Great video... The HackRF transceiver comes with an SMA connectorized retractable antenna btw. I bought a second one to accompany my TinySA. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge you impart. It is VERY much appreciated.
I intentionally avoided that as the TinySA has lots of it's own spurs using the antenna. It is hard to separate those from any real spurs of the HT radio. Using attenuators with the radio connected directly fixes the problem.
I'm going to get one now. Couldn't decide if I needed a VNA or SA but SA seems to be what I would prob use more for general radio related stuff. I have no idea how to use one yet but that's never stopped me before lol. Thanks for the quick intro of the SA here.
@@IMSAIGuy Sadly my house is full of tools; everything from automotive, machining, woodworking, fabrication, music and lately the electronics stuff. I gotta have tools! all of them! lol But in all seriousness I think we live in a time where we can so easily share/learn new things and own tools that were just not possible even 10yrs ago. A $50 spectrum analyzer, who'd a thought?
Before you buy either the TinySA or a NanoVNA you have to decide which tool you need for the particular application in mind. A spectrum analyzer is essential for determining the spectral purity of an RF source especially when you are trying to determine 3rd order distortion, signal harmonics, or spur levels. It can even be used to determine how faithful a receiver will reproduce an input signal. Also bear in mind that the TinySA high band response tops out at 900 MHz and according to the documentation the high end response isn't as accurate as the low end. That can be gotten around with using a mixer to down convert the signal. However, you will need a stable LO (local oscillator) to provide it. I plan to use my Yaesu handheld for that purpose on low power mode thru a 30 dB attenuator. Since the load for the handi will be the mixer no noticeable signal will be radiated. On the other hand if you are working with filters, transmission lines, or amplifiers for that you will need a VNA. When analyzing an antenna system that device will be able to tell you what the return loss is (i. e. how well the system emulates a 50 ohm load) and using the Smith chart function can also give you an idea on how to optimize tuning. A VNA will also aid in the design of active and passive filters, input vs. output isolation, gain, and attenuation. I own both tools. DE N1ABE.
@@johnbrandolini2915 Thanks! I think I understand some of the technical stuff what you mentioned. I'm still learning, my recent interest started out from wanting to be able to repair electronics stuff. Then I ended up troubleshooting a am/fm radio and I realized RF is a whole new world. I really was looking for something that I could inject a modulated RF signal with into the radio and trace it through the stages (which I'm still learning about). My scope is a slow automotive one (3Mhz) so it doesn't work for RF signals except AM IF at 455khz - other RFs can reach over 5Ghz. I don't think they make scopes that high so people prob use LO+mixers for troubleshooting those? Anyway, trying to self learn this stuff isn't easy may be I need to find a HAM or some other forum where I can ask questions.
@@MrBuddysAdventures O'scopes have really come down in price over the years. I have a Hantek 70 MHz digital scope that samples at 1GSample/ sec that cost me under $300. You can get one with a higher bandwidth but the price goes up with the frequency. For what I'm doing the Hantek is adequate. Agilent (now Keysight) makes scopes with extended freq response but they're on the order of thousands of dollars. There are also digital scopes that use your PC as the display that are cheaper. Check Amazon. You could use the TinySA as a signal source for troubleshooting the front end of a receiver as the HF output goes up to 300 MHz. Modulation isn't needed for that purpose. Once you get past the detector and into the audio section a local station will serve the purpose. I am a ham, call N1ABE, and a member of the ARRL and a retired RF engineer. The ARRL (www.arrl.org) has many great technical books available. The best is their Amateur Radio handbook. I usually buy a new copy every 5 years or so as the hobby changes. Check your local library to see if they have a copy on hand. I'm also available to answer questions if needed.
It would be a really nice addition to the TinySA programming to permit a ham to input his/her callsign and have the TinySA generate the proper ID as part of the transmission.
Thanks for your informative videos! I'm new to all this, so apologies if this is obvious, but would you be able to get an estimate of field strength using the TinySA antenna like this? I'm curious if this could be used to help confirm FCC Part 15 compliance for extremely low power AM and FM transmitters.
I'm impressed my HT hits the freq right on. All I've read were that these low cost HT's are not true to the freq. Impressed with the SA and my HT. I did the tone/modulation test and got the wider peak with tone as opposed to the thinner peak without tone. But I don't understand why that is a practical thing to know. So I'm not sure what meaning the wider bandwidth has? Thank you for this video.
FM transmitters modulate frequency to convey information like speech and tones. So as a tone is transmitted, the observed frequency shown on the TinySA raises and lowers in frequency. Higher pitched tones are higher in frequency than lower pitched tones. The change in frequency that you see on the TinySA is the band width or deviation of the transmitted signal around the carrier frequency. Radio Amatuers, for example, on the 2m band need to keep deviation to no more that 5Khz. 73
Is it possible to use a tinySA to measure your HF, VHF, UHF antenna outputs to see if it complies with FCC Maximal Permissible Exposure limits for controlled and uncontrolled environments? Are the TinySA and capabilities and small antenna accurate enough to do that? I realize the Tiny SA displays power levels but the FCC exposure limits are in field strength so that might be an issue unless there is a way to convert power to power density (mW/cm^2) or field strength.
Can a spectrum analyzer monitor a car FOB signal? I want to know if the FOB is till transmitting even after I shut it off and also, to check if a Faraday shield actually prevent transmission. Thanks.
Just got an old Hammarlund HQ-180 that needs aligning. I purchased one of these spectrums (it comes tomorrow) to be used on an old sig gen to make sure that the sig gen is accurate. I didn’t realize that this spectrum also puts out a signal. Well…At least now I got the best of both worlds. De N2DMI
Is it possible to blow the front end of the TinySA, by letting it receive a big signal froma a near by ham station? For an unknown reason so far, my Tiny SA, which I bought used, worked fine and somehow both the IN and OUT modes stopped working normaly. Now, it does receive, but only strong signals from my handheld, using the antennas. on both Working at the OUT mode, my tranceivers are unable to detect a -76 dBm signal at all. Only if I put it at it's maximum, it can be heard. The HIGH IN and OUT, both work fine. So, I am guessing that maybe a strong signal from a near by fellow ham, (approx 20 m away), made the damage, since he is always trasmsitting at 100 W.
sounds like the input attenuator IC in the Tiny is dead. it could be damaged by large signal or static electricity. Later models have added a protection diode on the input for static.
@@IMSAIGuy Thank you! I know it's extremely hard to repalce the IC, but do you know anyone that could make a try to fix it? I already purchased a new ome, but I wish I had two working units instead of 1,5
Yikes. I'm not quite sure. I'd start with an attenuator in line and see what that says first. Also, don't pull the antenna out to length. keep it really short first.
@@electromechanicalstuff2602 I have a bunch so am lucky. If you have something from 20 to 30dB that should be OK. The little 2W SMA attenuators are fine. if you don't have an attenuator. just push the antena down so it is short. start at 100ft away. I like to keep the reading below 0dBm. move closer or pull the antenna out slowly and see what happens. Also remember the power level will depend on your location to the antenna emission lobes.
@@IMSAIGuy Aw : ( I've been studying for both the Technician and General. I may not get both, but I am going to try. I just got done studying 30 hours of S-Parameter, TDR, and signal integrity videos, for a job I may not get, so I might as well get something for my bother.
