Also, HP 141T spectrum analyzer! Does it work?
Sure does. But it takes about 1/2 hour warmup before delivering a spectrum to the screen. Is this normal?
I don't know, but I doubt it. I'd suspect some heat sensitive fault. And a great deal of effort trying to find it.
I got it for free with some equipment my employer was tossing out and put my name in for it if they couldn't flog it elsewhere. So for about 10 years, because it had no overt function for it, I believed it could not decode any modulation so that you could listen to the transmitted signal. I just 2 weeks ago learned that I was wrong and discovered how to use "zero bandwidth" scanning. It has a vertical output spigot and when connected to an audio amp I was listening to AM stations, taxi dispatchers, WWV, hams and with some difficulty FM, etc. I was flabbergasted that I never knew I could do that after 10 years.
Thanks for that tip. I had wondered about that.
I have a couple of 141Ts and a few different plugins, but have never tried them. The mainframes and their modules were free, and then I ebay-bought some more modules to option them up. Plus the service manuals.
That was over a decade ago. Evaluating them and fixing them up was on my list of projects, along with the same for a lot of other gear. But I have too many projects, and some at the top of the priority list are hard enough that I'm making very slow progress on them. So low priority jobs never get done.
Then with other old gear I learned that stuff of that vintage typically has *many* and difficult faults. Things like all the carbon composition resistors drifting well out of tolerance, most electros dying, tantalum foil and bead caps failing (sometimes destructively), etc. So much so that repair is not worth the time, effort and expense. Not to mention my not having the skills and other gear needed to get them back into spec. And the risk of finding a fault that can't be fixed due to some unavailable old component, after already putting in a lot of time and cash.
I'd be better to save up and buy a relatively modern spec-an. Also with the benefit of having a computer interface, for data capture. I keep my 141Ts just from inertia, and for the slim chance that one day I might have the time and interest to work on them, plus even worse finances so a newer spec-an would be impossible.
It's a real shame, they are lovely bits of gear. Glad to hear yours is working.
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