HP 8562A spectrum analyzer ???

[KD0CAC John]

I have a chance to do some trading for a HP 8562A spec analyzer .
Have not had one yet , or at least what I would call a full SA .
My main interest is ham radio , the seller says it does not have a tracking generator or any opt.s
To me it appears to be a newer model than what has been suggested for me in the past mainly on cost , an 1980s model used around $1,500 .
This seems to have common price of $3,000+ , I am guessing about a 1990s unit ?
So looking for suggestions / recommendations ?
I seem to be getting a deal at a trade for HF - ham radio and acc.s that I value around $1,000 - 1,200 .
Thanks
John

[PA0PBZ]

Hi John,

Looking at a spec sheet for the series (8560A-8563A) I noticed that this model has a minumum RBW of 100 Hz while the other 3 can do 10 Hz. It also looks like the minimum span for this one is 2.5KHz while the others can go as low as 100Hz. Also the average noise level seems to be 10dB worse, probably because of the missing 10 Hz RBW.

If this is a showstopper for you... that is up to you of course.

Paul

[dfmischler]

Did you look at recent HP 8562A sold listings on ebay?  Beware that the lower priced units in this listing all generally have something wrong with them.

[KD0CAC John]

It does not necessarily mean anything , but I came across an add in a ham radio forums group , he was offering to swap for HF rig .
It would seem that test gear for ham radio is looking for lower value spec.s in general because mostly the operation of lower frequencies 1.8 mHz to 440 mhz , but there is a lot of hams going into higher & lower bands .
It seems that most of whats going on with current gear is going into much higher ghz range .
I know some guys doing 10 to around 20 ghz locally , but I am not there yet .
Really just looking at 1.8 - 440 mhz , doing / learning testing & repair for hobby .
I have also been looking for service monitors with most saying the IFR 1200S being one of the preferred for mobile use and HP 8629C being a bench rig .   

[Mr Simpleton]

If you want something cheaper, why not look at the 8590 series... it only has 80 dB dynamic range showing on screen, and a few other features missing, still a very nice instrument. And if you only want to go up to 1G or so you can really save some dollars. Or if size not a problem the venerable 8568 is THE 1GHz spec to have. Big heavy but OH JOY what a machine. I use one almost daily at work. The user infterface is second to none, and very very nice performance. The smaller 8560/90 does not give me same pleasure, not sure why though

[G0HZU]

All the analysers suggested so far are easily good enough for basic ham use so your main risks/concerns are reliability, size, ease of repair, and then maybe performance.

A lot of people choose to buy a new Rigol 815 analyser when they consider the above list of concerns.

However, if I was choosing I would take the 1500MHz HP8568B over all the analysers listed because of the performance it offers but then it doesn't really add up in the risks/concerns test because it is so big and is unlikely to be reliable long term and it produces a lot of fan noise. But spares for it are plentiful via ebay because there were so many of them made by HP.

However, the HP8562A is going to be a very versatile analyser for ham use because it covers up to 22GHz and if you can get a fully working one for $1500 and can afford to maybe sell it at a loss on ebay for $800-1000 for spares/repair if it goes faulty (and you can't fix it) then go for the HP8562A.

I'm not such a fan of the HP8590 range but they are popular for ham use and are generally about 30% cheaper than the similar looking (but better performing)  856x series.