Hello, can anyone recommend a budget tracking gen for a hp 8590a analyzer? I'm currently a student studying electronics engineering which is why i am trying to acquire a cheep tracking source rather than purchasing a top of the line tracking source/ the one that goes with it. I'm not familiar with using tracking sources yet so any info such as pro's and cons would be helpful. Thanks!
Depends of the project and purpose that you have in mind, the rock bottom prices are for the Chinese white noise sources, that can be used for filter bandwidth characterization, even determining the resonance frequency of some LC circuits, and barely for measuring the response of of an amplifier.
Of course, the output level and spectral distribution is fully hit and mis, there are better noise sources available, that start to cost more and there are no reasonable priced tracking generators, they are either very good and expensive or useless crap and still expensive.
If you're good with the RF work and have/can buy some stuff, I recommend this site video on how to build a bit of a better DIY tracking gen, still not very useful for quantitative measurements but OK for characterization.
http://www.kerrywong.com/2016/01/10/building-a-tracking-generator/Good luck,
DC1MC