Since I found the 30kHz RBW limit on the SSA3X Analyzers (when the TG is active) a little awkward (see here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hack-of-sigllent-spectrum-analyzer-ssa3021x/msg975408/#msg975408), and while "rf-loop" correctly pointed out that this shouldn't be a problem, I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into the matter of the tracking generator in this machine.
What made me really wonder is that I wasn't able to get a proper parallel resonance dip with a very accurate 1MHz crystal, whatever I tried -- there was always some kind of "hills and valleys" where the dip should be visible. Also the series resonance peak appeares a little "wiggly", see the screenshots in the above link.
Other (less accurate) crystals measure fine without any visible artefacts. The difference is that the mentioned "high accuracy crystal" has a very small frequency span between series and parallel resonance, it's just about 950Hz whereas more common crystals have spacings more like several tens of kilohertz. The reading cannot be an inherent characteristic of the crystal since on my other SA (Rigol 815TG) and also on my 8753C VNA it measures fine. So the problem has to be related to the way the TG in the SSA3X works.
As I reported in the contribution linked above, I found the TG of the Siglent analyzer to produce some "wobble" in the frequency while scanning, and I wanted to undestand better why it does so and what it means. With the TG signal viewed on the scope, it appeard the wobble gets worse when the video bandwidth (VBW) is increased (resolution bandwidth of the analyzer anyways preset at 30kHz for the small spans). So I hooked up the Siglent's TG output to my Rigol DSA to get an idea of the spectrum and guess I was surprised what I found: It seems the increments are not the same over the whole VBW range but get bigger with incresing VBW setting. Moreover, it seems there is some kind or relationship with the "frequency wobble" and the scan of the SA input (it's difficult for me to explain but otherwise it would be impossible for the "hills and valleys" of the very narrow bandwidth crystal to appear). Please see the attached screenshot of the TG scan shape of my "slightly tuned" SSA3X. The basic settings are always the same (center frequency 1MHz, span 3kHz, TG 0dBm, 30kHz RBW, sweep time approx. 12s, changing the "frequency step" has no effect on the TG scan pattern. The scans on the Rigol were done with "max hold" trace, summed up over approx. 20 minutes each. The cyan trace resembles 10Hz VBW, the magenta one 100Hz and the yellow one 1kHz VBW on the Siglent.
While the cyan trace should be able reproduce the characteristics of the high precision crystal fairly well, it actually causes a lot of artefacts while increaseing VBW settings just "smears" the curve. When I use the TG in the Siglent and the Rigol SA to display the spectrum (sweep time about 24s (Siglent) / 300ms (Rigol)), I need only about three scans to get a "half-way decent" spectrum of the Crystal while the Siglent alone simply generates artefacts. For comparison, a trace of the Rigol TG/SA is also shown.
I also noticed a small bug in the recent SSA3X firmware (7.07): When the device is configured to start with the last configuration when powering up, and it has been powered down with the TG enabled, the TG will be enabled upon power-up but the TG control light will stay off. I'm not sure if the TG should be enabled after power-up at all even if the Analyzer had been shut down with the TG on. But at least the TG indicator should be lit if it is turned on.
Otherwise, the SSA3X appears to be a decent device so far, yet I would appreciate if Siglent had a closer loog at the TG sweeping and if it may be possible to simply depend TG frequency step size on the sweep time so the user could decide to have a slow/accurate measurement or a faster but not as accurate one, especially since RBW is limited when using the TG.
Cheers,
Tom