Just bought this spectrum analyzer 4.4GHz...

[Klaus Kragelund]

Hi

I am doing some EMC testing, and need something for my homelab that can
go higher that my current equipment

So being a cheap, I found this one at 28 EUR:

https://www.banggood.com/Geekcreit-Spectrum-Analyzer-USB-LTDZ-35-4400M-Signal-Source-with-Tracking-Source-Module-RF-Frequency-Domain-Analysis-Tool-With-Aluminum-Shell-p-1494125.html?utm_design=18&utm_email=1605830019_2332&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=Neworder171109&utm_campaign=trigger-order&utm_content=linux&sc_src=email_2675773&sc_eh=1499aa959b5e8f811&sc_llid=27271673&sc_lid=105229698&sc_uid=MKmHkkGngn&cur_warehouse=CN

It is based on this design, seems to be a clone:

https://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki9/SpectrumAnalyzer_LTDZ

 

[Brent Locher]

On Friday, November 20, 2020 at 8:46:41 AM UTC-5, Klaus Kragelund wrote:

Hi

I am doing some EMC testing, and need something for my homelab that can
go higher that my current equipment

So being a cheap, I found this one at 28 EUR:

https://www.banggood.com/Geekcreit-Spectrum-Analyzer-USB-LTDZ-35-4400M-Signal-Source-with-Tracking-Source-Module-RF-Frequency-Domain-Analysis-Tool-With-Aluminum-Shell-p-1494125.html?utm_design=18&utm_email=1605830019_2332&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=Neworder171109&utm_campaign=trigger-order&utm_content=linux&sc_src=email_2675773&sc_eh=1499aa959b5e8f811&sc_llid=27271673&sc_lid=105229698&sc_uid=MKmHkkGngn&cur_warehouse=CN

It is based on this design, seems to be a clone:

https://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki9/SpectrumAnalyzer_LTDZ

Knowledge of the field is the only thing that matters anymore. Back 20 or so years ago you could not do much without 10\'s of thousands of dollars of equipment. Amazing what is done now.

 

[server]

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:46:30 +0100, Klaus Kragelund
<klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi

I am doing some EMC testing, and need something for my homelab that can
go higher that my current equipment

So being a cheap, I found this one at 28 EUR:

https://www.banggood.com/Geekcreit-Spectrum-Analyzer-USB-LTDZ-35-4400M-Signal-Source-with-Tracking-Source-Module-RF-Frequency-Domain-Analysis-Tool-With-Aluminum-Shell-p-1494125.html?utm_design=18&utm_email=1605830019_2332&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=Neworder171109&utm_campaign=trigger-order&utm_content=linux&sc_src=email_2675773&sc_eh=1499aa959b5e8f811&sc_llid=27271673&sc_lid=105229698&sc_uid=MKmHkkGngn&cur_warehouse=CN

It is based on this design, seems to be a clone:

https://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki9/SpectrumAnalyzer_LTDZ

There seems to be a common Chinese business model: find some design,
copy it with iffy parts and horrendous assembly quality, and ship
without testing.

I got two RF signal generators from Amazon, one for $190 (6 GHz) and
one for $30 (4 GHz). They mostly work.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

Science teaches us to doubt.

Claude Bernard

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 08:28:08 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:46:30 +0100, Klaus Kragelund
klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi

I am doing some EMC testing, and need something for my homelab that can
go higher that my current equipment

So being a cheap, I found this one at 28 EUR:

https://www.banggood.com/Geekcreit-Spectrum-Analyzer-USB-LTDZ-35-4400M-Signal-Source-with-Tracking-Source-Module-RF-Frequency-Domain-Analysis-Tool-With-Aluminum-Shell-p-1494125.html?utm_design=18&utm_email=1605830019_2332&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=Neworder171109&utm_campaign=trigger-order&utm_content=linux&sc_src=email_2675773&sc_eh=1499aa959b5e8f811&sc_llid=27271673&sc_lid=105229698&sc_uid=MKmHkkGngn&cur_warehouse=CN

It is based on this design, seems to be a clone:

https://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki9/SpectrumAnalyzer_LTDZ


There seems to be a common Chinese business model: find some design,
copy it with iffy parts and horrendous assembly quality, and ship
without testing.

I got two RF signal generators from Amazon, one for $190 (6 GHz) and
one for $30 (4 GHz). They mostly work.

