[R-390] HP 8640B Question

[Jerry K]

True--as long as they're still working. Hard to believe they are that 
beloved worldwide, though, since those things have been dropping like 
flies from the same ailment for years now and nobody has bothered (or 
paid the $) to come up with a fix for them--like a new set of 
replacement gears. You can bet your bippy that Agilent isn't the least 
bit interested in providing a cheap, sensible fix for dying 
8640B's--they'd be tickled silly if they ALL ended up in a landfill.

I doubt spectral purity is all that critical to running an alignment 
signal through a 50-year-old vacuum tube receiver anyway, which is 95% 
of what I do with my generators. Heck, I'm happy to just FIND a signal 
at the other end of an RF deck or an IF strip sometimes, spectrally pure 
or not! :)

Jerry W5KP




2002tii wrote:
> The 8656A/B and 8657B are great generators, but like all synthesized 
> generators, their phase noise and spectral purity are orders of 
> magnitude worse than the 8640B (harmonics specified at only >30 dB 
> down!).  That's why the 8640B is beloved by engineers the world over 
> -- stability similar to a synthesizer but (still, today) world-class 
> signal purity from that wonderful cavity resonator.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Don
>