EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Signal Hound offers a 30 day trial for their products.  I have been looking at the BB60C for a while and finally picked one up.   The first problem I ran into is it will not run on my laptop which is an i7 2630QM with a Fresco Logic FL1000 USB 3 controller.   Basically the software crashes when changing settings.  Stable just running swept.

The manual is not very comprehensive.   The USB "Y" cable is very short (24").   

Runs a bit on the warm side.  I measured an increase of 13C for the outside case temperature (27 amb, 40C case).   

There are a fair number of spurs in the 200 - 300KHz range (power supply perhaps).   Spurs seen at every 10MHz to 100MHz.   Above 100MHz, spurs at 160, 240, 320, 360, 370, 380.....  1200, 2400, 2560    Interesting behavior from 708 to 713 when span is set to 5MHz.  Same form 728-733, 748-753, 768-773 ...     




Tried a few different frequencies and the amplitude seems fair compared with HP 8660D.  At 99MHz (away from spur), I measured the following:
0dB, -0.02
-10, -9.96
-20, -19.9
-30, -29.9
-40, -39.8
-50, -49.3
-60, -59.1
-70, -68.9
-80, -79
-90, -89
-100, -98.6
-110, -108.8
-120, -119
-130, -129

Phase noise at 1GHz, 100Hz from carrier is spec'ed at -70.  Looks about -77 with the HP8660D(spec'ed to -95dB at 100Hz).  1MHz looks within spec. 

All in all, looks like a nice setup.  I just need to get a better PC to run it.   

Using the GPS,  1.234567890 GHz signal. 

Do you suppose the spurs are internal to the unit? Are they enough to be a problem?

Sent from my horrible mobile....

First plot is with the RF generator and BB60C both locked to GPS.   4.0GHz with 400Hz AM modulation.

Unit has been on most of the day and the room temperature is fairly stable.  Next, I use the BB60C's internal reference.   It's fairly stable until I touched the case to cool it.   I then took a small fan and blew it across the SA.   

Haha, awesome. Just for the sake of demonstrating my amazing ability to divide two numbers, I figure that the drift there (with the fan) is nearly 0.05ppm?

I am a few days away from buying one of these myself (because I'm visiting the US; the Aus distributor has a fairly hefty markup). I appreciate the mini-review.

You read my mind!      Just a ballpark test but it looks like the total drift was 531.9Hz.   The case temperature went from 41C to 32C with the fan before it became stable or 59.1Hz / degC.   With a 4GHz carrier, that's what, 14.78ppb or 0.0147ppm?  Seems a little too good.  Maybe I screwed up.

Wish I could play with some of the advanced features.  Maybe next week.  I do like what I see so far.   

I've been eyeing the BB60C too, largely because I've got a SA44B that I love but the slow sweep rate chafes. I've taken a look at the RSA306, but I've also seen some intriguing competition from Aaronia:

http://www.aaronia-shop.com/products/spectrum-analyzer/real-time/real-time-usb-spectrum-analyzer

There are options for 88 and 175MHz real time bandwidth, the series goes up to 20GHz, and they offer nifty handheld versions for 500€ more. Of course, all of this is broken out into price tiers that demand hard choices be made about how much one needs each feature. There's also the slight problem that the tracking gen software is vaporware at the moment. But even at the lowest tier, the existence of options and higher tiers suggests a greater potential for, err, "price efficient unofficial upgrades" than the BB60C and RSA306, which piques my curiosity.

Does anyone here have experience with Aaronia products? I'm awfully tempted to spend a bit more vs the BB60C and have a poke around inside, but the relative lack of reviews makes me nervous.

Center 4.000000GHz
Stop    4.000000GHz

Push them to add more digits when frequency is > 1GHz. I've told them but this bug is still here.

I did not get the tracking generator for it.  If the phase noise was better and they allowed you to control it independent from the SA and it had modulation.....  if it could replace my old 8660D, I would get one in a heart beat! 

Attempted to look at the input impedance using the four attenuator settings and I get some strange results.  Appears to be independent of the pre-amp selection.  I suspect it's time for some sleep. 

