Just announced by specialist instrumentation distributor, Aspen Electronics, is a 3GHz spectrum analyser delivering high performance, light weight portability and ease of use, at a very affordable price. The GSP 830, manufactured in Taiwan by GW Instek, is well suited to a range of measurement applications in manufacturing, installation and field service, EMI testing and education sectors. R&D labs will also find it a cost effective tool, as it has suitable phase noise performance.
The spectrum analyser features an outstanding low noise floor level of just -152dBm/Hz, without pre-amplifier, and -162dBm/Hz with the GAP801 preamplifier. This extra sensitivity is ideal for picking up very weak signals. Power measurement functions include ACPR, OCBW and channel power, phase jitter and N-dB bandwidth measurements. Two adjacent channels can be viewed simultaneously, and the display splits to show the waveform and the measurement results by parameter.
Ease of use is guaranteed, with the Autoset feature which automatically captures RF signals and presents them in the optimal display mode. For complex signals, amplitude and frequency can be easily manually adjusted. An Auto Sequence function is provided to allow engineers to set up and save more complex test programs, for often used measurements. The user can either step through them at will or run the whole sequence automatically, displaying a go/no go result.
Additional features include large memory for storing waveforms, 6.4in TFT display, USB ports on the front and rear panels (host and slave), RS232 and VGA outputs as standard with optional GPIB interface. The EagleShot PC software for transferring waveforms to a PC is included in the package.
The instrument can be run on AC or DC power, from a car cigarette lighter socket or for 3hours on the Li-ion battery pack. The GSP 830 weighs just 6kg. Prices start at £3100 for the standard version. The instruments are already in volume production and are available from Aspen Electronics on 3 weeks delivery.