As you can see, the instrument is extremely rugged and specifically designed for rough
handling in field operations. Here in Australia, the ambient temperature
can frequently exceed 40 degrees Centigrade and the temperature within a communication
hut can approach 50 degrees. All of the measurement specifications are
guaranteed for an operating temperature range from -10C to +50C with battery operation specified
from 0 to 50C. This is a significant advantage over other
products on the market and more importantly none of the units have any fans or vent holes
minimizing the ingress of dust and dirt in harsh environments.
This is amazing having an instrument that can maintain such great specifications and
incredible temperature stability without any external cooling required.
For those of us operating in secure or signal sensitive environments the analyzers are also
incredibly quiet. Make sure you watch the interference and surveillance
chapter on this DVD where we will cover this in more detail.
The battery lasts for a surprising 4 hours under normal conditions and 3 hours with the
tracking generator active. Best of all the unit can continue to be used
while the battery is being charged using either the mains charger supplied or the optional
12 Volt cigarette lighter adapter lead. Making it ideal for mobile operation or recharging
while travelling between jobs. What is especially impressive is the sensitivity.
Spread spectrum transmissions such as from this 3G mobile phone base station,
WiFi links, and satellite downlinks,
can produce incredibly low levels of received signal power.
But these analyzers typically have a noise floor of around -135 dBm, and that is without
a preamplifier. With the optional built-in preamplifier turned
on it is more like -150 dBm. That is incredible for a handheld Analyzer
and makes field strength or interference measurements of weak signals incredibly easy as you will
see later. On the top panel we have: the main RF INPUT,
the DC jack for externally powering the instrument or charging the internal battery,
small USB CONNECTOR for connecting the instrument to a PC,
a large USB socket for a USB memory stick, Audio Headphone Out for listening to demodulated
audio, an ethernet connect to connect the instrument
to a LAN, an RF Output socket if you have the internal
tracking generator option installed, a probe power socket for connecting an active
RF probe, a dual purpose BNC socket for connecting an
external 10 MHz reference clock or externally triggering the spectrum analyzer,
and even though the instrument has a built in GPS receiver and internal antenna you can
also connect an external GPS antenna to this socket here.
Here is the instrument's Power button just press that to toggle the instrument on and
off. To the right are a range of Function keys
for setting parameters such as the Frequency Span,
Amplitude, Bandwidth,
etc. and press the SHIFT button for functions such
as Save and Recall, adjusting Display settings,
the Sweep Time, etc.
As with most Agilent instruments there are 3 ways of adjusting a value using the numeric
keypad, the Up/Down arrow keys,
or by turning the knob. If we want to put a marker on the signal just
press the MARKER button and you will see to the right of the display there are 7 soft
keys the meaning of which changes depending on which function key we have pressed.
Now here is something we were particularly impressed with.
Everyone involved with satellite receivers will be familiar with the problems associated
with DC power on the RF cable - typically to supply power to the LNB at the receiving
dish. You will be pleased to hear that there is
a built in DC block that will handle up to 50 Volts of Dc on the center of the coax.
This will save many embarrassing and costly situations where a satellite feed with Dc
on the center pin is inadvertently connected to an analyzer.
The color TFT display is especially bright and ideal for indoor and murky outdoor conditions.
But it is also a transflective display meaning that in bright sunlight it works especially
well. In fact, the brighter the sunlight the better
the display. By default, when you first turn on the analyzer,
the built in ambient light sensor is active and the unit will automatically adjust the
display's backlighting to save battery power when appropriate.
But for the purposes of this training course we have turned off this automatic feature
and set the backlight level manually. This is done by pressing the SHIFT,
and SYSTEM button, SCREEN SETTING,
and setting the BRIGHTNESS to manual. One more thing we should cover before we start
making measurements is the purpose of the green PRESET button.
As with most Agilent instruments pressing this button resets the instrument to a pre-defined
factory default state. And is highly recommended before you start
making a new measurement. But pressing and holding this button for more
than a second performs another very useful function that of instantly if putting the
instrument to sleep saving battery life, while retaining all of the instrument settings.
To bring the instrument back to life after putting it to sleep just press the green PRESET
button again briefly. The instrument will turn back on without having
to go through the normal boot up process and with all your previous settings still active.
If you would like further information on these products including;
demonstration guides, operating manuals,
or application notes, please visit: www.agilent.com/find/hsa