Equipment for a Radio Frequency Engineer

[Bill]

Hello everyone,

I am currently compiling a list of equipment for projects in radio frequency engineering and would like to get recommendations from experienced professionals in the field. Specifically, I am interested in the test and simulation equipment that you regularly use in your work.

Could you please share the tools and devices that you find indispensable? This includes, but is not limited to:

    - Spectrum analyzers
    - Signal generators
    - Vector network analyzers
    - Oscilloscopes
    - RF simulation software (Matlab...)

Any suggestions, along with your experiences using these pieces of equipment, would be greatly appreciated !

[EggertEnjoyer123]

Get a TinySA and LiteVNA first if you're just trying to get your feet wet. Both tools work acceptably well for hobbyists, and aren't expensive. You probably won't be going past 6 GHz anytime soon.

The HP 8566 is a great SA once you get past that level (as long as you don't mind potentially having to do repairs). There's not many other 22 GHz spectrum analyzers which can be had for $1000.

As for software, all the microwave simulation software is extremely expensive, so I would look into Qucs or QucsStudio, which are both free.

I can't say much about everything else - all the equipment is stuff I've fixed from the ewaste or stuff from ham swap meets. If you want to do software defined radio you could get a RTL-SDR or HackRF.