, all stupid components like capacitors or analog chips. Unless you have the extenders (which I don't, but at one point borrowed from someone to fix a tough issue) it is very difficult to troubleshoot. I ended up picking up a "dead" parts unit really cheap (shipping cost more than the unit) and now just get to the board causing the problem and swap it. Of course, since then, the unit has been stable, so I must have intimidated it with that move. The alignment is a real bear and I was surprised how much the thing drifts out internally. Let it warm up for a couple of days before aligning... With all the necessary gear it can take hours to align the thing and you need a big bench with lots of space as you need it this way and that, opening sections, swinging subchassis out, removing the display control section, etc.
If you're interested in further details a lot of my questions and adventures are in the archives of the HP-Agilent forum. One of the guys there was involved in the redesign of that unit so knows it pretty well.
Peter
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On 2/24/2013 10:44 AM, Dave Daniel wrote:
I have an HP 8660D which I like. It uses plug-ins and will generate signals up to 2.6 GHz with the right plug-ins (and the 11661B optional frequency extension option). I also have a couple of 8660Cs which I need to sell. These units are very heavy but work well. You can look at the specs for the C in a mid-80s HP catalog; the D showed up in the late 80s, IIRC.
DaveD
On 2/24/2013 7:22 AM, Jim wrote:
Two points .... first, you need to get a unit with Option 002* installed. This option gives operation from 512 MHz to 1024 MHz. Without it, the generator will INDICATE the higher frequencies, but will have zero output.
Second, the plastic gears inside the HP8640B are known to be fragile, and if they break, the repair is non-trivial. I understand there's a fellow who can provide brass gears, but I haven't looked into this yet, as neither of my HP8640Bs have failed. Yet.
Other than that, these generators are superb instruments.
73
Jim N6OTQ
* Major options are:
001 -- enhanced AM modulation
002 -- expanded frequency coverage
003 -- 25W reverse power input protection
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*From:* Rich Miller <av8torrich@...>
*To:* TekScopes@...
*Sent:* Sunday, February 24, 2013 7:58 AM
*Subject:* RE: [TekScopes] Which Tektronix Signal generator?
To get up to 1GHz, you cannot go wrong with a HP8640B for your
application. Of course, it's not on the light side, but does fit pretty
nicely on a modest work bench.
Rich
*From:*TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] *On
Behalf Of *mirasad31415
*Sent:* Sunday, February 24, 2013 8:27 AM
*To:* TekScopes@...
*Subject:* [TekScopes] Which Tektronix Signal generator?
I am trying to narrow down my choice of a signal generator for my shack.
I would be glad to have your opinion on which Sig Gen to buy
I need something that covers from 0.01 MHz to 1000 MHz or preferably up
to 3000 MHz. If the sig gen goes up to 1000MHZ a second set to cover 1 to
3 Gig would have to be purchased later. At the moment I have several
oscillators to cover the 1 to 3 Gig range. Carrier noise better than
-80DBc at 10 kHz would be okay. Nothing too fancy but sweep capability,
AM and FM is needed.
I do not want to buy a very heavy post world war device although I admire
them and have a few RT sets from olden times. I have to have it courier
shipped to Pakistan and THAT costs.
Prefer Tek or HP, and something for which I can get the service manual
which is a must have.
I will be using it to play around with building transmitters and
receivers for my ham gear.
Azzythehillbilly
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