Where could one find a decent priced spectrum analyzer in EU, am I just unluck ?

[HalFET]

If I'll ever find a very reasonable priced CMU200 I will immediately reverse and replace the DOS software there, is yet another thing that I'm good at, but strangely enough, even if I contacted some guys that were having in excess of 20 of these things, I was meet with glassy eyes and "hard businessman" talk: "look boss, I've just got for scrap price this shite because I know somebody at a recycling centre and googled the price,  you pay what I say it costs and I don't care what you do with it or fuck off..."
So if I ever get one of these, the redesigned software will NEVER be open source or published.

 Cheers

You mean you'll never open-source it, even though the rest of us did so with our cmu200 tools and tricks? But anyway you can get working units for as low as 1000 EUR on eBay.

[Bicurico]

Hi DC1MC,

I have followed your frustration and rant on this thread since day one.

Let me share a bit of my experience with you, even if only to make you feel better.

I like TV, CATV and SAT field meter (with spectrum analyzer) and lately I have become fond of spectrum analyzers, too. I have quite a collection by now and it includes professional receivers and modulators for all signal types used in broadcsting (DVB-S/C/T). I have three real spectrum analyzers by now.

Buying a spectrum analyzer is not a trivial task, because it is a very expensive equipment. You want to make sure you buy a unit with the required specs and as a hobbyist you want to pay as little as possible.

As already mentioned in this forum, one very viable solution is the Siglent SSA3021X, which can easily be hacked to include all measurements, tracking generator and extended bandwidth up to 3.2GHz. You cannot just claim it is Chinese crap. This device performs pretty well for the price and I am not so sure a 10-20 years old SSA will perform any better, despite its eBay price being higher.

Also, please note that prices on eBay are high because there is demand. It is a democratic self regulating system!

The sellers certainly did not receive those units as free scrap which they only had to collect and sell for a lot of money. The way it works is that they purchase a whole lot of stuff, without knowing what it is, if it works, etc. They pay for the lot, collect it, separate the junk from resellable units and then do they homework to achieve maximum price. That is a business. Try it yourself and you will see how quickly you are doing a big loss, if you don't get it right.

Regarding the easy repairs and cheap scores, people claim on forums: Don't trust everything you read.

Example: I bought two Emitor Megalook fom a guy in Singapore. It seemed a good deal, especially because the second unit was very cheap relative to the price of the first unit, which is why I got both. Then I had to literally wait for 4 month until our postal service and customs managed to clear the item. 4 months!!! When I finally received the two units (after paying 23% VAT, around 5% customs + 15 Euro fees), I noticed that both devices, despite being as new (that was great - they probably were never used), had totally flat battery packs. Buying those from a battery repair shop would cost me aprox. the same as I paid for the units! Doing it myself (which requires buying a spot soldering machine) would cost around half of that. Batteries are not so important, though. Worse is that one unit had a defect and would not show analogue CATV. It took me another 4 month of free time at night to study the PCB and in the end reach the conclusion that a particular IC must be defective. It cost me another 25 Euro to get a replacement (without knowing 100% for sure it was really the culprit). I fixed it successfully.

So, lets do the math:

I bought both units for 350 Euro. That is cheap. A simple Emitor Satlook Digital NIT (only SAT) will cost around 150 Euro on eBay. This is the "Mega" model with TV, CATV and SAT, supporting DVB-S/C/T.
Then I paid around 75 Euro for customs.
Another 25 Euro for the repair.
Ony after 8 month did I have both units at 100%.

Total cost: 450 Euro.

New battery pack: 100 Euro each.

Initially I thought that if I buy two and sell one, I might get the other unit for free. I doubt anyone will pay me 450 Euro for a unit without battery.

See, in the end I will keep both, but it was not as good a deal as it seemed. To me it was, because I learned so much repairing it. I had fun with that and I do like the device. From a rational point of view, I might have done better buying a brand new Prime Digital field meter for around 1000 Euro, which would have had colour TFT and MPEG2/4 decoders - but that was not the point of it (reference to TEA thread).

Back to spectrum analyzer:

I currently have (as described in the relevant thread) a Keyseight E4403B to repair. It has a broken power supply. Well, hopes are not totally at zero, yet. But I learned that there is NO INFORMATION at all regarding the power supply (shared by many spectrum analyzer frm HP, Agilent and Keysight). So if you get a reasonable deal on those and the power supply breaks (it will at some point in time), you are screwed.

