What Time Synchronization Means for Your Multi-Channel RF Measurements In a rock band, the drummer keeps the beat steady and the other musicians follow the rhythm. The drummer keeps the entire band in synch. The same concept is true when you integrate multiple instruments into a test sys... 
EMC Compliance Process & Regulatory Standards Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is the branch of electronics that concerns the unintentional generation, propagation, and reception of electromagnetic energy. The formal process of compliance testing ensures... 
Complete your EMC conducted emissions testing in just 7 steps There are two kinds of EMC Pre-Compliance tests you can perform – radiated and conducted. Today, we will review conducted emissions testing – what it is and why it’s important. For a simi... Get It Right Every Time with Pre-Compliance Testing A big question that you might have is, what is the difference between Pre-Compliance and Compliance testing? What makes Pre-Compliance important? Pre-Compliance is a low risk, cost effective method to ensu... Keysight P937xA USB VNA vs. Anritsu Shockline MS46122B You have your workspace set up with your oscilloscope, waveform generator, and vector network analyzer. Now all you're missing is some desk space to actually do your work. What if I told you that you could get the sam... 
EMC Basics: What is Radiated Emissions & Immunity Testing? After reading my last blog you’ve been given a brief intro on What are EMC & EMI Measurements and why it is important to measure for to ensure your device is pre-compliant. In this blog we’... 
EMC Basics: What are EMC & EMI Measurements and Why We Care Introduction: Conceptualizing your next product, designing it, and then releasing it to market are more or less the main phases encountered during a product development cycle. But what if you had gotten as far as fin... Schematic Challenge – Week 2 Prove yourself as an engineer! The Schematic Challenge is the perfect opportunity to test your skills. On March 12, 13, and 14, we will be posting a new schematic or problem-solving challenge. If you, as a community, ... 
Welcome to RF Test Blog Making good RF measurements is a challenge. That’s why we share measurement techniques, instrument tips, best practices, and RF technology insights aimed at contributing to our common efforts to find the best so... 
The Four Ws of Harmonic Distortion In the previous edition of The Four Ws, I reviewed the fundamentals of adjacent channel power (ACP). This time I’m discussing the WHAT, WHY, WHEN and WHERE of harmonic distortion measurements. Measuring harmonic... Why You Should Manage Your Test Assets during Chaotic Growth This week’s post is guest authored by Charlie Slater, Business Development and Operations Manager for Keysight Services. These days, most organizations operate within one of two scenarios: cutting costs... Low SNR Measurements: How Close to Noise is Too Close? Originally posted Sept 25, 2013 Understanding when the errors will become a problem In this space, we’ve already talked about how the universe may be noisier than you think and described how noise a... 
What’s in your lab? Gain the Visibility to Help Your Team Succeed As you walk through your lab, take a look at each RF bench. How old are your signal and network analyzers? How often are they kludged together to create one-off measurements? How recently have your engineers bugged yo... How Digital Down Conversion (DDC) Benefits Your RF Measurement Helping You Achieve Greater Performance and Fast Measurement Speed At an exhibition demo booth, an engineer complained to me about the measurement speed of a PXI oscilloscope. To make a measurement, he programmed the... Why Measuring in the Time Domain and Frequency Domain Is the Same, but Not Like any RF engineer, there comes a time in your product’s design cycle that you need to test your device to make sure it’s behaving as you expect. There are different ways you can view your device’s... Passing Along the Magic Demystifying technology, and marking five years of The RF Test Blog For several years, I co-coached two middle school robotics teams. It was a great experience, and I learned at least as much as I taught&m... Sadly, Aging is Happening to Me, to You and to Your Signal Analyzer Fortunately, we can make things better—for your signal analyzer Note from Ben Zarlingo: This guest post comes to us from Bill Scharf, a Keysight engineer with long experience in microwave sig... The Real Power of Engineering: Creating the Future vs. Predicting it Adapting to future circumstances instead of expecting to anticipate them There’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to predict the future, whether that of technology or any other area. It’s ... More Cost-Effective RF Power Measurements In praise of the humble power sensor It’s always nice to get a reality check from a fellow RF engineer, and Keysight’s Eric Breakenridge recently delivered one in the form of an explanation of the c... Making Sense of Battery Power and RF Power Understand, anticipate, and respect your power limitations Are IoT and other smart/connected devices the biggest wireless opportunity right now, or the biggest source of hype? I suppose they can be both at the ...