[time-nuts] HP 8924C's on ebay

John Ackermann N8UR jra at febo.com
Thu Nov 29 07:52:31 EST 2007


Jeff Mock said the following on 11/29/2007 01:32 AM:
> There seem to be a bunch of HP8924C's up on ebay for about $1500. It's 
> intended function is for CDMA testing, but it seems to be a pretty 
> general RF communications tester.  Even if you don't care about the CDMA 
> stuff, it's a 1GHz spectrum analyzer, RF signal generator that can be 
> used as a tracking generator and sweeper (I think), power meter, and a 
> few other features.
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with this thing?  Is it something useful 
> for the money or a boat anchor?  It looks interesting but I'm not sure I 
> need another big heavy box...

The ad claims it's a derivative of the HP 8920B, and it looks like it.
Several of us here in Dayton have 8920A or B units, and they are a very
nice general purpose service monitor.

The spec analyzer was an option, but it has decent performance (as
noted, no super-narrow RBWs) and there is a tracking generator -- I
don't recall if that's a separate option, or automatic if the spec an is
included.  One thing that's nice is that if the span is less than 1.5
MHz, it can demodulate the center-frequency signal to audio.

The RF gen will do AM or FM modulation, with internal or external input.
 There are a couple of AF generators so it can do dual tone testing.

The receiver has frequency power meter, audio level meter, SINAD, FM
deviation, AM modulation percentage, etc.

Back 7 or 8 years ago, a loaded 8920B brought >$10K, but Lucent had
hundreds of them that were dumped to the market and that depressed the
prices a lot.  I think these days an 8920B goes for maybe $3-4K, and the
A for maybe $1K less.  (The A model has a slower processor and somewhat
lower specs, but the same functionality.)

John



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