Importing from the US: you will have trouble with customs. Shipping is really expensive. If you know someone in the US and you happen to go to the US or you know someone who goes there, you or this person cold bring the device personally. The problem is that these devices are HEAVY! I tried this route, but gave up. How can you possibly ask someone to bring you a spectrum analyzer with a minimum weight of 15kg in hand luggage?

The CMU200/CRTU: these do NOT feature a tracking generator. But they offer a pretty great spectrum analyzer. Because there are many on the market, you seem to get good access to spare parts. Also, there is considerable information on how to repair common faults, generate required activation keys, replace HDD, etc. But, repairing and maintaining such a device is not that easy. Note that most people here are pretty deep into electronics and repair. It seems easy when you read it, but just getting access to a RXTX board will take more than an hour the first time you try!

Another thing: you won't be able to write your own DOS software for the CMU200/CRTU. As has been said in different threads, most of the magic happens inside the different modules. The PC module acts only as a frontend.

So your options are:

1) Patience and keep searching - one day you will find a good deal.
2) Don't expect a SUPER GREAT deal - that does not happen. Monitor closed auctions on eBay to get an idea of real selling prices.
3) Specialize in one device and learn about it: what are the common faults, common options, etc. Consider buying broken units in hope to build one working. Make sure you can mix components, though! Many devices are pretty closed to self-repair. If you focus on one particular device, you will at some point know everyone selling those, know what to consider, etc. If you just look at spectrum analyzer in general, you will hardly get a good deal - instead you will be ripped off.
4) Consider the SSA3021X. See the reviews, try one for real.
5) Consider: RTL2832U dongle, HackRF or similar SDR
6) Consider: SMA/NWT device - you can write your own spectrum analyser software, as I did

Regards,
Vitor

[MadTux]

Why not start with HP 8566/8568?
 Usually quite cheap on US ebay (sometimes in germany, too), shipping is a bit expensive though, because of the size and weight.
Good thing, you can buy them cheaply (because they are apparently too big for most people ), also in pieces (like RF box, display, cables....) and they are top quality, quite reliable and rather easy to fix.
You start with whatever you find cheap on US ebay and slowly complete your 8566/8568 with all the extras you want. (like 8444A tracking gen or 85685A preselectror)

[DC1MC]

Why not start with HP 8566/8568?
 Usually quite cheap on US ebay (sometimes in germany, too), shipping is a bit expensive though, because of the size and weight.
Good thing, you can buy them cheaply (because they are apparently too big for most people ), also in pieces (like RF box, display, cables....) and they are top quality, quite reliable and rather easy to fix.
You start with whatever you find cheap on US ebay and slowly complete your 8566/8568 with all the extras you want. (like 8444A tracking gen or 85685A preselectror)

Well MadTux, I think that's a mighty good idea, let's quickly see what Europe has to offer on fleabay:
 8566:
Only this beauty: eBay auction: #https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-8566B-Analyseur-de-spectre-100Hz-2-5GHz-2-22GHz/292300311725 and only 2100+ EUR, a real bargain 

OK, maybe 8568 is my lucky number, look at this (one and only) splendor:
eBay auction: #https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-8568B-Spectrum-Analyzer-100Hz-1-5-GHz/112641237289 a complete bargain at 2000 EUR and change 

And no actually incomplete or defective ones to start with, soooo.. Pech as they say in Germany, nothing usable 

Sadly, my first post is remaining valid, no really wins, yes there are some devices available lingering around waiting for someone desperate enough to buy them, but nothing to call a catch, something to use your skills on it and spare some money, of course if you're a (small) company that permanently need one, forking 2-3000 on a refurbished old device makes sense, for a hobbyist, no so much.

And monitoring all the places the situation is clear, there is mafia cartel interest group that collects these things, most likely on a very low price ( when NATO or Vodafone retires 1000s of devices they are not auction them piece by piece, but as scrap and are happy to get quickly rid of them). Or else the market will be flooded with them, but now most likely are collecting dust and rusting in warehouse and it will be scrapped than let go at lower prices to keep the supply scarce and prices high.
The same crap as with diamonds.

 

[Bicurico]

Those units are in the homes of hobbyists like yourself, mainly gathering dust.
Your problem is that there are fellow hobbyists with a bigger budget than yours.

Also, bear in mind that a simple refurbished power supply of an HP/Agilent/Keysight spectrum analyzer can cost 1000US$! No wonder that even broken devices are sold at high prices. They are valuable to provide spare parts.

