Hello everyone, thanks for replying.
Obviously that's not the news I wanted to hear but I was more or less expecting that to be the case. If scopes made good Spectrum Analyzers, nobody would be buying the Analyzers, right?
Looks like I'll be sticking to my RTL SDR Dongle and SDR Sharp Software for the foreseeable future.
I guess I don't urgently need an Analyzer at this stage but one would certainly be beneficial for the future.
It's a bit like when I first purchased my Oscilloscope. I didn't think I needed one at that particular time but I purchased it anyway when it was at a good price because I knew I would progress and grow into needing it. And from the day it arrived it has been absolutely invaluable. As much as it is a piece of test equipment, it's also an educational tool to me too. As a Multi-Meter gives you one picture, a Scope gives you a more complete picture and I feel the same about an SDR Vs. a dedicated Analyzer.
When I got my scope, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities to design, build and test things I'd never thought possible for me. As much as I've learned about electronics along the way I've learned equally as much about my scope as well. One example is a project I've been working on for a while on and off which uses an Atmega but is designed to take very little power at sleep and uses MOSFETS to turn on peripheral devices when required. Prior to getting my scope, my project was still drawing 16mA and uses relays and transistors as switches. Thanks to my scope I was able to switch over to using MOSFETS, something I had zero experience with before and avoided them like they were some voodoo relic. And just by analyzing the signals on the scope and comparing the Gate and Drain voltages I was able to visually see what I needed to see and it made the world of difference to my understanding. Not to mention what I'd learned about using my scope in the process. My project now draws less than 1mA and has shrunk by half it's original size by using Surface Mount Components - something else I'd not used before. You would be surprised how much just having my little scope has pushed me and helped me learn and I love to learn!
Okay I probably could have rigged up two multi-meters to see what was going on but having the scope to hand is what has made me want to progress more and more into more advanced areas just because I knew I had the means to test it all out with reasonably accurate budget equipment and so I am able to see what's going on and I think that's key for me. I'm a highly visual learner. Monkey see, monkey do. I get a better picture of what's going on if I have some visual information. It must just be me lol.
With the MOSFET situation, as I say, I could have just used two multi-meters but then I've got to mentally translate and visualize it where as the scope lays it all out for me to see and I can see the change over of the MOSFET pins as one pin goes low and the source voltage flows on the scope trace which is so much easier and it would be the same if I had a dedicated Spectrum Analyzer.
I guess the best way to put it is I feel hindered and handicapped not having one to hand and it kinda puts me off progressing with my experimenting with RF because I know I'll reach a point where I do need the correct test equipment and I can't get it.
Maybe this year Santa can accidentally leave behind £10,000 in a sack under my Christmas tree LOL.... And the year after he can do it again so I can get a Network Analyzer hahah.
Thanks all!