The web interface this and other Siglent instruments have is a great way to get the instrument’s display onto a computer; I’ve used it on a few occasions with my VNA and ‘scope when giving presentations! I was torn between the SSA3021X and the SVA1015X. I needed return loss to tune repeater duplexers so it was the SSA plus return loss bridge or the SVA. I ultimately went for the SVA so the return loss bridge is inbuilt in VNA mode. Looking forward to future videos and learning stuff!
You can buy an SSA3015X and convert it to an SVA1015X with a simple hack and firmware swap. EEVblog forums cover the methods, but it's a heck of a slog through two or three threads of 45 to 55 pages each. I did the hack to enable all software functions of my new SSA3015X Plus, but I haven't yet had the courage to try the firmware swap to the SVA model.
Very nice! That's a great price for what you're getting, and if I didn't want something with a higher frequency range I'd probably be all over that. I have an HP 8563E which is the 26 GHz version. I have upgraded it with an LCD color display. As you noted, the HP 856x series were the work horse of the '90s and well into the 2000s. Over the years I have purchased many of these in my day job for engineering labs, network operations, and field service. Have traveled the globe with an HP 8563E, so when it came time to equip my home lab that was my go to model. Would of course like one of the newer digital versions but it will be a few more years before the price comes down for models that operate up at 26 GHz and above make it down to my price range. I highly recommend the HP / Agilent application notes, particularly AN 150 and its annexes. I spent a lot of time pouring through that in the late '70s learning the basics and advanced spectrum analyzer operation. It's well worth the time spent for anyone who plans to spend much time with one. In addition to your videos, I would recommend the series by Frank Saunders of NTIA which starts at the following link: th-cam.com/video/wJcSGicDjLw/w-d-xo.html These provide a great foundation in the theory of noise and how to make measurements on the spectrum analyzer. The series does focus mostly on radar systems and measurements of them, but covers other stuff too. Rather dry material but Frank does a good job of presenting it in watchable chunks.
Nice purchase! I never had the chance to use a spectrum analyzer either in college or in the field. I bought a tinySA Ultra because at the basic setting of 800 MHz it more than covers my ham radio needs. I could remember when I was in college, buying a TI SR-10 calculator for $150 because it could do square roots. A dollar was worth much more back then. Keep up the good work on YT.
Purchased SSA3021X+ last year, great addition to my bench after using Tek, HP and IFR for 4 decades... Make sure and check all peripheral connections, mine has a defective front USB port that I only found out today after watching your video (normally used the web browser interface) and luckily it's still under warranty. I like it's small bench footprint, the relative 'portability', that it's 'return loss bridge ready', tracking generator was a must for me, and nice large screen all made it a winner.
I got an SSA3015X+ just last month and I've not used the front USB yet. You've reminded me that I'd better check *all* the hardware features well within the warranty period. Thanks!
Siglent sells clearance items direct from their website. They have a ssa3021x plus on there for 1040 right now. I bought mine from them a few weeks ago for that price.
Thanks for doing this video. I have other Siglent test equipment that I've been happy with and have been kind of looking at these because of the price. I got a couple "Warehouse" deals in the past that I couldn't walk away from. 👍
I had the same hp as you, but decided to buy the 2021x a few years ago & haven't regretted it. Its an excellent spectrum analyzer for the money, I just love it! And the tracking generator function is great as well. Its very sensitive as well, can see down easily to -140 dbm with the preamp on. The only negatives I've found are a couple of spurious signals just below 2 ghz but they are way down around -100 dbm. It appears in many of my videos!
Hello in the new year, congratulations on a great purchase. I'm looking forward to the SA options video, I've never had one and I'm ignorant in this area. Nice day 🙂 Tom
Most options are time limited to 48 hrs or 100hrs to give you a taster. I think there is an options screen which gives you this information. It is possible that the original purchaser may have purchased options. The tracking generator was an option but now permanent.
A worthy upgrade! You needed the extra GHz, if nothing else. The old HP SA's are still kicking around(see ebay). You are in a good position to keep demonstrating their use. Perhaps you can do quick comparisons on signals between old and new while you are showing all the new data processing abilities? I'll still be using my 8561E.