If there was a Rohde & Schwarz spectrum analyzer closing on eBay for 1000 Euro, I would bid right away. And that even though I don't need one. And like myself others would do the same. There is always competition on these devices. Believe me, I have been hunting for years.

[rhb]

Having gone through all this myself.  And I'm in the US!  I'd like to share my interim solution.

For spectrum analysis I have an SDRplay RSP2.  Roughly equivalent to an Agilent E4406A, 10 MHz span, 12 bit ADC.  I am waiting for a DG8SAQ  VNWA 3EC to arrive from SDR-kits.  It will give me full VNA functionality over my primary spectrum of interest.  I still lack SA function above 2 GHz, but I have a LimeSDR I'm going to package when I figure out how to cool it and the humidity goes back up.  I killed a 500 GB drive by ESD a week or two back :-(  I thought I had grounded myself, but the chassis paint apparently had other ideas.  I've added an aluminum rail to the front of my PC desk.  I already have an ESD mat on the workbench.  The next step is the floor.

A LimeSDR-mini ought to give you what you want at an acceptable price.  Some programming required, but I'm only one of a large group of people trying to solve the same problem you face using a LimeSDR.  So I expect that progress on the software will be fairly swift.  Though it depends upon how patient you are.  If you need an SA with TG today it might not be quick enough.  However, there is always the old school sweep generator and scope approach at least at HF & VHF.

I'd also like to note that almost everyone will post when they got lucky on a "parts or repair only" instrument. They don't when it proves unrepairable.   And as noted, testing and parting out a dead unit can be profitable.  There are far more people with a non-commercial interest in electronics gear than most would imagene.

The advent of things like the AD985x and  ADF435x make designing and building an SA-TG an attractive project.  I  recently bought a Yaesu FT-991A, but I'm really much more interested in instrumentation design and construction.  Which is why I let my license lapse 30 years ago.  Getting relicensed is obviously on my "to do" list.

I'd like to note that I spent an entire evening looking for an SA-TG on eBay in the US. Only 1-2 percent of the units had a TG installed. Not quite as scarce as hen's teeth, but close. And the prices made a Siglent SSA-3021X look attractive even though I returned one after trying to use it for a week or two.

[DC1MC]

Hi Bicurico, I will make some comments on your post and quote-edit your post to leave the main points

Hi DC1MC,

1) I have followed your frustration and rant on this thread since day one.

2) Buying a spectrum analyzer is not a trivial task, because it is a very expensive equipment. You want to make sure you buy a unit with the required specs and as a hobbyist you want to pay as little as possible.

3) As already mentioned in this forum, one very viable solution is the Siglent SSA3021X, which can easily be hacked to include all measurements, tracking generator and extended bandwidth up to 3.2GHz. You cannot just claim it is Chinese crap. This device performs pretty well for the price and I am not so sure a 10-20 years old SSA will perform any better, despite its eBay price being higher.

4) Also, please note that prices on eBay are high because there is demand. It is a democratic self regulating system!

5) The sellers certainly did not receive those units as free scrap which they only had to collect and sell for a lot of money.

...snip the story of buying 2, keep 1, sell1...

6) I currently have (as described in the relevant thread) a Keyseight E4403B to repair. It has a broken power supply. Well, hopes are not totally at zero, yet. But I learned that there is NO INFORMATION at all regarding the power supply (shared by many spectrum analyzer frm HP, Agilent and Keysight). So if you get a reasonable deal on those and the power supply breaks (it will at some point in time), you are screwed.

7) Importing from the US: you will have trouble with customs. Shipping is really expensive. If you know someone in the US and you happen to go to the US or you know someone who goes there, you or this person cold bring the device personally. The problem is that these devices are HEAVY! I tried this route, but gave up. How can you possibly ask someone to bring you a spectrum analyzer with a minimum weight of 15kg in hand luggage?

The CMU200/CRTU: these do NOT feature a tracking generator. But they offer a pretty great spectrum analyzer. Because there are many on the market, you seem to get good access to spare parts. Also, there is considerable information on how to repair common faults, generate required activation keys, replace HDD, etc. But, repairing and maintaining such a device is not that easy. Note that most people here are pretty deep into electronics and repair. It seems easy when you read it, but just getting access to a RXTX board will take more than an hour the first time you try!

