Products > Test Equipment
Tektronix 491 Spectrum Analyser
Uky:
AFAIK:
The 491 is a 2nd LO swept type analyzer. No wide band sweeps.
It has no RF attenuator (!) RF input levels should be i sub -dBm levels.
It has no calibrated vertical scale factors whatsoever.
In a competitor analysis document released for internal use by HP, when comparing the 491 with their 141-series
analyzers, HP described the 491 as a "Spectrum Monitor".
It is a collectors item as it is a nice example of craftsmanship from when it was manufactured
and it does well with the cover off. But its performance are inferior to that of HP from
the same era.
Having restored more modern HP and Tek Analyzers, I must, as a Tek afficionado admit that Tek
was never able to fully compete with HP. Sure the 492 and some later models including 275x
offers useable performance but eventually, Tek gave up and left the Spectrum Analyzer market
completely around 1990.
pascal_sweden:
What would be a fair price for the Tektronix 491 spectrum analyzer?
Unit379:
--- Quote from: Uky on May 09, 2022, 07:51:21 pm ---Having restored more modern HP and Tek Analyzers, I must, as a Tek afficionado admit that Tek
was never able to fully compete with HP. Sure the 492 and some later models including 275x
offers useable performance but eventually, Tek gave up and left the Spectrum Analyzer market
completely around 1990.
--- End quote ---
I know that this topic is old but this simply isn't true.
Tektronix did not leave the spectrum analyzer market at all around 1990 and in fact went on to make some very fine and high-performance units which were at least as good and in some ways better than their HP counterparts.
They also partnered with Advantest for a bit. Today, Tektronix is still producing and selling spectrum analyzers including some very good USB units.
My daily bench user is a tricked-out Tek 2712 which has a 1998 production date written inside along with personal signatures from the team which assembled & tested my unit. This 2712 has been trouble free and I am the 2nd owner. It spent its former life as a test instrument for a major TV broadcasting company.
So I wouldn't say that Tektronix couldn't compete with HP. Its just that good or bad, HP became the Harley-Davidson of spectrum analyzers.
squadchannel:
Tektronix 3066(1996) and later models were developed by Tektronix Japan(Sony/Tek), and from memory, models up to about RSA3308A should have been made by Tektronix Japan.
https://vintagetek.org/spectrum-analyzers/
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