TSP #121 – Rohde & Schwarz FPC1500 5kHz – 3GHz Spectrum Analyzer Review, Teardown & Experiments

In this episode Shahriar reviews the newly released FPC1500 Spectrum Analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz. With this addition Rohde & Schwarz continues to aggressively target the entry level market across a wide range of instruments. These units are packed with competitive features some of which are not found in other instruments in the same class. The FPC1500 employs a 10.1″ WXGA LCD screes and a built-in tracking generator with a fully independent synthesizer which allows for offset tracking as well as a built-in VSWR bridge capable of making vector S11 measurements. These features combined with built-in WiFi, wide range of measurement capabilities and digital demodulation of ASK/FSK signals provides a competitive product.

This comprehensive review is organized as follows:

00:01:35 – R&S Spectrum Analyzer model overview
00:02:25 – Front and back panel, GUI initial look
00:06:24 – Complete teardown with digital and RF deck analysis
00:19:11 – DUT device overview and specifications
00:20:00 – DUT power on, FPC overload test, single tone, phase-noise and pre-amplifier performance
00:29:41 – TOI measurement capability and multi-tone inter-modulation performance
00:35:07 – Internal source performance, THD measurement, tracking generator and offset-tracking
00:41:55 – Scaler S21 configuration, DUT gain and bandwidth measurement
00:46:08 – DUT Noise-figure measurement and marker functions capability
00:48:57 – DUT variable gain control characterization, AM demodulation, VGA bandwidth and waveform display
00:57:39 – Digital demodulation of FSK/ASK with multilevel frequency shifting, eye-diagram display and analysis
01:01:13 – Vector S11 measurement, web interface, smith chart display and return loss characterization
01:04:45 – Spectrogram measurement, replay mode and trace storage
01:06:55 – Concluding remarks

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