I would love to hear more comparisons between these two units.These two are pretty much the best frequency counters money can buy,right? What is that pulse measurememt thing about,what its good for? w2aew wrote that Keysight have better pulse measurements,in what way are they better?
Even if you have experience with just one of these,I would like to read your opinion,whats good,what sucks etc
I went with the FCA3100 for reasons of cost, it was less than half the price of the top Agilent (now Keysight).
The Keysight has the advantage in single shot resolution of 20psecs as apposed to 50 ps for the 3100/Pendulum 91 so they are better from that point of view.
But the 3100 has some advantages:
1.) On time tagged measurements (according to the manual - I've not yet had a chance to set this up) it tags both the up crossings and the down crossings whilst I think the Keysight only tags the up crossings.
2.) It also is a basic pulse generator which may be useful (I've used it for one or two things).
The noise levels are very similar I think (I haven't looked it up recently but that is what I remember).
If they were the same price I'd say go with the Keysight probably, but given that the FCA3100 is much cheaper (comparing refurbished for Agilent and Tektronix) I'd say it is much better value for money.
I'd say the FCA3100 (50ps) offers some significant extra features over the FCA3000 (100ps), in particular time-tagged measurements, more memory and a number of other options so I'd say it is worth the extra.
I think the pulsed measurements probably refer to pulsed microwave measurements. To do these require quite a few "options" which will probably double the price of the counter. Useful for professionals working with pulsed radar systems, microwave communications and so on but if you need the capability you've probably not be asking the question and will have a very large budget for kit which a Keysight rep will be very happy to help you spend.
The keysight is a much more modern design but the Pendulum CT91 has been around a long time and well established.
Another difference is the FCA3100 is a very deep box, the Keysight is probably a more convenient shape.
EDIT : On the price issue, I notice that the new prices seem to be similar but when I bought mine refurbished the Agilent 53200 were over £3k on the Agilent ebay store without any warranty whilst the FCA3100 was £1.5k refurbished with a 3 year warranty bought from Tektronix via TTi in the UK.