Nice possibilities but what about performance on paper.
Dave I hope you will test those sort of things in a review before you take it apart. You have the gear and knowledge, most potential buyers have not
Specs tell how great it is but often without numbers. (like very stable timebase, >= 6ns Tr ( < is normaly used , > is weird).
Most specs that matter are stated " typical" a figure for 80% of the production and only at 23 degrees, but that 80% is also not garanteed.
2ppm frequency accuracy ( this is 80 Hz at 80MHz) but no specs for the counter are given. They state 6 bit/s but I do not understand that means.
and a tempco of 2ppm/C
Phase noise -116dBc/Hz at 100 kHz !! (isn't this a rather useless figure regarding the 100 kHz ?.) and only in SSB (A Hameg hmf2550 has -115dBc/Hz at 10 kHz)
Harmonic distortion is rather high (0,2% and only stated upto 20 kHz) (hameg has 0,04% upto 100 kHz)
spurious and harmonics for higher frequency is not bad for a FG but rather high for RF use. (-36dBc > 10MHz and -30 dBc above 100MHz)
Squarwave 50% dutycycle but 1% +/- 5ns typical. That is rather bad. Better use the pulse function to make a squarewave Tr = < 8ns and that is not real bad, the pulser is a bit faster with 6nS but they say better as many professional more expensive pulsgenerators. My ancient Philips 100 MHz pulsegenerator is < 3ns and I have several even faster pulse generators. But again 6 ns is not bad.
Jitter is 100 ps, that is good but to bad only typical. (and 2 ns !! in AWG mode)
Amplitude. 10Vpp in 50 Ohm upto 40 MHz is not very high but usefull and most modern generators are handicaped in that area
but above 40 MHz it drops from 5Vpp down to 1.5Vpp. If that is a problem depends on the use. For RF you do not need much more as +10dBm most times and 1,5Vpp is 0.53Vrms so 5.6mW in 50 ohm and that is +7,5 dBm.
vertical accuracy is 1%. so +/- 100 mVpp at 10Vpp. Not impressive but useable.
The sync out and trigger out are more for show (1 and 2 MHz max)
This are just specs, I do not care about specs/dollar. Something is good or it is not and if it is not, but you do not care for that certain spec and like the price, it is OK for you but general speaking still bad. I do not expect a cheap generator to be as good as an very expensive R&S or Agilent but I do not like the to much used saying " it is good considering its price" or " bang for buck" Those who can read data and spec sheets can see themselve but many review viewers can not so they only hear the " it is good" part.
How I liker to see it: Tell how it is, compare it to a reference and then let everybody decide for them selve if they can live with that.
(Dave, I like your reviews this is ment as a possitive comment and general speaking because a lot of reviews here are not made by you and often just show an instrument, tell it is great but not a single test about how great. I thought back then, my first homebuild generator was great too ;-) )
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