Having used expensive test equipment throughout my professional career, I learnt that it was always a good idea to keep a low power 20dB attenuator connected to the input of a spectrum analyser or output of an RF generator, unless on the odd occasion when you need higher sensitivity or more output power.
The attenuator would tend to act as an RF fuse if you ever accidentally stuffed too much RF up the cable, and would protect the more expensive equipment from major damage on the odd occasion when you did something silly in the haste of the moment.
However as the tiny SA costs almost as much as a decent attenuator at new prices, it would maybe seem that it is a cheaper option throw away the test equipment rather than risk an attenuator :-)
How times have changed.
Regards,
Martin
