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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 18th Jan 2021, 1:55 pm   #1
HECTOR63
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Default Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Are there any reasonably costed used Analysers just for external use to complement Rxing signal tracing etc. I am using one as with a very basic DSR trial so far so good. But its all tied to PC and wondered if Transceivers and scanners etc alike have external outputs available to accept this type of monitoring for signal tracing and searching?
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Old 18th Jan 2021, 2:30 pm   #2
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Hi

I have just bought a TinySA which is a hand held spectrum analyser. Maybe that will meet your needs, I'm certainly impressed by the capabilities all for around £60

Just do a search on Tiny SA and you will find loads of information and video that show what it is capable of.
Hope this helps

Steve
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Old 18th Jan 2021, 3:18 pm   #3
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Hello Steve

many thanks for the reply Yes Ive been looking at some handhelds but wasn't sure if there any good but certainly shall follow up on that link and reassured now that the portables are worth serious looking at as bench ones are quite expensive but I'm sure hoping to find a decent used one that's not going to break the bank for its purpose

Cheers
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Old 18th Jan 2021, 3:32 pm   #4
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

https://www.tinysa.org/wiki/
Also found some on Amazon but didn't want to post listing as the address takes up a huge thread feed lol
Looks like a very credible budget buy and have posted Stewarts of Reading with Dwayne and Beryl for advices on current used stocks as they have been in the past a great value and help of used test equipment with great stock and value for money backed up with great customer service and delivery
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Old 18th Jan 2021, 8:39 pm   #5
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

If you decide to buy one be careful where you get it from, there are several clones out there.
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Old 18th Jan 2021, 9:12 pm   #6
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

If you don't need a very small one a RSP1A SDR makes a very good spectrum analyser, 10kHz to 2GHz, remarkably accurate too.
 
Old 19th Jan 2021, 1:56 pm   #7
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Many thanks for the 'Fakes' Vintage-shall keep an eye out Cheers

Likewise Thanks to Merlin regards the RSP shall take a look into that shortly, in the meantime I'm in contact with Stewarts at Reading with Dwayne and Beryl who have provided some great kit for me recently with scopes etc looking for a budget bench version aswell as a separate Frequency counter to update my Vellerman one which is okay but need something a bit faster and accurate if poss.
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Old 20th Jan 2021, 3:13 pm   #8
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

https://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Softw...rum_analyzers/

Just found this by chance - seems pretty useful
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Old 26th Jan 2021, 11:25 pm   #9
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

I've just ordered a TinySA from Mirfield Electronics, as a direct result of seeing the link above. I honestly didn't know such a thing existed. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of reviews and decided that for £70 (including shipping) it sounds impressive, despite the limitations. Especially as you get a signal generator thrown in! I can hardly wait for it to arrive. I don't expect it to be in the same league as the HP 8559A I used to have on my bench 30 years ago, but I don't need that sort of precision for the things I do.

I did once attempt to build a 'poor mans spectrum analyser' using a swept LO driving a diode ring mixer, up converting the input to a 150MHz IF which itself was down converted to 10.7MHz for amplification and demodulation; it worked but the frequency scale wasn't terribly linear and I never attempted to get a logarithmic amplitude response. It was more of a panoramic adapter really!
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Old 27th Jan 2021, 11:20 am   #10
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Many thanks for the advice Alan-likewise its heading to ward a budget unit for about or upto £150 has been decided due to the massive costs of the high end stuff as credible as they may be for what I would be using would be experimental and not Industrial
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Old 27th Jan 2021, 3:19 pm   #11
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Well my TinySA arrived this morning, very fast- less than 24 hours from ordering! I've not had the chance to evaluate it fully but from a quick test with the supplied antenna, it's displaying off air signals in both VHF and UHF bands and I was able to set up the unit as a signal generator and radiate a modulated signal at a receiver. It looks excellent.

The display is small but I can comfortably read even the smallest text (might not be the case for everyone). You can drive the touch screen with your finger but better still a stylus from an old PDA or any plastic rod with a not-too-sharp point- it doesn't need to be the conductive sort.

The PC software requires no installation, and the TinySA sets itself up as a USB device- you just watch for the COM port it has installed, start the TinySA App and select the port (COM3 in my case), and off you go. All in all, it is one very cool little gadget; I'm chuffed to bits with it!

I should add that my main use for it is homebrewing- mainly receivers in my case.
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Last edited by AlanC; 27th Jan 2021 at 3:27 pm. Reason: added more info
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Old 27th Jan 2021, 6:06 pm   #12
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I was more than a trifle impressed with my TinySA. I bought it to see how far "cheap tech" has gone, a long way in my opinion, I also have a miniVNA, another splendid bit of kit.
I am not surprised by the advances in home RF stuff considering chips these days do 5GHz WiFi with but a few components round them. I am very pleased that people are making use of this type of stuff to make and supply really quite good kit for a very good price, bordering on the cheap.

The only disadvantages I can see is they don't look impressive on the work bench and are a bit fiddly to use (and I need reading glasses to see them, a whole pound from Poundland).
 
Old 27th Jan 2021, 6:55 pm   #13
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

I have the 'Simple Spectrum Analyser by G4PMK which appeared in RadCom many years ago, built from the kits available at the time. It works well, even though doesn't get much use nowadays. It needs a scope with XY capabilities to use it and compared with the likes of TinySA is huge in comparison.

Dave
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Old 28th Jan 2021, 11:22 am   #14
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Default Re: Spectrum Analysers for Amateur Rxing use

Many thanks again Folk's for the reviews advices and updates-all looking good then! I was a tad hesitant regrading the size issue but if it works well with a pc screen then that's a major advantage. I'm not really into PC software and alike(prefer each piece of kit to do a job its made for) but in some cases with such small screens just like with SDRs and the non screen versions aswell the PC helps a great deal compared to the £2K costs of a comms RX these days with such display features as part of the from t screen. So shall get one of these on order shortly and see how I get one
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