Hi all,
This is an interesting forum - and I ended up here after combing through pages of Google searches. I have a question about my newly aquired E4406E VSA.
I'm an RF engineer who 15 years ago made the regrettable decision to go into a commercial function, but the RF bug never really let go. So a while ago I picked up the thread again, and instantly rediscovered the old passion. GMSK was high-tech in the nineties (GSM usage was exploding..), and as everyone here surely knows, things have moved on a little by now. In order to get on with the times, I've read up and built a few low-power transmitters and receivers (usually for the 450MHz and 1.2GHz bands), and have gotten pi/4-DQPSK links to work just fine. DQPSK does not need carrier recovery, so until now things were fairly easy. However, trying to take the complexity up a notch, I hit the limits of my equipment. At the moment, I have a self-training QAM-64 link based on a DDS LO in the pipeline, and without knowing what is the quality of the modulated signal I'm putting out, thinking about a receiver is practially pointless. So, I saved up for a while, and picked up a E4406A VSA recently - unfortunately without GSM or WCDMA measurement personalities, or IQ baseband functions. The latter would have been very nice to have, but I'm happy nevertheless. Needless to say, I am blown away by the power of this magnificent equipment, considering that the price was not all that crazy. High for an individual, but if I had a company I'd feel I would get great value for money.
So here is the issue: trying to completely understand my tool, and to maximize the return on the family finances, I set out to download the manuals - only not to find the several potentially important ones. My focus is on the "Basic Mode", since I will not be using any cellular standard in my homebrew gear.
Since I am the kind of person that reads manuals cover-to-cover before setting out, I ploughed through most of the (many) pages from http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/techSupport.jspx?pid=1000002790%3Aepsg%3Apro&pageMode=MN&cc=US&lc=eng&pselect=SR.PM-Search%20Results%20-%20Manuals.Manuals. However, according to the part search on https://onlinestore.tm.agilent.com/Agilent/en/US/partnerMkt/onlinestore?cmd=eFAPCatEnhancedSearchResult, there are many more. Additionally, there are references to E4406A manuals out there (Google, eBay, ...), which aren't on the support site, and cannot be found in the spare part list, either.
Examples are: E4406-90178 (service guide), E4406-90125 (service guide), E4406-90145 (user guide), E4406-90177 (user guide), E4406-90257 (CD-ROM with all documents?), among more.
If there is anyone here who has a comprehensive list of what documents should be worked through to get good insight of what there is to know?
Thanks a lot in advance for any responses.
Kind regards
Bert
CT, USA.
This is an interesting forum - and I ended up here after combing through pages of Google searches. I have a question about my newly aquired E4406E VSA.
I'm an RF engineer who 15 years ago made the regrettable decision to go into a commercial function, but the RF bug never really let go. So a while ago I picked up the thread again, and instantly rediscovered the old passion. GMSK was high-tech in the nineties (GSM usage was exploding..), and as everyone here surely knows, things have moved on a little by now. In order to get on with the times, I've read up and built a few low-power transmitters and receivers (usually for the 450MHz and 1.2GHz bands), and have gotten pi/4-DQPSK links to work just fine. DQPSK does not need carrier recovery, so until now things were fairly easy. However, trying to take the complexity up a notch, I hit the limits of my equipment. At the moment, I have a self-training QAM-64 link based on a DDS LO in the pipeline, and without knowing what is the quality of the modulated signal I'm putting out, thinking about a receiver is practially pointless. So, I saved up for a while, and picked up a E4406A VSA recently - unfortunately without GSM or WCDMA measurement personalities, or IQ baseband functions. The latter would have been very nice to have, but I'm happy nevertheless. Needless to say, I am blown away by the power of this magnificent equipment, considering that the price was not all that crazy. High for an individual, but if I had a company I'd feel I would get great value for money.
So here is the issue: trying to completely understand my tool, and to maximize the return on the family finances, I set out to download the manuals - only not to find the several potentially important ones. My focus is on the "Basic Mode", since I will not be using any cellular standard in my homebrew gear.
Since I am the kind of person that reads manuals cover-to-cover before setting out, I ploughed through most of the (many) pages from http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/techSupport.jspx?pid=1000002790%3Aepsg%3Apro&pageMode=MN&cc=US&lc=eng&pselect=SR.PM-Search%20Results%20-%20Manuals.Manuals. However, according to the part search on https://onlinestore.tm.agilent.com/Agilent/en/US/partnerMkt/onlinestore?cmd=eFAPCatEnhancedSearchResult, there are many more. Additionally, there are references to E4406A manuals out there (Google, eBay, ...), which aren't on the support site, and cannot be found in the spare part list, either.
Examples are: E4406-90178 (service guide), E4406-90125 (service guide), E4406-90145 (user guide), E4406-90177 (user guide), E4406-90257 (CD-ROM with all documents?), among more.
If there is anyone here who has a comprehensive list of what documents should be worked through to get good insight of what there is to know?
Thanks a lot in advance for any responses.
Kind regards
Bert
CT, USA.
With regard to the User's guide:
E4406-90304 supersedes E4406-90177
E4406-90177 supersedes E4406-90145
So all you really need is E4406-90304
Also, the latest service guide was posted here on the forum back in 2008:
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"by jborges3 » Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:17 pm
Hi Swperk,
E4406-90178 is the latest version of the manual. Since E4406A has been discontinued I can post the service guide (E4406-90178) to the web as a free download. ..."
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Perhaps you could send jborges3 a P.M. and ask for assistance locating it.
Because Agilent provides so many manuals on their web site [THANK YOU!], often the ones listed on ebay are quite affordable. You might watch there.
I got a few E4406A manuals there for less than $10 each which made sense vs. the cost of printing out a pdf plus they were new with the nice Agilent binders.