Service Monitors/Analyzers above 1Ghz

[fineshot1]

I am considering purchasing a ( probably used ) svc mon / analyzer that will cover above 1ghz but only have some experience with units below 1ghz. Anyone with experience with any units that go above 1ghz your suggestions are welcome. Must have a tracking generator and spectrum display(of course) and any of the other usefull bells/whistles. TIA

[DJP126]

General Dynamics made a very nice unit called CyberTest. The unit was controlled via PC (Windows 95/98 or NT). You can find them on e-Bay occasionally. The hard part is finding the software (called CyberTame) and some of the cables.

[Wowbagger]

The ones I know of are the 1900CSA, the 2975, and the 3900 - all Aeroflex. Of that set, the only one you will find at all on the used market would be the 1900 - the 2975 and the 3900 you would have to buy new, at about US$30K or so, depending upon options.

And my usual disclaimer on such things: I designed the 2975, helped design the 3900, and did some work on the 1900, so you should consider me biased as hell.

[fineshot1]

Yes - thanks wowbagger & DJP126. I have been looking at the model 1900 but still want to hear of any more suggestions if possible.

[xmo]

You didn't state what you need the instrument to do above 1 GHz.

Typically, a "service monitor" is an instrument intended for the two-way industry. It is a one box solution that provides the functions or partial capabilities of several separate instruments thereby offering more convenience and lower total cost than individual boxes.

Since the domestic "two-way" bands are below 1 GHz, most service monitors stop there. There have been several instruments that were primarily intended for the cellular market that offer coverage of the PCS bands at 1700/1900 MHz.

The previously mentioned Cybertest is one example. Another is the Rohde and Schwarz CMD80. The big problem with these is that they are not general coverage. They cover only the phone frequency bands, so if you wanted coverage of the 23cm. band those won't work for you. HP / Agilent have also made some of these cellular / PCS only coverage boxes.

Anritsu, on the other hand has made some instruments for that market that have full coverage. That makes them much more useful on the used market - and worth more as well. For example, a R&S CMD-80 may have cost $70,000.00 new - but they sit on ebay at $495 with no takers. Useless. A real shame. An Anritsu MT8801B/C can bring several thousand used but even at $3000.00 it can be a real bargain when you look at what you get.

What you get is similar to a service monitor - it's called a Radio Communications Analyzer. If you get the right options [analog testing and spectrum analyzer] it is very useful box. It has coverage from 300 KHz to 3 GHz. It has an RF signal generator with FM modulation, tone generator sources plus external, an RF analyzer with frequency error, modulation and RF power. No tracking generator, but the spectrum analyzer is quite excellent, much better than the ones in most service monitors, plus other nice features like MS DOS floppy, 640x480 clolor LCD screen and about the same weight as an IFR at 22kg.

Otherwise, the IFR1900 units have sold used for very attractive prices considering their capabilities and original cost.

[fineshot1]

As you guessed I need to do work in the 23cm band - IE: tune duplexers, cavities, and the usual radio power out, deviation, freq error, etc analysis so will need the typical svc mon / analyzer functions. Thanks for the input

[fineshot1]

Ok - I finally aquired an IFR 1900CSA(the price was right). Now I need the user manual doc either hard copy of pdf. Any idea where I can find this?

Plus - I also need the face cover if anyone has one available.
Plus Plus - Any user hints or tricks with this unit would be appreciated.

[Wowbagger]

I'll see if the manual is in the documentation system as a PDF tomorrow at work.

[fineshot1]

Thank You Wowbagger.

I will be checking over this unit in the next several days. It was advertised as having a problem(am modulation test) failing a test but after I ran the tests several times it passed them all so it must be an intermittant problem. I think I'm also going to need to find someone locally that can service/calibrate it(the cal tag was removed). I am located in the central nj area if you know of anyone local to me. Thanks again.......dan

[Wowbagger]

Sorry, I don't know of any cal stations nearby - but I don't know that there *aren't* any, either. Best I can suggest is that you contact Service directly on that.

[fineshot1]

will do - thanks

[alfred]

I too just bought an IFR 1900csa monitor. It was also advertised as having an AM modulation and RF power FAIL code. I have seen several of these on ebay and was wondering is this an inherent flaw in the design where this feature typically fails first, or is it related to operator abuse? Is is worth opening the unit up and re-seating the boards to see if this is a connection problem???? I spent a fair amount of money on this thing and am afraid that it may have more error codes if I take it apart. Other than static discharge and careful handing of the boards, are there any other tips?

Also if anybody has a .pdf operation manual for this unit that they could send me, I would be happy to send them a paypal payment of $10 for their trouble. Thanks again.