The Chinese are driving a coach and horses through our tradional
expectations of what we can expect for such and such a price. They\'ll
destroy the established manufacturers if this goes on. Expect some
retribution tariff-wise post-Covid.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2020-11-21, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com> wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 08:28:08 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:46:30 +0100, Klaus Kragelund
klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi

I am doing some EMC testing, and need something for my homelab that can
go higher that my current equipment

So being a cheap, I found this one at 28 EUR:

https://www.banggood.com/Geekcreit-Spectrum-Analyzer-USB-LTDZ-35-4400M-Signal-Source-with-Tracking-Source-Module-RF-Frequency-Domain-Analysis-Tool-With-Aluminum-Shell-p-1494125.html?utm_design=18&utm_email=1605830019_2332&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=Neworder171109&utm_campaign=trigger-order&utm_content=linux&sc_src=email_2675773&sc_eh=1499aa959b5e8f811&sc_llid=27271673&sc_lid=105229698&sc_uid=MKmHkkGngn&cur_warehouse=CN

It is based on this design, seems to be a clone:

https://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki9/SpectrumAnalyzer_LTDZ


There seems to be a common Chinese business model: find some design,
copy it with iffy parts and horrendous assembly quality, and ship
without testing.

I got two RF signal generators from Amazon, one for $190 (6 GHz) and
one for $30 (4 GHz). They mostly work.

The Chinese are driving a coach and horses through our tradional
expectations of what we can expect for such and such a price. They\'ll
destroy the established manufacturers if this goes on. Expect some
retribution tariff-wise post-Covid.

It seems unlikely that there will be any takers to loose another
\"winnable\" trade war at that time.

--
Jasen.

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
<bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

>Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

I was not referring to the consumer products division of HP but rather
Agilent/Keysight (thought that would have been obvious from the
context). Manufacturers like Keysight, Rhode & Schwartz and such like
are in imminent peril from the Chinese, who have come on in leaps and
bounds over the last 20 years or so. If their rate of progress
continues, they will leave the established Western corporations in the
dirt. The fat cats have had it too good for too long IMO. $6k for a
network analyser cal kit! Outrageous!

 

[Brent Locher]

On Sunday, November 22, 2020 at 12:44:40 PM UTC-5, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill....@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.
Was that barb really necessary??

I was not referring to the consumer products division of HP but rather
Agilent/Keysight (thought that would have been obvious from the
context). Manufacturers like Keysight, Rhode & Schwartz and such like
are in imminent peril from the Chinese, who have come on in leaps and
bounds over the last 20 years or so. If their rate of progress
continues, they will leave the established Western corporations in the
dirt. The fat cats have had it too good for too long IMO. $6k for a
network analyser cal kit! Outrageous!
6K may not be outrageous for a good kit at 40 GHz, but at 1.5 GHz one might argue if they are even needed in that you can make a suitable ope/short/50ohm load yourself.

Anritsu invaded the HP/Agilent market 15+ years ago. I am glad that below 5 GHz is now cheap. I think you still need the big buck to do serious K band work.

In a sense you get what you pay for. The problem with the old HP was that everything was top notch professional grade and you could not play in the arena much at all if you could not get access to tens of thousand of dollars of equipment. This low end stuff is great and does allow hobbiests and even pros to do much of their work on it.

Have you picked up a \"portable\" spectrum analyzer from the 1990\'s. It feel like you are picking up something made out of black hole powder.

 

[server]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The best designs are necessarily accidental.

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:57:26 -0800 (PST), Brent Locher
<blocher@columbus.rr.com> wrote:

>6K may not be outrageous for a good kit at 40 GHz, but at 1.5 GHz one might argue if they are even needed in that you can make a suitable ope/short/50ohm load yourself.

For a bit of fun, certainly. But why bother when you can buy such a
set off Ebay from China for $10 inc. postage? I did just out of
curiosity and was amazed how well they performed. AMAZED!

Anritsu invaded the HP/Agilent market 15+ years ago. I am glad that below 5 GHz is now cheap. I think you still need the big buck to do serious K band work.

In a sense you get what you pay for. The problem with the old HP was that everything was top notch professional grade and you could not play in the arena much at all if you could not get access to tens of thousand of dollars of equipment. This low end stuff is great and does allow hobbiests and even pros to do much of their work on it.

Have you picked up a \"portable\" spectrum analyzer from the 1990\'s. It feel like you are picking up something made out of black hole powder.

Yeah, I have several boat anchors here that I\'ve acquired over the
years, including my main spectrum analyser for RF stuff: an HP 8566B
which weighs in at something over 200lbs in total and makes the bench
go bow-legged whenever pressed into service (doesn\'t do my back any
favours either).

