SOLD (EU): Used Agilent E4406 VSA - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Neganur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 17, 2015, 07:49:10 pm
content: As title says, selling my VSA. It has the 48MB flash.Currently installed options BAE BAF 202 (that's NADC PDC WCDMA EDGE/GSM)500EUR + shipping within the EU, probably 60-80 EUR.

author: jimon
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2015, 09:21:38 am
content: Is it useful as generic SA for given range (7MHz - 4 GHz) ? Same question to your other lot (R&S CRTU-RU), I also see it have RF gen - is it any good ?

author: Wuerstchenhund
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2015, 02:35:14 pm
content: Quote from: jimon on October 18, 2015, 09:21:38 amThe E4406A is a Signal Analyzer and not really a Spectrum Analyzer), it has a limited span (10MHz standard, 100MHz with WCDMA option) and together with the Agilent 89601A software is a great tool to analyze complex signals. Using it as a general purpose SA however is slow and cumbersome (you'd have to stitch the various 10Mhz segments together).The CRTU-RU has a spectrum analyzer that is more like a standalone SA, i.e. spans from 0Hz to full bandwith (2.7GHz), and as you said it comes with a RF generator. It can't do all the analyisis stuff but as a general purpose tool its probably much more useful.

author: Neganur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 18, 2015, 03:00:02 pm
content: I would say the functionality of the E4406A is better than the CRTU but Agilent made sure not to mess around with the sales of their real SA boxes - the 10 MHz span can be a bit annoying which is why I ended up grabbing the CRTU as well (full span). Also, since it's an FFT analyser and not a swept one like the R&S, it can do some pretty interesting stuff to analyse the signal. I was mainly interested in getting I/Q data out but things like Spectrum emission mask are really useful too (if you take the time to set them up properly). It's also a lot faster than the R&S. (and can do some useful phase noise measurement with its crazy low RBW setting of 0.1 Hz with John Mile's software:http://www.ke5fx.com/gpib/pn.htm)You can have the VSA show the I/Q waveform, frequency domain (spectrum) and time domain (RF envelope) etc. The attached pictures are from a LoRa transmission at 868 MHz (250 kHz bw, SF:7)The R&S has some other nice things like the power meters, peak and RMS, and ofc the signal generator. The display settings are a bit hidden away, while the reference level is in the analyser setup, the display scale (level span is what they call it) shares a soft menu button with the markers, and it only pops up when you're in spectrum mode. Generally, the VSA has most of the basic functions directly available from the front panel (freq, span, amplitude, markers) the R&S hides it all way in different sub soft-menus that change with the chosen mode.The R&R sig gen seems to have the following specs:frequency:100 kHz to 2.7 GHz in 0.1 Hz steps.amplitude:-35...-145 dBm on output RF1-18...-145 dBm on output RF2+5...-98 dBm on output RF3that's in 0.1 dB steps and you have SSB and AM modulation available with up to 300 kHz AF generated internally (1 kHz steps).The ranges are due to the different attenuators of the RF1-4 connectors.RF1 can take 50W so it has some large pad on it. RF2 is moderate with 2W, RF3 and RF4 can take +13 dBm and are separated in TX and RX (RF1&RF2 can have the sig gen and analyzer paths routed on the same connector)I think it's fairly good and the power level is quite accurate.

author: Neganur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 18, 2015, 03:01:53 pm
content: couple of more pics to compare vs the R&S: