I tried a new method for calibrating my Rigol DSA 815 this evening. I attached an antenna to the SA input and tuned the 815 to 10 MHz to view WWV directly. I set it to a 10 Hz RBW and a 1 Hz VBW and turned on video averaging. I turned on the frequency counter and set it to a 1 Hz resolution.
Next, I put the 815 into Service mode and adjusted the Ref Dac a few points at a time until I got the counter to show 10.000000 MHz most of the time, and the signal to show perfectly centered on the display. Every now and again the display shows a distorted sig, so I presume that is either atmospherics or interference. By turning on video averaging and letting it perk for a while, I get a really good looking trace, and the counter sits for long periods of time at exactly 10 MHz with occasional jumps up or down by 1 Hz.
So here is my usual question... Is there any reason that this is not a good way to do this? Not being an engineer, I may be falling into some of Dave's 'traps for young players' and not know it.
Thanks again to Alan, W2AEW, for his very enlightening video on the difference between RBW and VBW. Without that understanding, I would not have been able to get this to work!
Thanks,
Len, KD0RC