KJDS January sale - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 03:41:41 pm
content: It's January sale time.E4406A Vector signal analyzers, early USA built units, 48MB RAM, £350 +VAT at 20%HP8594E 3GHz spectrum analyzers, missing handles and corner bumpers, £800 +VAT at 20%Metcal SSTS-PS2V soldering stations, with handle, stand and large and small bits, £80 +VAT at 20%All prices plus shipping at cost, £10 UK, £20 western EU, worldwide at cost.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 05:41:47 pm
content: Can you please confirm whether the shipping prices are ex VAT or inc VAT?In other words -- for an E4406A, would that be £350 + £10 + VAT = £432 total, or £350 + VAT + £10 = £430 total?Are the E4406es you're offering here any different to the ones you currently have listed on Ebay for £595? £432 shipped seems like one hell of a deal!

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 06:00:48 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 03:41:41 pmAny options? Baseband I/Q input?

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 06:12:52 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on December 28, 2014, 06:00:48 pmI don't have any with the baseband option. Most of them have EDGE with EGSM

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 07:02:42 pm
content: Quote from: philpem on December 28, 2014, 05:41:47 pmShipping costs include VAT so £430 total.and those E4406A are a good deal. Those on ebay include some later MY44xxxx with 64MB

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 07:20:05 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 06:12:52 pmI'll have one of those pleaseLet me know your PP and I will make the payment.Shipping to NL.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 08:17:40 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 07:02:42 pmVery nice. I just found a post from an Agilent engineer on their forum which explains how to get raw I-Q samples out of it; I'm wondering how fast it can stream those...Does the amount of available RAM make any difference to the performance or capabilities of the unit?Thanks,Phil.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 08:23:56 pm
content: Quote from: philpem on December 28, 2014, 08:17:40 pmI'm not sure quite how much difference it makes.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 10:48:22 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 08:23:56 pmAssuming you mean flash memory and not RAM, I've had a bit of a dig and found an explanation here:http://www.electrorent.com/products/details/keysight-technologies/e4406aQuoteKeysight provide a memory usage calculator here:http://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=FR&lc=fre&ckey=1000001810:epsg:faq&nid=-11143.0.00&id=1000001810:epsg:faqThe idea is that you only install the software options / personalities you're going to use. I doubt GSM, EDGE, CDMA end their ilk will be much use to anyone working in their home lab, in fact I'd bet the BASIC analysis option is all most people here will need, so a 48MB analyser is probably as good as a 64MB analyser in that respect.Average noise level seems worse than my SA, and the basic analysis mode (going by the manual) seems to be spectrum only, and with a DANL about 20dB worse on paper than my SA. The advantage would be the speed it can (allegedly) perform the FFT analysis, and the measurement spans (10MHz).It's compatible with John Miles' GPIB tools (including the SSM spectrum surveillance monitor) which you can get fromwww.ke5fx.com-- I fished this glowing report out of John's original announcement on hp_agilent_equipment:Quoteand you can apparently set the VSA to capture batches of raw I/Q samples then download them to demodulate remotely:http://www.keysight.com/owc_discussions/message.jspa?messageID=62256A most interesting bit of hardware for radio enthusiasts.Specifications guide:http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/E4406-90289.pdfProgrammers manual:http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/E4406-90303.pdfUser's guide:http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/E4406-90304.pdfService manual:http://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/E4406-90178.pdfLatest firmware update (A.10.08):http://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=201154&lc=eng&cc=GB&nid=-11143.0.00&id=201154Some stuff on adding the Option 300 kit (external IF output):http://g4guo.blogspot.dk/2013/07/agilent-e4406a.htmlhttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-e4406a-opt-300-diy-cable/Raw I/Q example for VB.net:http://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=402232&nid=-33236.683428&id=402232EDIT: Here are some useful software tools for the E4406:E4406 Scan Concatenator (Bertrand Zauhar, VE2ZAZ). Runs multiple scans of 10MHz spans and stitches together the result to scan wider frequency spans:http://ve2zaz.net/InstrCtl/InstrCtl.htmE4406 Remote Control (F4HBG). Allows remote control of some things which can't be set (or aren't easy to set?) from the E4406 front panel:http://f4hbg.com/hp-e4406a-remote-controlCalibration software (requires license from Keysight):http://cal.software.keysight.com/There are also two active service notes on the E4406A:http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/E4406A-07.pdf- E4406A-07: "The A10 Digital IF Assembly and A22 Processor Assy can become partially unplugged from the A21 Motherboard, causing symptoms such as a serial number = 0 or all license keys bad."http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/E4406A-06-S.pdf- E4406-06-S: Safety issue and resolution - "E4406A left side handle (when viewed from the front panel) under abnormal or irregular conditions may fail."Cheers.Phil.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2014, 11:24:42 pm
content: That's some really useful information, thanks.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2014, 12:37:20 am
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 11:24:42 pmI'm going to have a dig between the couch cushions and see if I can scrape enough together for one of the E4406es, but Christmas has skinned me a wee bit.Out of curiosity, do you happen to know if any of them have the 14-bit IF (acquisition) board? That'd be ID'd by:Serial number beginning MY (made in Malaysia), or US41513009 or greaterAlternatively, a serial number on this list: US4136 prefix, with suffix 2964, 2977, 2982, 2986, 2987, 2988, 2989, 2990, 2991, 2992, 2993, 2998, 3000, 3003, 3004, 3005, 3006, or 3007.QuoteAnything earlier has the 12-bit board which is apparently slightly worse for noise performance, though still in spec (it seems the 14bit upgrade may have been done without revising the spec of the analyser). Details are here:http://www.keysight.com/owc_discussions/message.jspa?messageID=113977#113977

