On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 7:37 AM, David Kirkby <david.kir...@onetel.net>wrote:
> On 15 July 2013 14:19, Robert LaJeunesse <rlajeune...@sbcglobal.net> > wrote: > > Rigol, unlike most of the Asian based manufacturers, does have a support > office in the States. They have also had a noticeable presence at the > Dayton Hamvention. I'm rather pleased with the low-end Rigol scope I bought > at Dayton two years ago. > > > > Bob LaJeunesse > > I don't know if it is true, but I read somewhere that some of the > low-end Agilent scopes are made by Rigol. Personally I'd try to work > around the weight issues of the HP. At least the HP will be fixable, > whereas the Rigol will most likely be unrepairable in a few years > time. > That was true, but I'm not sure it's true any more. The new Rigol 2000 series scopes look very nice, but I just paid Tektronix to tell me my 15 year old TDS210 is still in calibration, so no new scope for me. Back to spectrum analyzers. The Rigol is very nice, but as far as I can tell, an HP 8568A/B is going to beat it handily in terms of phase noise and resolution bandwidth and you can pick up a good example of the HP for about the same price. But you do have the weight issue. You need a GPIB controller if you want to capture screenshots etc. from the HP, but the Prologix USB controller at $150 will do that nicely. If you want new and a warranty, I think the Rigol is the way to go. There is also the Signalhound, but it has software issues and needs a PC to drive it. I got a broken 8568B with the intent of fixing it, selling it and getting a Signalhound. The 8568B, though marginal on its log fidelity test (an in-spec Rigol would be no better) is staying. If you want to know what's in a Rigol SA, Dave Jones has a teardown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY0acWrCYjw Orin. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