9) Another thing: you won't be able to write your own DOS software for the CMU200/CRTU. As has been said in different threads, most of the magic happens inside the different modules. The PC module acts only as a frontend.

...skip my options...

Regards,
Vitor

OK, here are my comments:

1) It's nice that someone empathizes, maybe I'll subscribe to this thread as well  .

2) This is obvious, for 2K EUR you buy in Germany a very usable car.

3) I have a friend working at <frigging large telco equipment manufacturer with R&D in Eastern Europe>, the bean-counters decided that the peons there does not need any Agilent and R&S SA, but gave them the love of of this forum that you've mentioned. The results pipeline stopped to a screech, two frustrated (alpha geeks) guys quit immediately and the junk was promptly returned and replaced with proper devices. It seems that the tablet strapped to a mediocre signal board didn't had what was needed, even if it produces nice colored pictures.
Personally I don't understand what is the target market of these things, so far they seem to have failed to capture any significant industrial/R&D market and only have some marginal following in the academic and (rich) hobbyist community, or else the little heist with "unlock the 3GHz range" would have come to an abrupt stop, with a rain of take down notices and  DMCA crap. Along with FPGA encoded keys / rootfs encryption and better protection methods. Rigol kind of give up and market their SA attempt to IoT enthusiasts and when the price will come down to under 1K EUR, not around 2K as it is now in DE, I will consider it, not sooner.

4) Each one is entitled to an opinion, mine is that there is an artificial made scarcity ( like with the diamonds and Apple phones during launching), I meet briefly one of those used equipment sellers and sorry for painting with a big brush, but they seem to be in the same moral height of the used cars sellers, exceptions notwithstanding.

5) [citation needed]

6) There are really way worse things than a broken power supply, I will consider myself ultra-lucky to get a powerful (semi-modern)SA with a broken power supply. A broken custom ASIC, a broken logic board with obscure CPU and no NVRAM/SRAM content to be found, a broken ultra-wide-band amplifier implemented as an special order transistor on a ceramic section or other unobtanium parts, these are real tragedies.
A broken power-supply is as JACKPOT  as it can be, except bad fuses and having the trigger mode enabled, it can't be better than this.
Sorry, I try not to sound as a pompous a-hole, but who considers a broken power-supply an actual issue in repairing high-end high-frequency complex instruments, it should not attempt doing it.

7) Importing form US/Israel is not actually feasible in Germany, here I agree 169%, except for extraordinary good deals, but I've yet to encounter one.

8-9) Hmm, it will not happen very soon (no beefy CMU200 on horizon for me), and it's clearly not as simple as I made it to be, but CMU200 has a lot of possibilities, of course one needs a rather fully featured unit, with signal generator option at minimum, no I will not generate/read signals form DOS    and the magic will remain in the signal boards, just the front end stuff will be modified to implement new functionality, the modules are actually capable of more, but nobody had any interest in doing it. And actually the set made of the intersection of people that can still reverse some DOS/early Windows drivers/low level stuff and the people that knows that it is/cares/have interest in SAs and measurement instruments and the ones that have time for it and also not enough money to just buy their toys, could very well approach the empty set.  .

 Now my answer is as long as your post, so I'll stop here  .

 Cheers, DC1MC

[rhb]

A comment on old T&M prices. 

I came across an old  guy in Florida who had been buying Tek 475s on eBay, fixing them and selling them.  He got tired of doing it and offered me 8 of them free for pick up.  I was all set to get them, but  decided it was not a project I wanted to take on. I bought a Rigol because I didn't want to even power up my 465.  I've been through the ordeal of using broken scopes to fix broken scopes once already.  Twice was too much. I'd rather focus on what can be done with current COTS devices.

There are a lot of old guys, all over the world, who buy broken gear and fix it.  They don't really care about the fault so long as it is cheap enough.  They've got other units to scavenge parts from.  No cartel, just a bunch of people charging what the market will bear on a working unit.  I doubt they make much money.  More likely they're doing it because they enjoy it.

The cost of test gear has frustrated me my whole life.  Finally as I approach 65, I've decided, the hell with thrift! I'm buying some toys! 

That said, I'm very interested in trying to lower the T&M barrier for hobbyists and solo consultants.  There is a lot of ability out there stymied by lack of access to the requisite tools.

[DC1MC]

Those units are in the homes of hobbyists like yourself, mainly gathering dust.
Your problem is that there are fellow hobbyists with a bigger budget than yours.

