Group: A comment on the old hp 141T series of spectrum analyzers, that someone (probably someone like me) recently suggested:
We have some and I like them, BUT: a) They are no longer supported by hp and some of the parts are no longer even available. b) If you are going to get one, you'd better be willing to spend a lot of time getting very familiar with the manual and learning how to repair and align it yourself. It will be hard to find someone that is competent to work on it. c) Treat it carefully. Old equipment can last a long time, or it can break down tomorrow, depending on how it was used or abused before you got it. With these, it is specially easy to blow the mixer or the front end. A lot of the "idiot proofing" safeguards that are built into modern computerized equipment, (and that we now take for granted) do not exist in the old stuff. d) Know who you are dealing with. Old equipment like this comes with either NO WARRANTY or 30 days at most. You could easily end up with an expensive door stop. Try explaining that to your boss after bragging about how much money you just saved! e) If you are outside the US, forget about it. You will have a hard time getting it into your country. There is no "CE" mark on this equipment, and never will be. f) If I were working for the government or for a big company, I wouldn't get one of these at all. It would be too hard to justify it to the many layers of non technical people that get involved, specially later, when you have to spend twice what it cost to get it fixed. Sometimes this actually makes sense with old sequipment, but you'll never be able to explain that to the bean counters! :) I would only get one if I worked for a small company with an understanding boss that had a lot of money and a real love of equipment. Also a sense of humor. Regards, Lou --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
