RF signal source power level help

Need some help. How can i measure the power level flatness from a Synthesized signal source using a power meter or Spectrum Analyzer ? the units are to be in dBP.P .. any help would be greatly appreciated . I am testing a MI technologies syn MI-3121

papifun said:

the units are to be in dBP.P

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What are dBP.P ?

papifun said:

I am testing a MI technologies syn MI-3121

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A quick googling says that this is an insulation and continuity tester.

I am confused, can you provide more information?

JimB

JimB said:

What are dBP.P ?


A quick googling says that this is an insulation and continuity tester.

I am confused, can you provide more information?

JimB

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i am going on what was tested and recorded last year from another instrumentation tech . I never seen that unit dBP.P .. thats why i am asking.. what i am looking to measure the is power level flatness vs Frequency change across the Synth spectrum of frequencies . wouldn't the unit still be in dBm ? .. i am validating the unit so it can pass all calibrations and functions. i cannot find a manual for the MI unit online .

Is this what you are trying to test?


It does not seem to me that it has a synthesised signal source of any kind, that would need the services of a spectrum analyser to do tests.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

JimB

No, he is working on an MI Technologies MI-3121 Synthesized Signal Source.

It appears they are owned/changed name to nsi-mi - https://www.nsi-mi.com/ - but there appears to be almost no info or manual available.

augustinetez said:

No, he is working on an MI Technologies MI-3121 Synthesized Signal Source.

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OK, that makes more sense.

Putting

papifun said:

MI technologies syn MI-3121

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Into MS Bing led me to the insulation tester which I showed above.
A fine search engine that is!

I find it appropriate that "bing" is the Scottish word for a coal mine spoil heap.

JimB

Google and Duck Duck Go also led to the same place - search engines really have turned to next to useless over the last couple of years and now with AI sticking it's nose in, they are getting worse.

JimB said:

Is this what you are trying to test?
View attachment 147591

It does not seem to me that it has a synthesised signal source of any kind, that would need the services of a spectrum analyser to do tests.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

JimB

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no

this is the unit. I want to say thank you for all that are trying to help.

this is what i am trying to find out . Power level Flatness. What i did and assume. i put level at 0dBm and varied Freq range over units spectrum and see how much the power would change. but this is best that i know , no idea of the units dBp.p ...

papifun said:

no

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no. i included a screen photo below .

augustinetez said:

Google and Duck Duck Go also led to the same place - search engines really have turned to next to useless over the last couple of years and now with AI sticking it's nose in, they are getting worse.

Click to expand...

YP ... i hate it lol

OK, I found what dBP.P. is (and it should be written as dBpp):

dBpp - relative to the maximum value of the peak power.

So I'm guessing that line on the Cal sheet is expressing the deviation of the output level over the 500MHz to 15GHz frequency range.

I don't know how helpful this is going to be but there are various reference to dBpp throughout .

OK, I am starting to understand this.
The pictures of the Signal Source, and the Test Record, explain things.

Reading some of the ITU document supplied by augustinetez i think that I understand the term dBpp.
I have never seen that before, maybe I have learned something today.

papifun said:

Power level Flatness. What i did and assume. i put level at 0dBm and varied Freq range over units spectrum and see how much the power would change. but this is best that i know

Click to expand...

That sounds like a good method and is what I would do to test the Power Level Flatness.
If sweeping from 0.5 to 15Ghz, the highest output power measured was +0.4dBm and the lowest output power measured was -0.3dBm, I would say that the "Flatness" was 0.7dB.

Your Test Record:

A level (0dBm) is specified.
A Tolerance (±0.8dBpp) is specified.
But dBpp is with reference to the peak output power, so how can we have something which is higher (+0.8dB) than the highest output power?

I think that my test record would look like this:

A level (0dBm) is specified.
A Tolerance (±0.8dB) is specified.
I would record the highest output power, and the lowest output power as the dB difference from the reference power (0dBm).

Speaking from a position of zero experience of your system, I think the use of dBpp is wrong.

Does this make sense?

JimB