[NLRS] Test equipment for a newbie?

[Philip Hejtmanek]

Hi David,

What test gear to acquire is kind of dictated by how deep your pockets are.  Certainly, a full suite of equipment (spectrum analyzer, power meter, sweeper,  freq counter, network analyzer, etc) is nice, but I believe that most of the basic alignment tasks can be done with a signal source and a power meter.

A proper signal source can be anything from a basic weak signal source to a tunable signal generator or sweeper, depending upon what you want to do.  If you are simply trying to determine if a receiver is working, a weak signal source like the one Down East offers will make an in-band signal that you can tune to on the bands, up to 10 gig.  If you are attempting to tweak up a filter, you'll want a source that is tunable and capable of several milliwatts of output.

On the other end, a power meter will give a nice visual indication of level, but can't discriminate between a desired signal and some other oscillation, while a spectrum analyzer can give both amplitude and frequency information, at a much higher cost.

I have all of these instruments in my workshop, and it turns out that I end up using my RF sweeper and power meter most often, with the spectrum analyzer a close second.  I got all of my gear from eBay over the years.  A good HP power meter  with a selection of power pads would be my first goal...Bird meters are OK for larger power levels, but at sub milliwatt levels they are not so hot.

Really, for basic kit building, accurate power level measurement is more critical than measurement of frequency, thanks to the fairly accurate filters that are incorporated in most kit designs.

Hope this helps.

73,

Phil  kf9us


On Apr 21, 2010, at 9:41 AM, David Palm wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> As a follow-up to my question yesterday asking for books/resources to learn
> more about SHF, I'd like to ask your opinion on the most important and
> useful test equipment.  I have just finished stuffing the LO and transverter
> boards for the W1GHZ transverter on 902 MHz.  I bought parts for the 902,
> 1296, 2403, and 3456 transverters.  But now I'm faced with the problem that
> I have no way to check these out!  I'm forced to ship them off to a fellow
> ham who has access to a spectrum analyzer and signal source.  I'd rather be
> able to do more of that myself.
> 
> So.......
> 
> What do you consider to be the absolutely essential test equipment for a ham
> who wants to do some building in the UHF and SHF bands?  Confirmation and
> suggestions on the most bang for the buck on these pieces of equipment would
> be helpful:
> 
> * Signal source:  W6QPL's microwave marker?  Other?
> 
> * Power meter:  Bird 43 with various slugs?  W1GHZ's "all-band power
> meter"?  Other?
> 
> * Spectrum analyzer:  Expensive (!) but I've had some good correspondence
> with WB9LYH about the "poor man's spectrum analyzer" designs out there.
> Anybody else had experience with this?
> 
> * Other "must have" test equipment?
> 
> Thanks and 73,
> 
> David  W9HQ
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