| Products > Test Equipment |
| Looking for used frequency counter recommendations |
| (1/4) > >> |
| unimorpheus:
I have a Rigol DG4062 waveform generator with integrated frequency counter. I recently attempted to align the crystal based reference oscillator on two ham radios only to find out the oscillator output of about 20mV was way below the signal threshold of the DG4062. Along with other issues such a fake calculated digits beyond the first 7 I am finding this counter to be near worthless. What counter makes and models should I be looking out for on eBay if I wanted an oven controlled time base, at least 8-10 digit precision and high signal sensitivity? Budget maybe up to about 2K max so I know I'm looking for something older but well built. Thanks. |
| alm:
What frequency range are you talking about? Generally sensitivity goes down with frequency, so it makes a big difference if you need 20 mV at 10 MHz or 200 MHz. I like the HP/Agilent/Keysight 53181A/53131A/53132A series which gives 10 digits/second of resolution (12 digits/second on the 53132A, there's a thread on how to convert the 53131A to 53132A). But given your limited requirements I'm sure there will be a range of older HP counters that will do what you want. I like the HP/Agilent/Keysight 53131A/132A/53181A series, which gives 10 digits / second of resolution (12 digits/second for the 53132A, and there's a thread on this forum on how to convert the 53131A to 53132A. The Philips PM668x/669x series (some of which later became Pendulum CNT-8x/9x) are also quite nice. But given your limited requirements, I doubt you need to spend that much. If a GPIB computer interface, or no computer interface is okay, and you don't require advanced features like high single shot duration resolution, statistics, etc, then pretty much any old HP/Philips/Racal-Dana/etc counter would work. For good resolution of lower frequencies without long gate times you want to look for a reciprocal / universal counter. For example the PM6671/6672 can do 8 digits of resolution with a gate time of 10 seconds. It's a decent counter, but it should be much cheaper than the HP 53xxx series, in my opinion. The advantage of picking a popular model from for example HP is that its quite plausible that someone designed a board to fit an aftermarket OCXO, like Gerry Sweeney's OCXO option for the 53131A. I'm not familiar with the older HP counters or other brands like Racal-Dana but I'm sure someone else can jump in. I'd suggest changing the title of the first post to something more meaningful like "Looking for used frequency counter recommendations". |
| nctnico:
For US$2k you can buy a nice counter for sure. I wouldn't buy something old that is overpriced. The Tektronix FCA3000 / Pendulum CNT90 could be a nice option and might be available on the market in near mint condition at your budget level. Somebody has created add-on modules to get the extra HF input on the FCA3000/CNT90 so you can get into GHz frequency counting at relative low cost. The Keysight counters have a more modern interface but what they lack is accuracy in the time interval mode and no automatic reversing the time interval measurements. |
| unimorpheus:
Thanks everyone for the info. I don't think I would need high accuracy above 200 - 250MHz. The reference oscillator frequency I was attempting to measure was 22.625MHz doubled to 45.250Mhz. There are other secondary reference oscillators as well but they are generally within the same range. If I don't have to sped over 1K that would be great but I would rather buy quality than cheap out. That's how I got into the Rigol situation. |
| Grandchuck:
I like alms suggestions. The Agilent 53131A is sometimes available used at a reasonable price. You can add a prescaler and/or an oven controlled reference oscillator to units without those. I have an Agilent 53131A that I upgraded and then sold my other counters. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |