TSP #121 - Rohde & Schwarz FPC1500 5kHz - 3GHz Spectrum Analyzer Review, Teardown & Experiments

In this episode Shahriar reviews the newly released FPC1500 Spectrum Analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz. With this addition Rohde & Schwarz continues to aggressively target the entry level market across a wide range of instruments. These units are packed with competitive features some of which are not found in other instruments in the same class. The FPC1500 employs a 10.1" WXGA LCD screes and a built-in tracking generator with a fully independent synthesizer which allows for offset tracking as well as a built-in VSWR bridge capable of making vector S11 measurements. These features combined with built-in WiFi, wide range of measurement capabilities and digital demodulation of ASK/FSK signals provides a competitive product.
This comprehensive review is organized as follows:
00:01:35 - R&S Spectrum Analyzer model overview
00:02:25 - Front and back panel, GUI initial look
00:06:24 - Complete teardown with digital and RF deck analysis
00:19:11 - DUT device overview and specifications
00:20:00 - DUT power on, FPC overload test, single tone, phase-noise and pre-amplifier performance
00:29:41 - TOI measurement capability and multi-tone inter-modulation performance
00:35:07 - Internal source performance, THD measurement, tracking generator and offset-tracking
00:41:55 - Scaler S21 configuration, DUT gain and bandwidth measurement
00:46:08 - DUT Noise-figure measurement and marker functions capability
00:48:57 - DUT variable gain control characterization, AM demodulation, VGA bandwidth and waveform display
00:57:39 - Digital demodulation of FSK/ASK with multilevel frequency shifting, eye-diagram display and analysis
01:01:13 - Vector S11 measurement, web interface, smith chart display and return loss characterization
01:04:45 - Spectrogram measurement, replay mode and trace storage
01:06:55 - Concluding remarks
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