Afonso Teles

Hi John,
 

SINAD (signal to noise and distortion ratio) is a rather simple measurement of signal quality.
In the radio industry it is used as a standard for measuring input sensitivity of receivers. This is done by choosing the minimum acceptable output SINAD (generally 12 dB) and a signal frequency (1 kHz was mentioned in your post but the RSA306B cannot go that low, a frequency between 9 kHz and 20 kHz must be used instead).

With that information and with equipment monitoring the output of your test receiver, a signal is fed into the receiver and its power level is decreased until the SINAD measurement goes down to 12 dB.
So, for example, if the receiver reached 12 dB SINAD at 0.5 uV, that is its sensitivity. It's the lowest power input level for which the receiver can still output an acceptably clear audio signal.

So, to summarize: the RF frequency generator should be connected to the input of the receiver you are testing, and the output of that receiver to the RSA306B.

Hi Tim,

From what you have shown us, this appears to be a bug.
I ask that you open a ticket with us and we'll work together to solve this issue: https://www.tek.com/en/support/contact-technical-support

Hi,

For a waveform with such high amplitude peaks, you will certainly want to use the histogram mode.

From page 118 of the user manual, on the Low measurement:

" This value is used as 0% whenever high reference, mid reference, or low reference values are needed, such as in fall time or rise time measurements. Calculate using either the min/max or histogram method. The min/max method uses the minimum value found. The histogram method uses the most common value found below the midpoint. This value is measured over the entire waveform or gated region. "

So, your reference level in histogram mode will be 10% above the most common value below the midpoint (this should almost completely eliminate the effect of noise you see on your waveform).

If you wish to know what that exact value is, then I will refer you back to 2) of my first answer.

Hi,

This functionality is not given directly for the reference levels set to percentage mode (although it is available for absolute levels), but there are two options:

1) If you are using the scope manually, you can turn on markers for the rise time measurement and you can then measure the values from the graticule

2) If controlling the instrument remotely, you can calculate the values by getting the high and low values from the scope and then calculating the reference values yourself from the known percentages.

" PERCent specifies that the reference levels are calculated as a percent relative to HIGH and LOW. The percentages are defined using the MEASUrement:REFLevel:PERCent commands "

Hi,

The following link has a few examples of code for remote control for the DSA/DPO70000:
https://forum.tek.com/viewtopic.php?f=580&t=133570

Additionally, the programmer's manual will allow you to take those examples and modified them to your specific needs:
https://www.tek.com/en/oscilloscope/dpo70000-mso70000-manual/dpo70000sx-mso-dpo70000dx-mso-dpo70000c-dpo7000c-mso5000-b-1

Hi,

the 4/5/6 series all feature digital triggering, which is crucial to get low noise on a 12 bit system. This allows the trigger to have very low jitter, but it does mean that there is some processing time required.

This ~1 us delay you are seeing is the inherent delay of the digital trigger process, it cannot be reduced further.

Hi James,

From the information you have given, it appears those features you listed (except 3-BW-100 and 3-SA1, which come standard) are only available to you as a 30 day demo and will be deactivated once those 30 days are up.

If you have bought those features and believe this 30 day warning is a mistake, I ask that you submit a ticket (make sure you include your model and serial numbers) here: https://www.tek.com/en/support/contact-technical-support
We will help you activate the features you purchased.

While it may be possible to physically reattach the probe tips that broke off, we cannot guarantee the probe will meet our specifications following the repair.

A repair that meets the specifications would be particularly difficult for performance probes, like the TriMode probes, due to their demanding bandwidth, noise and measurement precision specs.

Heat damage, signal path aberrations, thermoucouple effects, and other small defects in the repair may compromise the signal.

For all these reasons and more, we advise customers to fully replace broken probe tips, so as to maintain measurement confidence.

A client asked the following question:
 

Hi Anatoliy,

Unfortunately, we currently only provide the Allan deviation measured at 10 seconds with the time-base references we provide, as you found in the datasheet.
The measurement floor of the instrument is not provided directly.

So, the instrument is not currently specified for such high stability measurements. You might still be able to use it for your measurement, but you will have to test the measurement floor of your FCA+external reference setup yourself.