Great video, I am also a fan of the SSA 3032X and I have the impression that I still have not tried out all it's functions, (like taking a photo of the screen instead of using USB).
I really like my SVA1015X. The only issue I have with mine is internal harmonic distortion for inputs below 10MHz. The head of the spectrum analyzer group at Siglent said it is due to the AD mixer they use. It would be interesting to see if this model has similar issues. The harmonic distortion on mine decreases above 1MHz and becomes undetectable at 10 Mhz and above. It is 60 dB or more down, but shows in the spectrum.
Edit: as of Jan 3, 2023 there are 3 "Very Good" condition SSA3021X Plus returns on Amazon for $993 - approach with caution as IMSAI Guy explains in this video. Your Amazon return price/strategy was pretty smart/lucky, I guess. I had my eye on the Rigol unit at $999, but stumbled on Siglent's December sale putting the normally $1300 SSA3015X Plus at $999. Then I went with Saelig to buy from as they did not charge my state & local sales tax like Amazon, Ebay and SiglentNA do. I figured between sale price and no tax, I saved about $410 compared to buying new from Amazon. Oh, and if any purists here don't think the Siglent brand name is nice enough for them, LeCroy re-badges the SSA30nnX series to sell as their own at twice the price.
Many people in the ham community have bought analysers now and are using them to look at the harmonic suppression in a transmitter and then deciding whether their TX is clean or not based purely on that. Maybe for an FM handie that's fair but nobody seems to do 2-tone IMD plotting any more for SSB rigs and amps (even in many magazine reviews).
I like to tinker at X band and above which pretty much prices me out of modern RF gear. Boat anchors for me! BTW the HP 859x series portables were “budget” models compared to the 856x portables. The latter have narrower RBWs and other improvements.
I have this SA too, and very happy. Wish I'd waited for the plus / VNA though. I've home brewed a reflection bridge so I can at least do return loss, but no Smith chart unfortunately.
I considered the VNA version. Was quite a bit of money but the real reason was I suspected a reduction in the SA performance by adding the VNA part, so I asked the rep. he send my question to Siglent, who never responded. Not a good start
Now that you have had this for a while, I would love to see a video comparing it against an older analyser like your 8591E (ignoring the lack of tracking gen). Is it better? is the sensitivity comparable? Is it worth having both old and new in the workshop? I would be really interested to know your thoughts. Thanks!
Mine had two screen protectors on it. Yes two! I thought the screen had some issue but it's actually another protective plastic. Looks like yours is the same way.
After some consideration, I’ve got the Rigol RSA3000N series a while ago instead. Mostly because besides a spectrum analyzer and a VNA, it also has real time spectrum analysis, which is basically an SDR, including a waterfall diagram for example. I think the Siglent is more polished though.
@@IMSAIGuy Aah hang on. It looks like the Siglent advertised as "Real Time", the SSA3000X-R (notice the -R suffix), starts at a significantly higher price range, $5190. The others do advertise a "waterfall display", but I wonder if that's just the normal GPSA mode with some added slow waterfall, not SDR-like? (I deleted my previous replies right now, since I was confused for a moment and unsure why I went for the Rigol. I would have preferred the Siglent I think, but the Real Time for an apparently much lower price won me over.)
did you buy the vswr Reflection/VSWR, advanced measurement/Waterfall chart, and EMI pre-compliance are available as options **3 options listed above come with approximately 40 hours of free trial usage
If you get into the weeds on this SA, you might do a look at the occupied bandwidth measurement function. Kind of fun to see that PSK31 is 66-67 Hz at -26dBc.
How does this unit power up. Need it for field tech work. public radio. 700 to 900 MHz 0 to -125 dbm any help would be appreciated. Looking at Anritsu or Sitehawk but this would save a ton of money.
I have the same one and it's awesome for working on filters. I'm pretty irritated by the fact the most of the functions are behind a pay-wall. I'm always forgetting to look for a jailbreak
The "hack" for the latest models is pretty simple with two major parts: 1) enable the telnet service, 2) Use the telnet command line to rename some files. The result after rebooting the instrument is all software features are enabled (even if they're not supported by hardware) - Yay! For the 3021X model, it becomes a 3032 model (3.2 GHz max). The 3015X model is hardware limited to 1.5 GHz, so the mod on it just unlocks the software features. BTW, Siglent's CEO was interviewed by Dave at EEVblog and said he knows about and is not worried about people modding their instruments this way. The only real negative result is your serial number is changed to "XXXXXXXXX". But the original config is maintained in the files you renamed, so you can always revert to as-delivered.