 

[Cursitor Doom]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults
with him after what happened last time. You have to be on your guard,
because he\'s very good at drawing you in without you being aware of it
and you end up in a lengthy tit-for-tat exchange which he seems to
very much enjoy but just drags the general tenor of the group into the
dirt and puts newcomers off from joining and contributing. It\'s a real
shame, because he is capable of so much more but for whatever reason,
he\'s chosen to embrace the dark side. :-/

 

[John S]

On 11/22/2020 1:00 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults
with him after what happened last time. You have to be on your guard,
because he\'s very good at drawing you in without you being aware of it
and you end up in a lengthy tit-for-tat exchange which he seems to
very much enjoy but just drags the general tenor of the group into the
dirt and puts newcomers off from joining and contributing. It\'s a real
shame, because he is capable of so much more but for whatever reason,
he\'s chosen to embrace the dark side. :-/

+1

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 19:00:46 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults
with him after what happened last time.

It\'s called \"rasslin\' with pigs.\" They enjoy it and you get covered
with muck.

 

[John S]

On 11/22/2020 2:41 PM, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 19:00:46 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults
with him after what happened last time.

It\'s called \"rasslin\' with pigs.\" They enjoy it and you get covered
with muck.

+1

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Monday, November 23, 2020 at 4:44:40 AM UTC+11, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill....@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It was appropriate, as Cursitor Doom has gone on to illustrate.

I was not referring to the consumer products division of HP but rather
Agilent/Keysight (thought that would have been obvious from the
context).

And as such, it was totally irrelevant to what I was saying. Stupidly so. Cursiotr Doom has either completely failed to appreciate what I was saying, or isn\'t going to let it stand in the way of him positng an other idiotic anti-Chinese barb.

Manufacturers like Keysight, Rhode & Schwartz and such like
are in imminent peril from the Chinese, who have come on in leaps and
bounds over the last 20 years or so.

They have been playing catch-up, in much the same way that Japan did, decades earlier. They seem to be rather better at it, probably because international travel is lot easier now, and the world wide web makes it a lot less necessary. There doesn\'t seem to be a lot left for them to catch up on, so their economic growth rate is going to drop back to match all the other advanced industrial countries.

> If their rate of progress continues, they will leave the established Western corporations in the dirt.

They\'ve put a lot of effort into education, but inventing stuff and getting it to work is lot more expensive - and fails a lot moire frequently - than replicating something that somebody else has shown to work.

>The fat cats have had it too good for too long IMO. $6k for a network analyser cal kit! Outrageous!

Old technology does tend to depend on a lot of expert, tedious and expensive manual tuning. Cheaper kit, selling into a bigger market - halving the price tends to enlarge the market by a factor of ten until you run out of potential customers - encourages people to automate that kind of tuning (or design it out).

As I was saying, what John Larkin was complaining about was new technology, rather than specifically Chinese competition, though the do seem keen to exploit new opportunities as soon as they show up.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Monday, November 23, 2020 at 6:00:54 AM UTC+11, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:
On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <c...@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill....@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults with him after what happened last time.

Not wary enough, because he really doesn\'t appreciate how little he knows, or how he misinterprets what he does know.

> You have to be on your guard, because he\'s very good at drawing you in without you being aware of it and you end up in a lengthy tit-for-tat exchange which he seems to very much enjoy but just drags the general tenor of the group into the dirt and puts newcomers off from joining and contributing.

Only newcomers who are as dim and non-contributing as he is. Sadly, most of them seem to be as unconscious of the quality-control aspect of these posts as he is.

> It\'s a real shame, because he is capable of so much more but for whatever reason, he\'s chosen to embrace the dark side. :-/

Cursitor Doom wants a forum where he can pontificate to his hearts content about stuff he doesn\'t known nearly enough about. Informed criticism makes him feel uncomfortable - when it should be driving him towards self-improvement. Fat chance of that. As far as I am concerned he, is the dark side - or one more unfortunate manifestation of it, along with Flyguy and John Doe.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Monday, November 23, 2020 at 7:41:40 AM UTC+11, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 19:00:46 +0000, Cursitor Doom <c...@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:59:54 -0800, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:44:32 +0000, Cursitor Doom <c...@noreply.com
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:56:14 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman
bill....@ieee.org> wrote:

Indeed. Tom Gardener has made the same point here from time to time. I thought that \"as Hewlett-Packard did for quite a few years\" made the point pretty explicit, but Cursitor Doom is both stupid and ignorant.

Was that barb really necessary??

It is to him.

I\'m wary about getting sucked into a protracted exchange of insults
with him after what happened last time.

It\'s called \"rasslin\' with pigs.\" They enjoy it and you get covered with muck.

John Larkin, like Cursitor Doom, sees this forum as a place where they can boast about their imagined superior insights. John Larkin wants to get flattered for them, and feels deeply hurt when it is suggested that his insights aren\'t quite a superior as he likes to imagine. This isn\'t exactly getting covered with muck - if he had more sense he exploit the chance to refine his insights - but it seems to feel that way to him.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney