[NLRS] Spectrum analyzers

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

I have been looking for an inexpensive but capable spectrum analyzer for RF 
work (testing, repair, design, etc.). I found a few nice ones on eBay from 
HP or Agilent, but they approached $1,000 with shipping. One that was 
"only" about $800 shipped was limited to a maximum of 4 GHz, whereas the 
more expensive units were rated to 22 GHz without the need for any external 
mixers. (Of course, the REALLY nice units that operate up to 50 GHz were 
selling for around $30,000, which is extremely far out of my league.)

I came across this unit which looks pretty interesting.
   http://micro.arocholl.com/

It is called the RF-Explorer. It is a solid state, handheld unit (nice and 
portable) but can be connected via USB to a computer for better display 
than the native LCD screen, for extended data storage, plot captures, etc. 
There is one model, the WSUB3G, which covers the range from 15 - 2700 MHz, 
which is pretty nice. The designer is working on an adapter or plug-in 
module that would cover 5760 MHz (actually, the 5 GHz WiFi spectrum 
plus...), though there does not seem yet to be pressure on him to make a 
model for 3456 MHz. But the existing model obviously is good for the 
highest few HF bands, and the first seven VHF/UHF bands. This model is only 
$269 from seeedstudio.com:
   
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/rf-explorer-3g-combo-p-1266.html?cPath=174

One of the things that it lacks is a built-in sweep generator. He has some 
single-band units that include the sweep generator, but the wideband models 
omit them (for lack of space, I suspect, given the size of this little 
gem). That would not be an issue for me, since I own a WaveTek 2002 sweep 
generator that is good to 2500 MHz, so it is a good match for the 
capabilities of this little spectrum analyzer.

Does anyone have any experience with this unit, or see any serious pitfalls 
that would likely make me regret investing the $269 in one of these?

Thanks in advance for looking at this with me. (I'm also posting this in 
the hopes that if no one sees a "fatal flaw", that some others of you may 
find the item to be of interest.)

73 de W0JT/5
John P. Toscano