EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: jplle on March 29, 2021, 04:31:34 pm
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I am looking to buy either of these models for home lab. Mainly for preliminary EMI emissions testing, pre-compliance and RF experimentation.
Other than the 1Hz minimum on the 8563E, is there any major performance differences? I don't care about weight, portability, or noise. I'd like higher reliability/repairability.
Looks like the 8563E will cost about 500-1000 more than the 8566B.
Anyone with experience? Thanks!
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That's really not a fair comparison....
8566B is a top-of-the-line 22GHz Spectrum Analyzer from 1980ish.
8563E is a portable 22/26.5GHz and much more recent unit. I think the most recent version came with LCD display from factory.
In US, we can find a good working unit of 8566B for $1000US, and 8563E for a bit more than $3000.
Minimum bandwidth of 8566B is 10Hz. 8563E is 1Hz but it's digitally enhanced.
8593E is quite a bit cheaper and still covers 22/26.5GHz. (depending on options) but bandwidth is limited to 1KHz. But an option can take it down to 30Hz.
I think reapir-ability of 8566B is great but because of age, reliability is lower. It is getting harder to find a unit with bright enough CRT.
Is this for hobby or work? If budget is not an issue, I'd be inclined to buy something quite a bit more recent. None of these are supported by HP/Agilent/whatever anymore. You'll have to rely on third party and eBay will be source of parts. Be careful with ones that lowest frequency is below few KHz.... these are DC coupled. It will NOT tolerate any DC input.
8591EM comes with emission testing option already included. (limited to 1.8GHz)