I wonder why it skips a one dB step every 5 steps.
Its not skipping 1dB, its jumping 2 dB.
You should see the results of Power Sweep with its 1db amplitude steps over a 20dB range. Although 1 or more of the steps may have 2 steps lumped together as a 2dB ramp up (probably a Bug).
Here is my b'11' .
I was going to suggest you get some cheese as I was going to do a lot of Whining
I played at 10 and 20 Seconds sweep time.
Playing with the 'Power Sweep' I see it as a function that combines at Power Stepping ramp with a frequency Sweep , from lower to higher. The Steps are normally in 1db steps and the Frequency is from a start to stop, (or center Frequency and span).
I do not know if this function is implemented on other SA?
I suppose to test a Amplifier doing it by changing 2 parameters at the same time does the test quickly. I would it one at a time. which can done with the DSA815, (set the span narrow)
As for the 2db jump and the no jump later, can be used to see if the response of the DUT is different between a 1 and 2 db step change, and also if the settling time after a power change can be observed for the long change spot.
(I once thought that an Engineer drew a step plot to explain to a programmer how the function was to be implemented, and then programmer copied the crude plot exactly with odd steps )One room for improvement is that the stepping ramp should hold the last step for the full period and NOT just a short time. That is for 20 db range change . divide the span into 21 parts.
Note there is an long hold at one power step, but a double 2db step to offset the long hold.
What is the cause of the sloping change of the power step (fast sweeps)?
Is it the:
program? showing smooth ramping ( but why hold at slow time sweeps)
response of the Func. Gen power change?
response of the SA? averaging?
response of the Display program?
In order to see in the time domain , I watched two 'Power Ramp Sweeps' with My DSO
Center= 100 Mhz , span 50MHz and 2 Mhz (Note displayed Freq.)