WTB: Spectrum Analyzer (21 GHz or higher)

Do you really mea 21GHz ??? no chance......

Please explain "no chance"?????? No, mine's not for sale.

Why not 21GHz? That is a perfectly standard range AFAIK.

lol I thought the world stopped at 3 Gig... :)

My old Polarad goes a lot higher than that, and it's mostly tubes. I think it ent to 40 GHz with an external mixer.

I used to have one that went to 60GHz on waveguide. IIRC, it went to 10GHz on coax.

Good grief why would you think that? There were 40GHz spectrum analyzers in the '60s.

New ones cost the equivalent of hundreds of Rigol oscilloscopes though.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

There are manufacturers that have analyzers up around 60G or 80G. Not really advertised, since they are one offs or custom designs.

Cheers

The catalog claims the Tek 492 can go to 325GHZ with external mixers.

On a sunny day (Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:54:41 -0700 (PDT)) it happened snipped-for-privacy@netzero.com wrote in :

In a moment of distraction I realised that I have a nice 600 THz spectrum analyser. It is very low power, portable, and has a full color display.

I was thinking: Optical about 500 nm to 1 um (covers the visible range)

I can sell it to you for 1000$ :-) It is sometimes also called a prism.

Math correct this time? Else just f*cking adjust for it.

Pretty nice discount.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Yep, lots of top-of-the-line boat anchors go for two or three cents on the dollar, if you're patient. I bought a 19-inch rack from Lawrence (Ecnerwal) a couple of years back, and I now need another one.

Also I had to replace the casters yesterday because the tires peeled off, so I went with 800-lb capacity, 2-inch-wide cast-iron ones with thin polyurethane tires. They were almost the same price as the crappy plastic ones--$22 each from McMaster-Carr.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Why not Ebay? Ebay is a very good source for test equipment. Otherwise you can check out Teknet, Used-line, Metrictest, etc.

A used spectrum analyzer is a delicate piece of equipment that is EASILY damaged. And the easily damaged parts are "used up". You may not be able to buy them any more. There's a LOT of stuff in a spectrum analyzer that was "special 20 years ago" and made of unobtainium.

The demand/supply ratio for spectrum analyzers is high >>> high prices.

Be aware that there are complex import/export regulations for spectrum analyzers. IRRC the stripped down tek 496 was produced partly because it avoided some draconian export restriction. You don't want your purchase to be stuck permanently in customs.

Aside from a few extremely expensive test equipment dealers, a typical EBAY reseller has no idea what he has. He bought a pallet of stuff from a middle man who got it at an auction and already cherry-picked the good stuff. He has no idea whether it works...yes, it makes a green line on the screen, so it must be working.

A buyer who kinda, sorta, thinks it might be cool to have a spectrum analyzer has no idea what he wants or how to test it...or that he can "hurt" the front end the first time he tries to use it. Assuming an honest seller, he doesn't even know what questions to ask. This thread is an example of that situation.

There are certainly excellent deals to be made on ebay. The possibility of an inexperienced buyer buying a spectrum analyzer at a reasonable price from an inexperienced, honest, seller with a positive outcome is remote.

My opinion of anonymous long-distance sales with little recourse: If it's cheap, it's busted. If it's not cheap, it's usually busted. If it's expensive, the fault is probably one that an inexperienced user won't have the knowledge or equipment to find until it's too late. If it works, you got lucky.

If you're an experienced EBAY buyer, you know why I used the word "honest" as a seller qualifier. Yes, there are a lot of honest, knowledgeable, experienced sellers on ebay. Problem is figuring out which ones.

I once inquired about some tek sampling gear on ebay. Was one of those optimistically worded ads "looks good, no way to test it".

Was priced in the middle. Too expensive for junk, suspiciously low for good working stuff.

We exchanged a few emails. One time he screwed up and replied from an email address at the world's most famous used equipment refurbisher. Can't test it, my A$$!!!!!! I have no idea whether this was an opportunistic employee raiding the dumpster or a sanctioned corporate sales channel for unfixable stuff.

I could go on....

Ebay is a very good source for test equipment. Otherwise

Hi , If you're still looking for a Spectrum Analyzer, I have a 26.5GHZ Loaded with options. Rhodes Schwarz/Advantest U3661. Please contact me at : 303 877 5160 or snipped-for-privacy@qwest.net