Which Spectrum Analyser??

[jackinnj]

there is a Tektronix 5110 with 5L4N on sale on the 'Bay -- it shouldn't go this cheaply ($30?) -- someone should snatch it up:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7603730509&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

 

[SY]

The ad says it's only for VHF. True or misprint?

The current bid has only a tenuous connection to the final sales price. Where do you think it ought to be priced?

 

[jackinnj]

the 5L4N is 0 to 100kHz. the 5110 is a low bandwidth scope.

final price -- my guess is $100 to $150. One with a busted 5103 mainframe sold for $120 a few weeks back -- the 5103N is nice as it has a long persistence phosphor that you can engage. the 5103N D13 is a true dual-trace scope. these are real analog boat-anchors.

it would be nice for the seller to turn on the scope to see a trace, and turn on the comb filter and see if it is aligned -- having the manual is a big plus.

 

[Zero Cool]

I bought a HP 3580A spec an off ebay a while ago and found it too slow to be usefull for anything. Its a swept analyzer and anything i wanted to look at like noise etc the thing would take for ever to sweep. and anything newer gets too expensive quick.

The 3580 cost me $250.00 and to get something faster you can add another zero to that number.

I looked at PC based units and i didnt find anything that was worth anything. Maybe for speaker measurments there ok but if i was to do a noise analysis of a power supply or monitor the output of an amp and watch the noise floor as i route cables around the inside of the chassis for lowest noise etc. of if i wanted to actually measure some value of something. the PC setup doesnt offer me any means of calibration. and a PC sound card can only accept so much voltage. where as a HP or tek has a calibrated input attenuator. I would have to build my own attn and then i would always be doubting the accuracy of what im seeing/reading.

For me, im just going to have to save my pennies for that day when i bump into a nice sweet HP unit at an auction someplace.


Zc

 

[jackinnj]

I looked at PC based units and i didnt find anything that was worth anything. Maybe for speaker measurments there ok but if i was to do a noise analysis of a power supply or monitor the output of an amp and watch the noise floor as i route cables around the inside of the chassis for lowest noise etc. of if i wanted to actually measure some value of something. the PC setup doesnt offer me any means of calibration. and a PC sound card can only accept so much voltage. where as a HP or tek has a calibrated input attenuator. I would have to build my own attn and then i would always be doubting the accuracy of what im seeing/reading.

If you want to measure noise, you measure it from 100 milliHz to 10 Hz over a 10 second interval. Oh, you should be able to measure uV -- which you can do with a Tektronix differential plug-in.

The Tektronix 5XXX series scopes are ideally situated for this task.

 

[commsysman]

There are several companies that sell refurbished Hewlett-packard spectrum analyzers. As an electronics professor I had quite a bit of experience with all of them , and the only two I like are the HP and the communications analyzers from IFR. The IFR is a superb unit, particularly the 1200, but a used one may cost close to $3000 ($14000 new). A cheap SA is probably not going to give much real utility; they are hellishly expensive to manufacture. No free lunch.