Using a tracking gen as sweep generator.

[Jesset1996.5]

I need to calibrate a Kenwood TS-120s and i need a sweep gen to calibrate the rf board. I have heard before that a tracking gen can be used for this purpose. Is there any truth to this?
I need to sweep at 8.83mhz +/- 5 khz deviation and a sweep rate of 5 sec/cm.
To set this up i suppose i would need to set the start freq to 8.825mhz and the stop at 8.835mhz

[danadak]

Tracking generators very handy. But you can use a cheap DDS module,
drive it with Arduino, and have Arduino trigger start of sweep. Then using
an RF detector fed to Vertical on scope do a bode plot.

Dave Jones did a clever Bode plot with a scope -



Lastly you can build a simple log OpAmp converter so that scope scale is in DB. Or
use scope math to create a secondary waveform log plot.


Regards, Dana.

[Damianos]

If the tracking generator, that you refer to, is part of a spectrum analyzer, then you have what you need.
Otherwise, use any generator that have sweep function and supports the frequencies of interest (signal and sweep rate).
What is to be used as a detector?

[donmr]

The tracking generator on my Rigol DSA does not output a simple clean sweep.  It jumps around and often outputs junk.  I think the analyzer knows when its at a stable point and only listens then.

[Jesset1996.5]

I will be using the detector that is mentioned in the service manual. It uses a 2 1n60 diodes with 1 cap between the output and gnd at 100pf and a second cap at 5pf between the input and the first diode.
It seems this particular detector is popular with kenwood as they use this same schematic with many of there radios. The schematic is attached.