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2014, 09:40:56 am
content: Quote from: KJDS on December 28, 2014, 03:41:41 pmKev have you got any pics of the Metcal's w. handpiece etc. , i might want one if it can fit my workplaceOhh and i expect it to be a 230v unit/Bingo

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2014, 10:07:16 am
content: Quote from: bingo600 on December 29, 2014, 09:40:56 amPics

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2014, 12:38:49 pm
content: All the Metcals are now gone.I do have some HP3310A function generators, £50 + VAT at 20% plus shipping at cost.

author: Leo Bodnar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 10:19:19 pm
content: E4406A seems like a decent piece of kit - bought from Kev recently via eBay. Unfortunately, I did not know about this sale until too late. I am trying to measure phase noise on some gadget I have cooked up and E4406A is turning out more helpful than my other box (HP 8595E) even though its RF noise floor is higher.It's a very pleasant box. The device runs X Windows on RT version of HPUX so if you are bored you can rlogin into it and wander around in ksh—much more pleasing than systems running the other windows systems. It has Ethernet port so you don't have to get GPIB adapter if you still don't have one.Out of the box KE5FX toolkit produces pretty crap results on E4406A because for some reason it disables averaging and resamples input to 500 points per decade so you get 10dB+ difference between nearby measurement points. It also does not automatically measure input signal power—minor inconvenience. After mucking about with the source code that KE5FX kindly includes with the toolkit, turning averaging on and fixing some other minor things I am finally getting some good stuff out of it.These charts have no smoothing turned on. There are some internal spurious lines that seem to come from inside E4406A and there is birdie drama above 2MHz but to be honest this instrument has never been designed for the use I am putting it through. Overall I am pretty happy with it.Laters.P.S. This isn't the noise sideband of the instrument if you just feed it the carrier! Actual noise figure would be more like -100dBc/Hz at 1kHz offset from the carrier and will drown all but the crappiest of oscillators. I use very narrow (few dozen Hz) notch filter to suppress the carrier and leave all the phase noise for E4406A to measure. But the net effect is E4406A gets the job done due to its speed and convenience.

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 08:05:53 pm
content: Quote from: Leo Bodnar on February 07, 2015, 10:19:19 pmLeo any chance of getting the source or a diff ?Will you give feedback to John ?/Bingo

author: electr_peter
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2015, 04:00:27 pm
content: Item arrived very safely packaged and works as expected.for KJDS