Batboard

I will be looking to replace my stolen R2670A shortly, and was planning on purchasing a R2670B from GD as a direct replacement. But after using a Com120B also, and really like some of its flexibility. I'm starting to wonder if I should be looking at an Aeroflex model instead. There have been times out in the field where the 2600 series is limited. IE: duplex testing greater than the 50MHz limitation (linked repeater or cross band repeater work, or 72MHz link to 900MHz paging, for example)

Anyone have any recommendations? For the $16k I am about to drop on a 2670B, is there a better choice? How about the Aeroflex 3920? How does it compare to the Com120B or 2670B, performance/features as well as pricing?

Thanks
Eric
KE2D

My standard disclaimer: I work for Aeroflex, I designed several of their service monitors, you should assume everything I say here is biased as hell.

For US$16K you could get a new 2975, or a 2945 from Aeroflex. You could also get a used COM-120B, 1600S or 1900S.

If you do a lot of paging work you WOULDN'T want a 2975, as it doesn't do any of the paging protocols.

If you do Smart[net|zone] or APCO-25, you WOULD want a 2975.

If you do work above 1GHz you want the 2975 or 1900 as they go to 2.7GHz and 2.0GHz (respectively).

If you do a lot of duplexer tuning, the 2975 analyzer is slower than the COM-120B analyzer (they never gave me the time to really work on the 2975 analyzer like I did on the COM-120B, but yes you can blame me for the 2975.)

The 2945 is IMHO a more limited unit than the COM-120B, but because we have a higher margin on the 2945 that's what we continue to sell (my apologies to any of my British co-workers reading this (the 2945 was designed by the UK group)).

The COM-120 family is discontinued, so service and parts will be getting harder as time goes on.

The 1600S should see support for a while longer as the military version (the AN-GRM) is still in active production.

We have a mix of varying units in our shop. A couple of 2975s, a GD 2670B, and three 1200S battleaxes that just won't go down.

We're shopping to replace the 1200s and have looked at the Aeroflex 3500 as a potential replacement. Sadly, it's not. Don't get me wrong, it's a great piece of gear, with some inevitable gotchas, but is not going to replace a piece of bench gear anytime soon.

GD has been promising the R8000 for a while yet, but I haven't been able to find anyone that's seen one actually working.

Anritsu also has a new unit, the LMR Master. I have requested a demo, but again, haven't touched this one either.

I also heard that Rohde unt Schwarz might be sticking their toes into the Field Portable Comm. Test Set market with a new product based on their CMS platform in '09.