Also, bear in mind that a simple refurbished power supply of an HP/Agilent/Keysight spectrum analyzer can cost 1000US$! No wonder that even broken devices are sold at high prices. They are valuable to provide spare parts.

If there was a Rohde & Schwarz spectrum analyzer closing on eBay for 1000 Euro, I would bid right away. And that even though I don't need one. And like myself others would do the same. There is always competition on these devices. Believe me, I have been hunting for years.

Well then, sorry to say, but the hoarders and prestige collectors that are keeping them without using them, are the worst; have one main instrument and a backup one eventually, and try to get the best that you could, that is OK with me. I'm doing the same. When I've got a better instrument/meter than the one  have, after a probation period, the current main meter becomes the back-up meter and the back-up meter is released to whom needs it. Keeping them piled to collect dust, have the capacitors rottening and slowly decaying it's insane, if you think that some obscure module will bring you money in the time of need or it's a safe investment, this is complete crazy, the high purity Krugerrand is a much better and safe investment and occupies less space.

Of course, it's your hard earned cash and you can do what you want with it, but please consider how many ideas didn't come to fruitition because someone could not afford a meter or other instrument to put in practice and how many youngsters got discouraged because "this stuff it's too expensive...". At least consider a mentoring program or just be a Secret Santa for someones that show some potential, myself I'm donating the stuff that got replaced to kids clubs, even if sadly it becomes more and more difficult to find non-cognitively challenged that likes to explore and learn instead of drolling over zuckerstein abomination.
But that's another story, anyway, get into the Christmas spirit and don't bid on stuff that you've already have, I need it more 

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[DC1MC]

Having gone through all this myself.  And I'm in the US!  I'd like to share my interim solution.
8< 8< 8<  ...cuts and more cuts ...

And the prices made a Siglent SSA-3021X look attractive even though I returned one after trying to use it for a week or two.

Hää, huh, what, I've almost missed this gem, so you say that you've got this pearl of Sino-SAs, fresh out of the box,  that has so many wonderful features, big tablet screen, a brazillion of interfaces and even can make nice pictures with mauve and fuchsia traces  , and you've sending it back, eventually preferring some old dusty thing, with possible a CRT green screen and no 1Hz bandwidth, not to mention crushing weight and fan noise  ?!?!?

How come, please do pray tell, what had happened ?

 DC1MC "completly confued"

[G0HZU]

And I want to have a decent SA with TG for a budget of around 1.5KEUR, NO MATTER HOW defective, as long as it's repairable and in the whole bloody EU there is nothing, nothing, fleabay is full of overpriced crap

Try registering at a few 'asset disposal' auction sites? You may find that the actual stuff that is up for auction is stored/displayed in your local area even if the auction company is based far away.

Just a couple of weeks ago there was one local to me (UK) and there were probably a dozen HP spectrum analysers up for auction and they all went fairly cheaply from what I could see. Mostly HP8563E (26GHz) or HP8560E (with TG).

I've got enough spectrum analysers so I didn't bother bidding on any of these but this was an auction selling all of the test equipment (and office furniture) from a local company that was closing down. I think that most of the 8563E analysers went for about £2000 but I may have missed the final selling price as I was bidding on other stuff. I expect that the 8560E models would have been cheaper still and most of the stuff was still in calibration.

I bought a Keithley 2000 bench multimeter for £65 and a few other things. Prices for spectrum analysers like the CRT versions of the HP8563E and HP8560E are falling a lot these days so my advice would be to be patient and try registering at a few auction companies that sell TE regularly. You should be able to buy a fully working one for a good price. If you register early you can often go and inspect and test the lot items in auctions like this.

Also, there aren't many 'decent' SA's that have a TG built in so you are narrowing your choices a lot here IMO.

[Dubbie]

I looked for an SA for over a year. In the end I bought a Siglent which I am very happy with. Since then I have only seen one used SA for sale here in NZ that MAY have been suitable.

I guess if you're not in the US, these things are very rare.

[tautech]

Having gone through all this myself.  And I'm in the US!  I'd like to share my interim solution.
8< 8< 8<  ...cuts and more cuts ...

And the prices made a Siglent SSA-3021X look attractive even though I returned one after trying to use it for a week or two.

Hää, huh, what, I've almost missed this gem, so you say that you've got this pearl of Sino-SAs, fresh out of the box,  that has so many wonderful features, big tablet screen, a brazillion of interfaces and even can make nice pictures with mauve and fuchsia traces  , and you've sending it back, eventually preferring some old dusty thing, with possible a CRT green screen and no 1Hz bandwidth, not to mention crushing weight and fan noise  ?!?!?