Please, could you do a video explaining What a Digital spectrum analyzer can do that an Analog can't? About oscilloscopes, you have the "Single Shot Triggering" as the main feature missing in an analog scope, but what about Spectrum Analyzers Digital vs Analog??? Thanks.
That way too broad of a subject. analog spectrum analyzers have been a thing of the past for a very long time. even ones you may think are analog are a hybrid. the modern ones are mainly FFT machines. but here are a few improvements 1. freq and dBm accuracy 2. memory for trace storage and math and leveling 3. wide frequency range 4. marker functions the new ones are 100 times better than an old analog, here is one: th-cam.com/video/d3qMIec72o8/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/yk6rsXnYvk8/w-d-xo.html
With 45k subscribers you get these things for free. Just contact the companies, tell them you are an tech influencer with 45k subs and the will give you things like this for free. And if they don't give you the things for free, offer them your range for 500 bucks for a 10 minute review.
Amazon box w SSA3021X arrived. Unit just floating inside, wrapped only in paper!? SW1: 2.1.1.3R1, SW2: 20211011-1001, SW3: 000 000D4 Can you please point the right eevb Post# to upgrade to SSA3032X if it is possible. thank you kindly
So I looked at the upgrade to 3.2 GHz but it was very expensive at $2300, did you invest in that or is there a cheaper way to upgrade it? The hack on eevblog is from 2016 and is no longer an option I think. I would be prepared to pay like $1K for the upgrade but I think paying a $1000 more for the upgrade than the list price of the device, given that it already can handle the extra bandwidth is greedy on Siglents behalf.
@@polaraligned1 Yes, but if I read it properly the hack may have worked with the initial version of the firmware in 2016 and it no longer works with later versions. If anyone has any information on how to make it work I would like to hear it.
I managed to unlock my SSA3032X-R so it can be done. But it is not as easy as using a key generator. You would need to login to the Linux machine inside and fix some files.
@@Tech-Relief For the most up-to-date mod, it's a two step process: 1 - First enable the telnet service in the instrument- done by issuing it a SCPI (remote control protocol) command. 2 - Use PuTTY or similar terminal program to connect to the telnet service on its standard port (23), log in as root, rename some files This mod opens all software features, sets the max frequency from 2.1 to 3.2 GHz and sets your serial number to all Xs. This change is reversible as all the original config is in the renamed files. I have additional details to provide, but not sure if they'll survive in a comment here.
The web interface this and other Siglent instruments have is a great way to get the instrument’s display onto a computer; I’ve used it on a few occasions with my VNA and ‘scope when giving presentations!
I was torn between the SSA3021X and the SVA1015X. I needed return loss to tune repeater duplexers so it was the SSA plus return loss bridge or the SVA. I ultimately went for the SVA so the return loss bridge is inbuilt in VNA mode.
Looking forward to future videos and learning stuff!
You can buy an SSA3015X and convert it to an SVA1015X with a simple hack and firmware swap. EEVblog forums cover the methods, but it's a heck of a slog through two or three threads of 45 to 55 pages each.
I did the hack to enable all software functions of my new SSA3015X Plus, but I haven't yet had the courage to try the firmware swap to the SVA model.
Very nice! That's a great price for what you're getting, and if I didn't want something with a higher frequency range I'd probably be all over that.
I have an HP 8563E which is the 26 GHz version. I have upgraded it with an LCD color display. As you noted, the HP 856x series were the work horse of the '90s and well into the 2000s. Over the years I have purchased many of these in my day job for engineering labs, network operations, and field service. Have traveled the globe with an HP 8563E, so when it came time to equip my home lab that was my go to model.
Would of course like one of the newer digital versions but it will be a few more years before the price comes down for models that operate up at 26 GHz and above make it down to my price range.
