John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

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How high in the RF range?

The problem I have is that all this equipment has 50 ohms inputs. I understand where that comes from, but I'd rather have either a switchable 50 ohms/high impedance, or a high impedance input buffer or something like that. Several vector network analyzers have switchable 50 ohms / 1Meg inputs, for example.

Do any of you know whether there is a solution to this or am I chasing ghosts?

Jan

You can pick up a nice surplus Tektronix active FET probe. High-impedance in, plugs into a BNC jack, drives 50 Ohms.
You'll need to get the separate external power supply for it, though - it uses small, latchable LEMO connectors for the power,
that are built into some TEK 'scopes, but probably not your analyzer.
-3dB bandwidth of 500 MHz, and I think also one that's 1 or 1.2 GHz.
I know a site where you can download the manuals for free, if wanted a look at the technical specs, schematic and servicing info
before you decide. New, they were pretty $$$ back in the day...Jim Williams actually wrote a whole app note about 'gotchas' to look for
with 'scope probes (AN-47?) and it included a 'how-to' for making your own. He requested that his bosses get him one for a project at work,
but they wouldn't approve the $500.
If you get one second-hand, though, make sure they give a money-back guarantee and state explicitly that it's a working unit :
- to keep the input impedance high, and input C low (0.2 pF), that tip goes straight to the base of a FET, and it is very prone being blown
by ESD, or exceeding the input voltage spec.
Far as the power supply goes, you can buy a couple of those LEMO connectors, and build your own.
That was your design article, wasn't it? - "Build a Wide-Bandwidth Power Supply" -
 
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Yes but the narrow band filter (down to 1Hz in the R&S) will block the harmonics, right?

Jan

If it is a multiple conversion swept LO analyzer the 1Hz would be on the IF and the harmonics from the mixer still show up since they are all converted down to the IF frequency. A 20Hz to 100MHz SA does not have an oscillator that goes down to 20Hz.
 
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