How come, please do pray tell, what had happened ?

 DC1MC "completly confued"

Reg just couldn't come to grips with it.
A few of us tried to assist him here on the forum and behind the scenes but he chose to move to greener pastures.
IIRC his main gripe was manuals and saved file formats as he wanted/needed to do further processing of the files.

His use case was beyond what many want and he wasn't confidant the SSA could meet his needs.

[KJDS]

I probably had about 100 spec anas whilst I was dealing test gear. I only ever saw one with a tracking generator

[G0HZU]

Where I work we have loads of high end spectrum analysers and many years ago we tried buying a few HP8560 models with the tracking generator option. Whilst the HP8560 is a really nice analyser with decent phase noise and SFDR, the performance with the TG is disappointing. It would be fine for casually checking a LPF to see where it cuts off or maybe for casually checking a BPF for stopband performance but we stopped asking for the TG option in later years because the performance was so poor in terms of tracking accuracy (vs RBW) and also the levelling wasn't that great.

Over the years we bought (new) the 8560 across all age ranges and CRT models from A to E and the later LCD screen versions and hardly anybody used the TG feature because it was so crude (with high measurement uncertainty and limited dynamic range) when compared to even a basic old school 'TR' network analyser.

[G0HZU]

The other option would be something like the HP4396A/B which is a combined spectrum and network analyser. They are quite dated now and only work up to 1800MHz but they are still in high demand for ATE work.
We used to have over a dozen of them at work but we have disposed of quite a few now. Prices for these on ebay are very high (because of the legacy demand for ATE?)  but I suspect you could find one eventually at a disposal/clearance auction for a low price. I know in the past we have thrown some of them away in the skip if they failed calibration so unwanted/cheap ones are out there.

[DC1MC]

Where I work we have loads of high end spectrum analysers and many years ago we tried buying a few HP8560 models with the tracking generator option. Whilst the HP8560 is a really nice analyser with decent phase noise and SFDR, the performance with the TG is disappointing. It would be fine for casually checking a LPF to see where it cuts off or maybe for casually checking a BPF for stopband performance but we stopped asking for the TG option in later years because the performance was so poor in terms of tracking accuracy (vs RBW) and also the levelling wasn't that great.

Over the years we bought (new) the 8560 across all age ranges and CRT models from A to E and the later LCD screen versions and hardly anybody used the TG feature because it was so crude (with high measurement uncertainty and limited dynamic range) when compared to even a basic old school 'TR' network analyser.

Cool, can I quote you on this ? I mean beggars can't be choosers, and if I collect more of this quotes from respectable long time form members with good credential, I may convince somebody to part of his 8560 for 4-500EUR, I need something like the above stuff:

"The performance of the 8560 TG was at best mediocre when new, now  it's barely usable for the most simple tasks, like imprecisely plotting a filter, even this without too much dynamic range", followed by a detailed technical explanation on why is so bad and why the new stuff is so much better.
The bottom line must be something like: "...frustrated I've finally got rid of the HP8560E for a few hundreds and bought myself a Siglent, unlock it, and couldn't be happier with the large screen, flexible interfaces, high dynamic range and linearity and never looked back to the obsolete useless HP8560E"

If you and/or any other high caliber members are doing it maybe I can convince someone to sell cheap his HP8560E and eventually get the latest wonder, it will be a win-win situation for everybody, I'll get my SA and the previous owner will get a much better instrument, what would you say    ?





 

[Kilo Tango]

There are a  fair number of spectrum analyzers on fleabay tonight, even a couple of R & S ones, although they are faulty.

I found these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Texscan-VSM-5D-Spectrum-Analyzer-4-to-450-MHz/173033122849 and

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-2754P-Programmable-Spectrum-Analyzer-10-kHz-to-21Ghz/263392160212 Looks basically OK, not the latest thing but if you want to start somewhere

They do come up occasionally, you just got to keep looking. One problem is some people dont bother trying to fix slightly faulty ones but part them out 

Ken

[G0HZU]

Cool, can I quote you on this ? I mean beggars can't be choosers, and if I collect more of this quotes from respectable long time form members with good credential, I may convince somebody to part of his 8560 for 4-500EUR, I need something like the above stuff:

The relatively poor performance of the tracking generator won't really knock much off the price. But have a look at the specs for the 8560 TG option wrt frequency response, port return loss and drift over time vs RBW. I haven't used the TG on an 8560 for many years now (because I know the TG is so poor) but I do remember cursing it when changing RBW and seeing the level change a lot because it wasn't tracking properly. Also the mismatch uncertainty when looking at a typical RF filter is very high because of the relatively poor port match. You can improve this by adding an attenuator inline but this eats into the amount of range it can display at a given RBW.