I highly recommend the HP / Agilent application notes, particularly AN 150 and its annexes. I spent a lot of time pouring through that in the late '70s learning the basics and advanced spectrum analyzer operation. It's well worth the time spent for anyone who plans to spend much time with one.
In addition to your videos, I would recommend the series by Frank Saunders of NTIA which starts at the following link: th-cam.com/video/wJcSGicDjLw/w-d-xo.html
These provide a great foundation in the theory of noise and how to make measurements on the spectrum analyzer. The series does focus mostly on radar systems and measurements of them, but covers other stuff too. Rather dry material but Frank does a good job of presenting it in watchable chunks.
Nice purchase! I never had the chance to use a spectrum analyzer either in college or in the field. I bought a tinySA Ultra because at the basic setting of 800 MHz it more than covers my ham radio needs. I could remember when I was in college, buying a TI SR-10 calculator for $150 because it could do square roots. A dollar was worth much more back then. Keep up the good work on YT.
glad you have an analyzer. you will learn a lot
Purchased SSA3021X+ last year, great addition to my bench after using Tek, HP and IFR for 4 decades...
Make sure and check all peripheral connections, mine has a defective front USB port that I only found out today after watching your video (normally used the web browser interface) and luckily it's still under warranty.
I like it's small bench footprint, the relative 'portability', that it's 'return loss bridge ready', tracking generator was a must for me, and nice large screen all made it a winner.
I got an SSA3015X+ just last month and I've not used the front USB yet. You've reminded me that I'd better check *all* the hardware features well within the warranty period. Thanks!
Siglent sells clearance items direct from their website. They have a ssa3021x plus on there for 1040 right now. I bought mine from them a few weeks ago for that price.
Thanks for doing this video. I have other Siglent test equipment that I've been happy with and have been kind of looking at these because of the price. I got a couple "Warehouse" deals in the past that I couldn't walk away from. 👍
I had the same hp as you, but decided to buy the 2021x a few years ago & haven't regretted it. Its an excellent spectrum analyzer for the money, I just love it! And the tracking generator function is great as well. Its very sensitive as well, can see down easily to -140 dbm with the preamp on. The only negatives I've found are a couple of spurious signals just below 2 ghz but they are way down around -100 dbm.
It appears in many of my videos!
I have the same unit but I never used the up / down arrows. Super time saver. Thank you.
Great purchase! Look forward to the new SA videos! Thanks!
Hello in the new year, congratulations on a great purchase.
I'm looking forward to the SA options video, I've never had one and I'm ignorant in this area.
Nice day 🙂 Tom
Damn You!!!😇 Now I need to spend money. Hoping the open unit is in great shape.
Congratulations on the new instrument. I love my Siglent SA. Happy New Year. 73 Scott K2CK
Most options are time limited to 48 hrs or 100hrs to give you a taster. I think there is an options screen which gives you this information. It is possible that the original purchaser may have purchased options. The tracking generator was an option but now permanent.
A worthy upgrade! You needed the extra GHz, if nothing else.
The old HP SA's are still kicking around(see ebay). You are in a good position to keep demonstrating their use.
Perhaps you can do quick comparisons on signals between old and new while you are showing all the new data processing abilities?
I'll still be using my 8561E.
Congrats on the new toy!
I have the very same one and love it, i think the new models now come with a VNA included.
Great video, I am also a fan of the SSA 3032X and I have the impression that I still have not tried out all it's functions, (like taking a photo of the screen instead of using USB).
I really like my SVA1015X. The only issue I have with mine is internal harmonic distortion for inputs below 10MHz. The head of the spectrum analyzer group at Siglent said it is due to the AD mixer they use. It would be interesting to see if this model has similar issues.
The harmonic distortion on mine decreases above 1MHz and becomes undetectable at 10 Mhz and above.
It is 60 dB or more down, but shows in the spectrum.
Santa Claus visited IMSAI guy's QTH this year! HNY!
Edit: as of Jan 3, 2023 there are 3 "Very Good" condition SSA3021X Plus returns on Amazon for $993 - approach with caution as IMSAI Guy explains in this video.
Your Amazon return price/strategy was pretty smart/lucky, I guess. I had my eye on the Rigol unit at $999, but stumbled on Siglent's December sale putting the normally $1300 SSA3015X Plus at $999. Then I went with Saelig to buy from as they did not charge my state & local sales tax like Amazon, Ebay and SiglentNA do. I figured between sale price and no tax, I saved about $410 compared to buying new from Amazon.
