Well now , that escalated rather quickly .
Other than my "toy" Heath I have a couple of syngen that in total weigh more than I do. I've been ready to replace them for years.
Thing is they won't die. I'll post a pic of Frankenstein's workbench one of these days and it will make sense.
A genie paired with a counter usually works. As long as only one is drifty. Better that the genie is the drifty one.
Three things you don't want to skimp on .
A genie should really be a sweep/func/genie these days and have reasonable accuracy .
A counter should be capable of at least a tertiary if not a secondary standard. (ie; beat WWV)
A multimeter.
Things that come in handy are
a calibrated attenuator
VTVM
HV-VTVM
General coverage receiver
then the real dollars.
silly scope. Somewhat over rated as essential and generally inadequate, the first time. Second time buyers don't make the mistake twice.
Service monitor. again over rated as essential but once you own one with serious limitations you won't make the same mistake.
Any fast Fourier device. Spectrum analyzers are real neat but you can look at the output of an easily overloaded SDR (see attenuator above) and accomplish nearly the same thing for thousands less. (not really but you get the idea) . The only place I've really "needed" a spectrum analyzer is sweeping filters and the only time I've "needed" to sweep filters is when a receiver required not only precise carrier injection at a specific intercept rather than a distance from passband center or an arbitrary point some dB down from the knee.
The only time I've "wanted" a spectrum analyzer is to show some "mod monkey" just how fubat his TX is .
Once again, I'm a hack. Others here tech for a living or have much more invested. I've never had to or wanted to count the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin and my approach reflects that. On the rare occasion that I have to deal with phasing SSB, GSB-100, R390, HQ-170, SX-42, RBL-5, or Harris military/commercial I bite the bullet and borrow the necessary test rig. Once I've found my ass with both hands I have a base line that I can maintain with my bare essential tools. The exception was the Harris 505. Once done with a Harris RF-505A I never wanted to see it again . Separate SSB filters and critical alignment to get any sensitivity below 100KHz (that is a whole 'nuther story). The "oven" was a pita. Frequency readout by decade knobs, unmarked proprietary resistors, capacitors, and inductors everywhere. Yet some still called it a piece of cake.
Okay so none of this rambling mess has much of anything to do with a cheap, accurate, stable, SynGen.
To me the original question opened a can of words. Take it for what it's worth ...
Other than my "toy" Heath I have a couple of syngen that in total weigh more than I do. I've been ready to replace them for years.
Thing is they won't die. I'll post a pic of Frankenstein's workbench one of these days and it will make sense.
A genie paired with a counter usually works. As long as only one is drifty. Better that the genie is the drifty one.
Three things you don't want to skimp on .
A genie should really be a sweep/func/genie these days and have reasonable accuracy .
A counter should be capable of at least a tertiary if not a secondary standard. (ie; beat WWV)
A multimeter.
Things that come in handy are
a calibrated attenuator
VTVM
HV-VTVM
General coverage receiver
then the real dollars.
silly scope. Somewhat over rated as essential and generally inadequate, the first time. Second time buyers don't make the mistake twice.
Service monitor. again over rated as essential but once you own one with serious limitations you won't make the same mistake.
Any fast Fourier device. Spectrum analyzers are real neat but you can look at the output of an easily overloaded SDR (see attenuator above) and accomplish nearly the same thing for thousands less. (not really but you get the idea) . The only place I've really "needed" a spectrum analyzer is sweeping filters and the only time I've "needed" to sweep filters is when a receiver required not only precise carrier injection at a specific intercept rather than a distance from passband center or an arbitrary point some dB down from the knee.
The only time I've "wanted" a spectrum analyzer is to show some "mod monkey" just how fubat his TX is .
Once again, I'm a hack. Others here tech for a living or have much more invested. I've never had to or wanted to count the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin and my approach reflects that. On the rare occasion that I have to deal with phasing SSB, GSB-100, R390, HQ-170, SX-42, RBL-5, or Harris military/commercial I bite the bullet and borrow the necessary test rig. Once I've found my ass with both hands I have a base line that I can maintain with my bare essential tools. The exception was the Harris 505. Once done with a Harris RF-505A I never wanted to see it again . Separate SSB filters and critical alignment to get any sensitivity below 100KHz (that is a whole 'nuther story). The "oven" was a pita. Frequency readout by decade knobs, unmarked proprietary resistors, capacitors, and inductors everywhere. Yet some still called it a piece of cake.
Okay so none of this rambling mess has much of anything to do with a cheap, accurate, stable, SynGen.
To me the original question opened a can of words. Take it for what it's worth ...
