tinySA Ultra Spectrum Analyzer Review/Experiments/Teardown

Very nice video and test overview of this device. Thanks. I picked one of these up. I wonder though, can the signal generator be used to measure SWR on antennas at various frequencies to check antenna efficiency?

Hey Kerry. You've seen me in the comments and answered me a few times and I (as I've come to learn how to sift the wheat from chaff) have come to respect your opinion as one who respects everyone's time and money, no matter knowledge level.

I have a chance to buy one spectrum analyzer and use it to learn and still satisfy what I need as I learn more. What would you reccomend me buy as I plan to use it for audio, antenna building and testing after I get my operator license. I went through 4 scopes as I learned and as such ended up buying a rigol which can be stretched (if you will) to suit my needs going forward. I usually donate my old test gear so to get there I was out alot of money.

I have a chance to buy an sa with tg and only want to buy one being the price is obscene even for the 12 year old rigol dsa815-tg. I'd like to have a full featured 6ghz model. I'd prefer to stretch the capability. I am 44 with a software degree from the 90s where I majored in search algorithms before it became an engineering degree. I never used the degree so it's useless now but I'm 44 and retired and have alot of time on my hands so I tend to learn quickly relative to average spare time people my age have for hobbies. I plan to start taking electronic engineering classes from a local school online next year to eventually get back to work when I'm healthy enough. I'm not concerned with money perse but I can't afford a keysight or rs box.

I won't blame you if I make a bad purchasing decision in retrospect hahaha. Just looking for your learned opinion sir.

I'd have hit the thanks button when I asked this if you had it enabled or if you do in the future I'll make good on pestering you wirh this long-winded soliloquy haha. I'd like to stay away from siglent as rcc electronics have burned me in the past and I've given them alot of business, relatively speaking. I usually purchase from electrometers here in canada. I have many hobbies but I'm not a maker. I appreciate the mathematical theory behind this, which is why I'm a dedicated hobbyist with thousands of pages of notes haha. Rf seemed like black magic but I have a cursory knowledge enough to inform the fact I'll outgrow a box that cannot be unlocked with software codes as I learn and need the added features.

I appreciate your time and if you have pp listed I'll send a donation for your work.

Super!!!

Kerry: When in Listening mode, could it be that the detector is for AM? Perhaps that is why the FM stations you were tuning to sounded a bit distorted. I could listen to FM stations here, but I did so (I think) by slope detection. What do you thinK? Thanks for the great video. Bill

Interesting review and product. As it has RF out does it maybe has a functionality to make Bode plots? And if the attenuation is known at very high frequencies maybe they could implement look-up table to correct for that?

Does the tiny st ultra have a tracking generator?

The listen mode is only for AM signals. There's no FM demodulation capability ,which is why the broadcast band sounds distorted.

Kerry, how can your tiny SA go up to 12 Ghz when all the ones for sale on Ebay just go to 5.3 Ghz?

nice one

What is its sweep windows frequency bandwidth around 1.6GHz?
Can I monitor signals from 1GHz to 2GHz in one window?

That Toto Africa song gets everywhere.

Nice for the price, but I wonder...doesn't it come calibrated ?
I do not have a generator which goes above 1G

Some of the best videos I have seen with the TinySA Ultra are the ones your channel are producing .. most others, just do very crude shallow walkthrough, and likely from lack of knowledge on these topics.
You take it to the ringer and you clearly are comptent on the matter while still explaining & demonstrating it, so I as a rookie can follow along.
pls do more videos down this alley on different usecases with TinySA / Ultra and demonstate all these extensive features this device have, same goes for the PC app for the Tiny SA series..
A joy to watch.+1

I wish the frequency range was usable on audio as well. Maybe with some THD calculations. It should be a much easier and less demanding application for its power

👍👍👍

does this tinySA have a LAN port or something like that so I can access it using my notebook

Very cool, nice job. Thank You!

Nice review. How about it's IIP3 level?

Excellent review by comparing with HP SA. Thank you very much.

nice

Excellent review Kerry, thanks. I would be interested if there is anyway to add some sort of tracking generator capability externally to the TinySA. I think this is the only feature that might force me to a more expensive analyser. Thanks again.

Thanks for the summary video Kerry. For a future review can you look at some Wi-Fi signals? These will be at least 20 MHz wide and switching in time so the ultra mode algorithms should give degraded results. Would also be interesting to see the waterfall plot with Bluetooth hopping signals. Thanks again!

Some of what you said went over my head, as I'm more comfortable with digital and computer engineering. But I appreciate that YOU have both the equipment and expertise to test this device. Great video! Would this be valuable for a beginning Ham radio hobbyist?

Thanks Kerry, now I don't have to disassemble mine to look inside! ;-)

Awesome! I wasn't aware there was a new TinySA, especially one that measures so high. 🤩

Great video !

Me again and another dumb question, why don't these SA's cover the audio range as well ? surely that would make them appeal to more people ?....cheers.