Oh, and if any purists here don't think the Siglent brand name is nice enough for them, LeCroy re-badges the SSA30nnX series to sell as their own at twice the price.
Many people in the ham community have bought analysers now and are using them to look at the harmonic suppression in a transmitter and then deciding whether their TX is clean or not based purely on that. Maybe for an FM handie that's fair but nobody seems to do 2-tone IMD plotting any more for SSB rigs and amps (even in many magazine reviews).
I normally see a ad revenue increase every Christmas .. this year it dropped by 25% instead of increasing by 25% ! Thanks TH-cam.
They must have made a mistake and given me all of yours 😎
Happy New Year
@@IMSAIGuy yes happy new year!
Top! Curious to see it in use during your experiments.
I like to tinker at X band and above which pretty much prices me out of modern RF gear. Boat anchors for me! BTW the HP 859x series portables were “budget” models compared to the 856x portables. The latter have narrower RBWs and other improvements.
I used to have an old SA that went to 40 GHz. Sold it to a professor at Stanford
I have this SA too, and very happy. Wish I'd waited for the plus / VNA though. I've home brewed a reflection bridge so I can at least do return loss, but no Smith chart unfortunately.
I considered the VNA version. Was quite a bit of money but the real reason was I suspected a reduction in the SA performance by adding the VNA part, so I asked the rep. he send my question to Siglent, who never responded. Not a good start
Now that you have had this for a while, I would love to see a video comparing it against an older analyser like your 8591E (ignoring the lack of tracking gen). Is it better? is the sensitivity comparable? Is it worth having both old and new in the workshop? I would be really interested to know your thoughts. Thanks!
it's better in everything.
Mine had two screen protectors on it. Yes two! I thought the screen had some issue but it's actually another protective plastic. Looks like yours is the same way.
thank you. yes mine has two also. the second is not terrible and I thought I'd leave it on for a while.
As usual, an excellent video. How do you find the 'Returned' items on Amazon??
After some consideration, I’ve got the Rigol RSA3000N series a while ago instead. Mostly because besides a spectrum analyzer and a VNA, it also has real time spectrum analysis, which is basically an SDR, including a waterfall diagram for example. I think the Siglent is more polished though.
Mine has a waterfall display also, and AM and FM demod. I think the two machines are very close. Siglent also has the VNA/SA combos or VNA only
@@IMSAIGuy Aah hang on. It looks like the Siglent advertised as "Real Time", the SSA3000X-R (notice the -R suffix), starts at a significantly higher price range, $5190. The others do advertise a "waterfall display", but I wonder if that's just the normal GPSA mode with some added slow waterfall, not SDR-like?
(I deleted my previous replies right now, since I was confused for a moment and unsure why I went for the Rigol. I would have preferred the Siglent I think, but the Real Time for an apparently much lower price won me over.)
did you buy the vswr Reflection/VSWR, advanced measurement/Waterfall chart, and EMI pre-compliance are available as options
**3 options listed above come with approximately 40 hours of free trial usage
I have all those options on my unit
@@IMSAIGuy i have rigol dsa815/w/t gen,never used the vswr untill now ,,its expired,never even had the unit on for 40 hours,,
My recent model SSA3015X Plus came with all extra features enabled for 128 (power-on) hours.
If you get into the weeds on this SA, you might do a look at the occupied bandwidth measurement function. Kind of fun to see that PSK31 is 66-67 Hz at -26dBc.
How does this unit power up. Need it for field tech work. public radio. 700 to 900 MHz 0 to -125 dbm any help would be appreciated. Looking at Anritsu or Sitehawk but this would save a ton of money.
Nice! And use your RF Power Snitch when in doubt 😉
I have the same one and it's awesome for working on filters. I'm pretty irritated by the fact the most of the functions are behind a pay-wall. I'm always forgetting to look for a jailbreak
The "hack" for the latest models is pretty simple with two major parts: 1) enable the telnet service, 2) Use the telnet command line to rename some files.
