Bill Smith via Elecraft <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> writes: > Looking at buying the XG3 signal generator to calibrate S meters. > Particularly thought it would be very useful to calibrate the S meter > in the HDSDR SDR software I use now. I read the S meter calibration > instructions in the manual and was happy to see how simple it is. If > I had tried to use my old Tektronix signal generator I would of had to > buy an RF Power meter to measure the amplitude and a Step Attenuator > to adjust for -73db/50uv.
No, but I intend to do this. It's certainly simple on the XG3 side; the possibly hard part is on your receiver's side. Beware that the XG3 output is a square wave. I am 99% sure that this means the stated power of e.g. -73 dBm is the power of the desired frequency, and the power of the third harmonic is not included in that. Certainly that is what you'd want for receiver testing as a ham receiver should be expected to not respond to the third (fifth, etc.) harmonic. If anyone has measured an XG3's output at various bands and power levels on real test equipment, seeing that data would be nice. The manual says +/- 1 dB typical for most ranges, and doesn't give absolute limits. Still, even about 1 dB is amazingly good for such an inexpensive device. Unless you want to buy proper lab gear with controllable output for vastly more money, the XG3 seems like the best thing out there. I've only used mine a little bit, but I'm very happy with it. 73 de n1dam ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
