Tag Archives: handheld

Handheld Spectrum Analyzer Competes with Benchtops

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Frequency coverage from the Anritsu MS2720T gets as good as 9 kHz to 43 GHz in model MS2720T-0743, the high end of this series of spectrum analyzers, which starts at its lower end (in terms of frequency) with a model that boasts a continuous frequency range of 9 kHz to 9 GHz. Not too shabby. Launched in December, 2012, this almost two-years-on-the-market handheld could well compete with today’s benchtop analyzers (without external mixers) in the frequency specification department.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the other specs associated with this instrument:

  • Resolution Bandwidth from 1 Hz to 10 MHz
  • Sweep mode speeds: Allow a resolution bandwidth of 30 kHz to 10 MHz with almost no impact on sweep speed
  • Dynamic range is >106 dB in 1 Hz bandwidth at 2.4 GHz
  • DANL is -160 dBm in 1 Hz bandwidth at 1 GHz (preamp on)
  • Phase noise is -104 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset at 1 GHz
  • Option of tracking generators from 100 kHz to 20 GHz (full-band)

Read more in the Used-Line T&M Specs pages as well as in the Related Articles below. Do check out the many capabilities available as options for the MS2720T. Not only all the signal analysis packages that a wireless engineer may need for the various data rates of carriers, but a vast selection of analyzers, such as power meter, channel scanner, GPS Receiver, and Interference Analyzer are available as options.

Used Anritsu MS2720T | used-line.comThe Spectrum Master™ MS2720T series provides field technicians and engineers with performance that rivals a benchtop spectrum analyzer. The MS2720T features a touchscreen, full-band tracking generators to 20 GHz, and best-in-class performance for dynamic range, DANL, phase noise, and sweep speed, providing unprecedented levels of spectrum monitoring, hidden signal detection, RF/microwave measurements, and testing of microwave backhauls and cellular signals.

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Anritsu suggests that this spectrum analyzer, at 8 pounds “fully loaded” is light enough to take up a tower. Well, you’re not going to get me up any tower, thank you very much, with or without a handheld spectrum analyzer.

CN Tower, Toronto, Canada

CN Tower, Toronto, Canada (Photo credit: P.Naumann)

I do have quite a bit of trouble picturing an RF engineer making his way up the CN Tower, for example, with a benchtop instrument, so there must be some brave engineers who scale the heights – with their handhelds!

If it was I who had the responsibility of handling this instrument, I would be very much inclined to avail myself of the Anritsu Remote Access Tool, which lets the user sit in the comfort of his lab or office while controlling the spectrum analyzer over a LAN connection, and analyze data with the Anritsu Master Software Tools – in-between his sips of coffee.

But then some folks are made for reaching for the sky, and others are not.

Anritsu webpage for Spectrum Master MS2720T

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Live from Tektronix: The new Real-Time H500/SA2500 Spectrum Master

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The new Tektronix handheld spectrum analyzers, the H500 and the SA2500, which were recently added to Used-Line.com’s T&M Specifications page, are ruggedized instruments with an interface that has been designed for high quality visibility and easy navigation in the field.Tektronix H500/SA2500

But these usability features do not detract from the analyzer’s performance specifications. With a 10 kHz to 6.2 GHz frequency range, a +20 dBm to -160 dBm reference level range, and 100% POI for transients with 125 µs minimum signal durations (H500), these spectrum analyzers pack a punch that can be found in many desktop analyzers.

However, according to Jim McGillivary, general manager of the Tektronix Source Analyzer Product Line, “…what makes these instruments truly revolutionary is our unique real-time DPX™ live RF spectrum display technology. No other instrument or technology offers such a practical, fast and easy way to discover unknown, randomly occurring digital RF events.”

Tektronix H500/SA2500 specifications


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