The result after rebooting the instrument is all software features are enabled (even if they're not supported by hardware) - Yay! For the 3021X model, it becomes a 3032 model (3.2 GHz max). The 3015X model is hardware limited to 1.5 GHz, so the mod on it just unlocks the software features. BTW, Siglent's CEO was interviewed by Dave at EEVblog and said he knows about and is not worried about people modding their instruments this way.
The only real negative result is your serial number is changed to "XXXXXXXXX". But the original config is maintained in the files you renamed, so you can always revert to as-delivered.
I Habs an 8591EM with no tracking generator. Questing is, can I use my signal generator and accomplish the same or similar results?
you can use max hold as I show in this video: th-cam.com/video/JNkWZZHsXt0/w-d-xo.html
Please, could you do a video explaining What a Digital spectrum analyzer can do that an Analog can't? About oscilloscopes, you have the "Single Shot Triggering" as the main feature missing in an analog scope, but what about Spectrum Analyzers Digital vs Analog??? Thanks.
That way too broad of a subject. analog spectrum analyzers have been a thing of the past for a very long time. even ones you may think are analog are a hybrid. the modern ones are mainly FFT machines. but here are a few improvements
1. freq and dBm accuracy
2. memory for trace storage and math and leveling
3. wide frequency range
4. marker functions
the new ones are 100 times better than an old analog, here is one:
th-cam.com/video/d3qMIec72o8/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/yk6rsXnYvk8/w-d-xo.html
@@IMSAIGuy Thank you
With 45k subscribers you get these things for free. Just contact the companies, tell them you are an tech influencer with 45k subs and the will give you things like this for free. And if they don't give you the things for free, offer them your range for 500 bucks for a 10 minute review.
Let R&S know that I need some stuff
AliExpress lists SSA3032X for $674.16. Is it good?
Hi. What FW is installed?
My track generator menu is different from this one.
Using 1.3.9.8
Greetings
V2.1.1.3R1
@@IMSAIGuy tks
It is possible that current 3021 hw is not upgradeable to 3.2G.
To my knowledge it still is.
@@Randrew I've read about a case, where codes unlocked all options but 3.2G. But it wasn't me, so can't say more.
Throw it in a box /ship is now standard for Amazon! The reason I no longer do business with them!
So, you are selling me the HP for $350?
are you in the bay area?
@IMSAI_Guy. Thx for doing these SA vids.
@@IMSAIGuy , I live in the 33498 zip code.
@@surgingcircuits6955 way too heavy to ship
@@IMSAIGuy , no worries. Was hoping you were a Floridian. :-)
check your "business" email 🙂
Amazon box w SSA3021X arrived. Unit just floating inside, wrapped only in paper!? SW1: 2.1.1.3R1, SW2: 20211011-1001, SW3: 000 000D4 Can you please point the right eevb Post# to upgrade to SSA3032X if it is possible. thank you kindly
onecompiler.com/python/3ycnzg9kb
So I looked at the upgrade to 3.2 GHz but it was very expensive at $2300, did you invest in that or is there a cheaper way to upgrade it? The hack on eevblog is from 2016 and is no longer an option I think. I would be prepared to pay like $1K for the upgrade but I think paying a $1000 more for the upgrade than the list price of the device, given that it already can handle the extra bandwidth is greedy on Siglents behalf.
He seemed to indicate that he got the hack from EEVblog.
@@polaraligned1 Yes, but if I read it properly the hack may have worked with the initial version of the firmware in 2016 and it no longer works with later versions.
If anyone has any information on how to make it work I would like to hear it.
I managed to unlock my SSA3032X-R so it can be done. But it is not as easy as using a key generator. You would need to login to the Linux machine inside and fix some files.
@@BaldurNorddahl I will have to look into it then.
@@Tech-Relief For the most up-to-date mod, it's a two step process:
1 - First enable the telnet service in the instrument- done by issuing it a SCPI (remote control protocol) command.
2 - Use PuTTY or similar terminal program to connect to the telnet service on its standard port (23), log in as root, rename some files
This mod opens all software features, sets the max frequency from 2.1 to 3.2 GHz and sets your serial number to all Xs. This change is reversible as all the original config is in the renamed files.
I have additional details to provide, but not sure if they'll survive in a comment here.