FWIW the tracking generator does come with a little program which allows it to be used on its own. It's might already installed on your PC in the same directory as Spike.

Also regarding the crashing, I've only got an SA124B but I had strange problems with it at one stage which which were caused by a particular USB cable - and that cable worked fine with other devices. I never worked out if it was dropping a bit too much voltage or if it was something else. So perhaps be suspicious of cables - and USB ports supplying enough power.

I wrote SH about my input impedance measurements on the  BB60C.  Sounds like what I am seeing is normal. 

Spectrum analyzers never have good 50 ohm impedance at 0 dB attenuation (essentially straight into a filter then mixer).
Our SWR spec is <3.0:1 at 0 dB attenuation, <1.5:1 for 10-30 dB. A VSWR of <1.5 corresponds to a resistance between 33.33 and 75 ohms.

If you need to improve this, adding a high quality 6 or 10 dB pad to the input will get you significantly closer to the ideal 50 ohm load (at the cost of sensitivity).

I looked in the manual and sure enough,

RF Input VSWR at tuned frequency
? 3.0:1 (<10 dB attenuation)
? 1.5:1 (?10 dB attenuation)

Push them to add more digits when frequency is > 1GHz. I've told them but this bug is still here.

I asked about this as well and received the following responses.   

As far as the resolution on the start, center, and stop frequencies, yes, they are rounded for display purposes. For a high resolution frequency counter, you can look at the modulation analysis mode in zero span.

The frequency resolution internally is much higher, we just truncate to around 6 or 7 digits since that is the approximate accuracy of the internal time base, is easier to display, and most users prefer this amount of resolution.  I believe if you place a marker it will give you more digits of resolution.

The more I look at these units, they seem like a good choice for 'My First SA' choice. For me, it would be a learning tool first but will have business value after I get my feet wet evaluating various radios to be integrated into my existing products as well as pre-compliance testing in house. Being able to add the tracking generator as a separate piece is a nice option to get an SNA when I want.

Thanks for sharing the details of your experience. Is the USB-ness a problem at all? Do you have any wish that it was a more traditional stand-alone instrument?

I have never found USB to be a very robust bus but I don't have a lot of experience with the 3.x flavors.  I am not at all apposed to headless equipment like the Signal Hound and Copper Mountain.  Most of my equipment I run headless anyway using Ethernet to GPIB or just direct Ethernet.   My concern with the BB60C was if it would be a problem running it from a hub away from the PC.   As long as the hub and extension cables work out and it's stable, I think it's going to be a good little setup. 

The BB60C does not use much of the BW.  It seems like you could run more than just it off a hub.  Most of my USB devices are 1 and 2.  So basically no BW.    I'll try some different combos and post what I find out.   First thing is if it will actually be reliable with a direct connection.   I can understand it not having enough BW to run or not being compatible in some way.  I don't understand how it could just flat out crash.   It just seems like the low level code may not be very robust.   We will see.   

If there is anything you or anyone else wants to see done with it, feel free to ask.  I'm in the same boat, just trying to see if it is a good fit for my hobby use.   

Glad to help.  Anything else, feel free to ask. 

They have offered to extend my 30 day evaluation.  This is not something I asked for.   They are aware of the problems I am seeing and are aware that I have a new PC on the way.  Communications and service have been excellent considering I am just some hobbyist.   

There is an article on their website about a person using a drone with a Signal Hound attached that he uses to map antenna radiation patterns.   What a great idea!

Glad to help.  Anything else, feel free to ask. 

They have offered to extend my 30 day evaluation.  This is not something I asked for.   They are aware of the problems I am seeing and are aware that I have a new PC on the way.  Communications and service have been excellent considering I am just some hobbyist.   

There is an article on their website about a person using a drone with a Signal Hound attached that he uses to map antenna radiation patterns.   What a great idea!

I find them great to deal with. There is something to be said for dealing with smaller companies where you are often communicating directly with the designer.

They have always been very receptive to feedback and bug reports as well, they have limited resources but do turn around bugs quickly - so it is worth reporting your thoughts to them.