@ everyone
Thanks for all the notes, and please, if any other odd bits of advice come to mind later, you could always just PM me. Good stuff like this comes from (hard) experience, not out of a manual.
I've been looking at the ke5fx site for three or four days now, lots of goodies there. I was going to ask about GPIB interfaces - I have several machines with ISA, PCI, or, of course, USB that I could use. I've got w2k, XP, and W7, so the question is - is it easier/harder/better with any of those systems? I vaguely remember reading of people having problems with some USB implementations, but I didn't take much notice at the time. Is there anything special about making a GPIB cable? Length, shielding, etc?
A DC block, and some form of limiting have been weighing on my mind for a while. I've always been paranoid about double-checking before turning on anything with significant powers involved, but this 0V DC and mWatts-max is going to be a whole new ballgame for me. Tim has a block installed permanently - I'll follow suit, but with some added measure to deter me from removing it inadvertently, like when my brain is five minutes ahead of my hands
BTW, whats with some of those Chinese devices - DC blocking (200V), but freq resp DC - xxGHz
Does the 8566 power-up with a default attenuator setting, or with the last-used setting?
... I also have a a handful of directional bridges with various dB coupling so the SA can be outside the signal path where needs be.
That sounds like a good idea.
That's good info about bad caps GOHZU. Last night I fed in 8566 to the search on the yahoo Agilent group, and was overwhelmed by the number of messages. I obviously couldn't even read a fraction of them, but I did notice that similar comments came up there also. I just hope I don't need to dive into this machine for a year or two. Much as I love exploring anything new, I know that I'm at the bottom of a steep learning curve right now, and I'd rather not run the risk of stuffing up something. Analogue, digital, power, I have no problem with, but I just know that I'm going to get caught out here more than once or twice...
Regarding the fan noise, has anyone looked at using different fans? I can remember some fan noise problems in the late '70s - '80s being mitigated somewhat with redesigned blades. I can understand the display generating a lot of heat, but the RF section?
Thanks again to everyone
Sailor