Specifications

Contents
5
Table of Contents
1. Recommended Test Equipment
2. Measuring Multiple Signals
Comparing Signals on the Same Screen Using Marker Delta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Comparing Signals on the Same Screen Using Marker Delta Pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Comparing Signals not on the Same Screen Using Marker Delta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Resolving Signals of Equal Amplitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Resolving Small Signals Hidden by Large Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Decreasing the Frequency Span Around the Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3. Measuring a Low−Level Signal
Reducing Input Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Decreasing the Resolution Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using the Average Detector and Increased Sweep Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Trace Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. Improving Frequency Resolution and Accuracy
Using a Frequency Counter to Improve Frequency Resolution and Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . 32
5. Tracking Drifting Signals
Measuring a Source’s Frequency Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Tracking a Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6. Making Distortion Measurements
Identifying Analyzer Generated Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Third-Order Intermodulation Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Measuring TOI Distortion with a One-Button Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Measuring Harmonics and Harmonic Distortion with a One-Button Measurement . . . . . . 45
7. Measuring Noise
Measuring Signal-to-Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Measuring Noise Using the Noise Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Measuring Noise-Like Signals Using Marker Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Measuring Noise-Like Signals Using the Channel Power Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8. Making Time-Gated Measurements
Generating a Pulsed-RF FM Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Connecting the Instruments to Make Time-Gated Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Gated LO Measurement (PSA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Gated Video Measurement (ESA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Gated FFT Measurement (PSA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66