[DC1MC]

There are a  fair number of spectrum analyzers on fleabay tonight, even a couple of R & S ones, although they are faulty.

I found these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Texscan-VSM-5D-Spectrum-Analyzer-4-to-450-MHz/173033122849 and

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-2754P-Programmable-Spectrum-Analyzer-10-kHz-to-21Ghz/263392160212 Looks basically OK, not the latest thing but if you want to start somewhere

They do come up occasionally, you just got to keep looking. One problem is some people dont bother trying to fix slightly faulty ones but part them out 

Ken

Oh Ken, come on, even a poor guy like me has standards  , these pre-historical things are nice to make a blog post about repairing them and then donate to a museum or using them for target practice.
If I invest time and money in repairing a device, I want to have something that still have some years of useful measurements, not to be happy that it just detects some carrier.
I was thinking of this guy:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/ANRITSU-MS2651B-Spectrum-Analyzer-9kHz-3GHz-W-Opt-10/222602047479

for which I can forgive him that it doesn't have a TG, and use a noise source or whatever.

The price is just right, but then I've looked on the shipping costs and added the custom tax and German VAT and got depressed, so now I'll go and crawl in a fetal position to dream about affordable SA and other test equipment in EU 

 Have a nice evening everybody, until tomorrow
 DC1MC

[Kilo Tango]

Sigh .......

Or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rohde-Schwarz-FSEB-Spectrum-Analyzer-9-kHz-7-GHz-READ-1/372166843430

looking at it, the problem might be .....



                                                                                                                                    Oh sorry its a bit old


Ken

[Neganur]

He is over charging on international shipping. Shouldn’t cost more than 300$ to ship to Germany

(I meant the Anritsu)

[Kilo Tango]

yes shipping can be a minefield, some sellers charge little on one auction, but a lot more on another auction for the same type of unit.


Some just completely take the ****

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-Keysight-8493C-Coaxial-Fixed-Attenuator-DC-to-26-5-GHz-003dB/371480388041

Ken

[Marco]

And of course, importing them from the US with fleabay global shipping and tax is nice and hassle free, until you observe that the price is now double AND the custom guys still wants you to visit them and chat with you about what is in the parcel and why do you need it.

I've got my scope from Israel and had those pleasure, bonus, prolly now I'm on few lists as well.

Know it's not terribly useful, but I did buy a  relatively heavy scope where Ebay shipping handled customs and it didn't double the price and simply arrived at my doorstep. Even got a large plastic trolley for free, because Ebay's reshipping service in the US randomly added someone else's package to mine (not worth sending back, I do wonder though how no one in the chain ever noticed no one actually paid to ship two pretty large boxes across the Atlantic instead of one ... a lot of international mail seems to work on the honour system).

Tldr, works for me.

[DC1MC]

And of course, importing them from the US with fleabay global shipping and tax is nice and hassle free, until you observe that the price is now double AND the custom guys still wants you to visit them and chat with you about what is in the parcel and why do you need it.

I've got my scope from Israel and had those pleasure, bonus, prolly now I'm on few lists as well.

Know it's not terribly useful, but I did buy a  relatively heavy scope where Ebay shipping handled customs and it didn't double the price and simply arrived at my doorstep. Even got a large plastic trolley for free, because Ebay's reshipping service in the US randomly added someone else's package to mine (not worth sending back, I do wonder though how no one in the chain ever noticed no one actually paid to ship two pretty large boxes across the Atlantic instead of one ... a lot of international mail seems to work on the honour system).

Tldr, works for me.

Well, this is nice but it's juts an anecdote, my bloody FY6600 still didn't arrive yet, even if the seller claims that it's from Germany. Anyway, it's ture, I did see some devices with a reasonable S&H costs to EU.
Sadly, the cool stuff that I was able to found has unreasonable shipping cost and vice-versa 
But I'm an ever hopeful person, something will fall in my lap to help me fulfill my projects.

DC1MC