Rigol DSA1030-TG3 High Performance model (-148db noise floor) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 16, 2014, 02:53:44 pm
content: Anybody had experience with this model yet? The -117 db versus -148db noise floor.. are they pulling wool?

author: awallin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2014, 07:22:16 pm
content: Unlike the oscilloscopes by Rigol the DSA1030A-TG3 has all the buttons in the right places and very much resembles a HP/Agilent. Easy to use.I think the lower noise floor is useful only at low resolution bandwidths, and for low-level signals. You could probably build a low-noise preamp yourself if you need to save money and might need the preamp only later.The phase-noise of the internal oscillator is not great. I've been testing a 1GHz PLL circuit (ADF4350) as well as a DDS (AD9912) - these produce very narrow spectral peaks, but they are shown quite a bit broadened on the Rigol when using a span of <500 kHz or so. If someone would come up with a hack to replace the internal oscillator and improve the phase noise that would be interesting indeed! This is partly what you pay for in a spectrum analyzer that costs 10x or 20x more I think.screenshots (PNG) written to USB disk are quite fast and useful. CSV-data written to the same USB disk is very very slow. I haven't tried the USB or Ethernet interfaces - Ethernet and maybe Python + LXI-library would probably be the way to go in a permanent lab setup for data transfer.For the DDS testing we've been using the DDS and the Rigol DSA off the same 10MHz timebase. The built-in frequency counter on the DSA has been useful and is accurate to at least 10-12 digits wrt. to the external 10MHz timebase.AW

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 17, 2014, 02:20:45 pm
content: AW,Thank you so much for the reply, I have been interested in obtaining what I consider a cost effective / low end analyzer and trying to decide if the -117 or the -148 cost difference is worth the 2K difference. I started with the 815-TG but feel I could use the machine in the 2.4 - 2.8 g range at times, especially the tgen for preamps, filters and cavities. It can be quite difficult to decide on that extra margin of noise floor since we're working in the sub uV area. The phase noise might make this extra margin a moot point too, not sure yet.Thank you,JLM

author: awallin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2014, 05:10:22 pm
content: some discussion on phase-noise over here, with links to a few screenshots I took:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/spectrum-analyzer-phase-noise-andor-'shape-function'/?topicseen

author: andrew867
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 19, 2014, 02:56:37 pm
content: JLM,I'm selling a (very slightly) used DSA1030A-TG3 if you're interested. I found your post after I put it up online otherwise I'd have sent you a message direct. Since you're in the USA it shouldn't be too much for shipping (I'm up here in Eastern Canada, would be around $150-$200).https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-used-rigol-dsa1030a-tg3-3ghz-spectrum-analyzer-with-tracking-generator/-Andrew