Aeroflex 3250 series Spectrum Analysers

[jpb]

MCS Test Equipment arew selling these at a big discount at present.
Specs look better than Rigol/Siglent but are they the bargain they seem?

Does anyone have experience of them?

[Astrodev]

I was aware of the Aeroflex Spectrum Analysers last week when I got an email through listing the deals on these, which at the time looked a little to good to be true and I suspected they may only have 1 or 2 units available at this price, but it appears they did a deal with Cobham for around 150 units so there is quite a bit of choice.

They tend to deal in high end comms and RF gear R&S, Keysight, Anritsu, but they also do Rigol.

Because of the nature of the equipment they deal with there tends not to be much pricing on the website and most of the gear says contact us for a quote, this unfortunately includes the Aeroflex analyzers, which is a bit annoying and because I have been dealing with them over the last week (already got my analyser sorted to pick up next week) I have mentioned this to them and they are currently looking into it.

Their clearance list is always worth a look at as there are sometimes some gems in it, but it is a little tricky to find on occasions.

[Astrodev]

Off to fetch mine in the morning, hopefully I will get a chance to see what other goodies they have while I am over there.

[jpb]

Off to fetch mine in the morning, hopefully I will get a chance to see what other goodies they have while I am over there.

I'm looking forward to your first impressions, and finding out what features are enabled in the standard offering (i.e. without buying extra licences). Though, from the manual, things like IQ data capture need to be setup over the LAN rather than from the front panel so are relatively hidden.

One thing that puzzles me is that they describe the screen as 7" wide, though I presume that it is 7" diagonal. If it really is 7" wide then it would be rather larger on the normal diagonal measurement.

[alm]

I imagine they mean a screen with a 7" diagonal with a wide screen aspect ratio (e.g. 16:10, 16:9, 3:2).

[Astrodev]

Right, had chance to do an initial assessment but I think it is going to take a while to really do it justice as there is a lot in there.

As the unit comes it is not actually that big about the same size as the front of a Rigol 4000 series scope but about 4 times the depth, the box it comes in masks this as it is packed in a shielded bag with 2 cut foam protectors inside a cardboard box, there is also a smaller box paced in at the back of the unit which contains the mains lead (UK) a serial cable and the manual on a memory stick, this box then packed in an outer box with thick sheet polystyrene in between.

Because they are coming in to MCS without any Cal Certs all the units are being put through their own Cal Lab so they come with fresh cal certificates (a 10 page affair with all details of equipment used including the S/N for traceability).

Anyway initial info, the input has 50V DC protection which I thought was an option but appears to be standard on these units, max input level is 30dBm, the basic functions are relatively easy to access from the front panel buttons and soft menus but it does take a bit of time to get used to where everything is as there are a lot of setup options in the basic part of the system.

Once you start delving into the next level of analysis capabilities there are 2 sets of soft menus just to cover the different analysis tools (TOI, Power, Channel Power, Channel Separation, Used Bandwidth, ETC...).

Then you get onto the VSA part which is fairly comprehensive and allows for various FFT capabilities along with Spectrogram, basic IQ demodulation and analysis as well as a comprehensive set of digital demodulation options complete with constellation and eye diagrams (that is going to take quite a while to look at just on it's own).

As you mentioned about the display it is a 7" diagonal but they have thought about this and in Spectrum mode you can switch to a full screen display in which case the soft menu and other optional set up info disappears and the whole screen is given over to just the graticule display and if you select something to change it automatically reverts back to the reduced display.

From the point of view of things I did no like they have arranged thins so the soft menus do not align horizontally with the buttons but there are moulded lines to show which options they relate to, I think this was to space the buttons out to make them easier to use, but because of the touch display it is easier to use this once you get used to it. my other criticism is that the case is a bit flimsy in places and I can see it getting damaged around the top and bottom of the front bezel area.

I will try to put some more info on over the next week as I have chance to get more familiar with it and do a bit more testing.

[jpb]

Thank you for the feedback.

It is good to have a fresh calibration, especially as it ensures that they are all in working order before being delivered/picked up.

The case being (or appearing) flimsy in places is a little bit of a surprise because, given the handles on the front, I guess these are meant to stand up to being lugged around the place and taken on site. But from my point of view, if I get one, it will just sit on my bench or on a shelf so shouldn't be subject to any stress.

The size of the screen is perhaps not a problem because of both the full screen mode and the fact that an external monitor can be used - it won't increase the resolution but will make the display physically bigger.

I've been through the specs several times comparing them to low end keysight as well as the Siglent and Rigol and things like the Signal Hound and most of them are pretty good. The one that seems a bit worse is the input related Spurious which at -55dBc is a bit worse than the typical of around -60dBc to -65dBc or better but then the bandwidth up to 26GHz compared to only up to around 3-7GHz means I was probably not comparing like to like.

[jpb]

I thought I'd bump this up to see if anyone who bought these Aeroflex Spectrum Analysers has any further feedback on them.

They still have some models for sale at relatively bargain prices but it is still a lot of money for an individual (as apposed to a business) so I am still dithering.

[jpb]

The Aeroflex 3250 series are still being advertised on MCS test though I've not contacted them recently (minus the models with the 8GHz tracking generator). I presume that this means they are still available.

As it has now been a few months since they first went on sale, I (and probably others) would be interested to know how happy the original purchasers are.

At the reduced price they are comparable to the lower end Rigol and Siglent with  higher frequency options but with the drawback of smaller screen and much bigger and heavier and a 1 year instead of 3 year warranty.