J. Forster wrote:
Probably yes.
There are also a number of lower cost instruments (just above consumer
grade)like HF-VHF VNAs that implement much of the smarts in a PC on the
market.
As to high end instruments w/ USB or Ethernet, I'm not so sure. The USA is
doing less and less hardware development, so instruments are not being
bought in anything like the quantity as in the past.
A lot of the new Agilent and Tek gear (at all price points) seem to have
Ethernet, especially if it has a LCD front panel. (there's that LXI
interface thing, too) Even power supplies. Not much USB (at least for
control.. these days, using a USB stick for data transfer seems
ubiquitous.. they've replaced the floppy drive on scopes, etc.), except
for RF power meters.. There's a whole raft of power meter heads that are
USB, which makes sense.. the "hard part" is in the actual sensor, not in
the meter which displays the power reading.
Mind you, because they do this by using single board PCs instead of the
dedicated instrument controller inside, they're subject to all the ills
of PCs (e.g. expectation of patch cycles, etc.)
It also seems that there's a more rapid turnover of equipment these days
(probably because accounting rules allow 3 or 5 year depreciation) and
so the idea of a place hanging onto a signal generator for 20 years is
less common. So that newer gear will show up used sooner (I hope!)
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