Batboard

Im looking at purchasing my first service monitor to test, align, service radios. The ability to tune diplexers would be nice but not essential.

Ive seen a few Aeroflex (IFR) ones around and lately a few Rhode ones within my price range.

Any sugestions?

As long as you don't need anything above 1GHz, I'm a big fan of the HP8921. Make sure it has the 60-watt power option in it (you can upgrade it later from an eBay seller if you want 100-watt), but they come with spec-an/TG/OCXO/etc. by default, and they are usually reasonably priced. The UI is very intuitive and they don't have the looooong buffer of the IFR1600/1900.

tvsjr wrote:The UI is very intuitive and they don't have the looooong buffer of the IFR1600/1900.

Could I ask you to elaborate on what you mean by "long buffer"?

Wowbagger wrote:

tvsjr wrote:The UI is very intuitive and they don't have the looooong buffer of the IFR1600/1900.

Could I ask you to elaborate on what you mean by "long buffer"?

Typically observed when tuning a duplexer. The lag between tweaking the can and seeing it on the screen is on the order of a second or two - makes it very easy to overshoot. The HP is a few hundred milliseconds.

tvsjr wrote:

Wowbagger wrote:

tvsjr wrote:The UI is very intuitive and they don't have the looooong buffer of the IFR1600/1900.

Could I ask you to elaborate on what you mean by "long buffer"?

Typically observed when tuning a duplexer. The lag between tweaking the can and seeing it on the screen is on the order of a second or two - makes it very easy to overshoot. The HP is a few hundred milliseconds.

That's why I spend a few late nights (much like this one) optimizing the digitizer path on the COM-120B, so the interrupt service routine from the digitizer could move the data directly to the graphics processor, and the trace got drawn on the next vertical blank. 80Hz update rate.

Yep, the COM120B is great in that regard.

Well...looks decided then...ill be getting a COM120B then and with the Aussie $ going so well things are looking even better.