I have an old E8363B with 080,81,83, H11, UNL options. i troubleshoot it according to its service manual, three of mixers are faulty and support is no longer available. i fixed two passive mixer 6-18GHz using external LO/RF and IF. it works well within 6-18GHz with the compromise of 30dB in dynamic range.
now the question is
1. can i use any available (active or passive) mixer that covers my desired bandwidth?if so please suggest some mixers. i can use an LNA /attenuator to match LO power. this configuration will be nearly like "Fundamental configuration" i-e external mixers configuration
2. this VNA uses third harmonic beyond 20GHz, will this configuration measure 18-22GHz in one sweep?