RoadTest the TEKTRONIX  RSA306B

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About this RoadTest

The RSA306BRSA306B offers full-featured spectrum analysis and deep signal analysis at a price unmatched by any previous offering. Using the latest in commercial interfaces and available computing power, the RSA306BRSA306B separates signal acquisition from measurement, dramatically lowering the cost of instrument hardware. Data analysis, storage and replay are performed on your personal computer, tablet or laptop. Managing the PC separately from the acquisition hardware makes computer upgrades easy, and minimizes IT management issues.

 

Features:

• 9 kHz to 6.2 GHz frequency range

• Mil-Std 28800 Class 2 environmental, shock and vibration for operation in harsh conditions

• Acquisition bandwidth of 40 MHz for wideband vector analysis of modern standards and wideband real time analysis

• SignalVu-PC software with 17 spectrum and signal analysis measurements standard

• Real time DPX Spectrum/Spectrogram standard

• Options for Mapping, Playback of recorded signals, Signal survey/classification

• Options for LTE, Bluetooth, APCO 25, WLAN and general purpose modulation analysis

• Application Programming Interface included

• Streaming capture to disk offering gapless recording of long-duration events

 

The RSA306B requires a PC with Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, or Windows 10, 64-bit operating system.

 

 

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RoadTesters

Thank you for all that applied to be a RoadTester. We selected the following candidates:

Terms and Conditions

 

Tektronix – RSA306B – RoadTest

Terms and Conditions

These are the terms and conditions which govern the Tektronix – RSA306B RoadTest contest. This Contest requires participants to submit an application indicating their previous experience with this type of equipment/component, information on what they would do to test the equipment/component, and the applicant’s desire to post a thorough review of their experience with images, photos, or other supplemental materials. Participants will be required to meet the Conditions for Participation.  The winners of this RoadTest will receive the item(s) listed below. RoadTest Reviews are due no later than 60 days after the receipt of the item(s). No other prizes are offered.

The Principal terms of the Competition:

The following words and phrases are used in these terms and conditions and have the meanings given to them below.

RoadTest: Tektronix – RSA306B RoadTest (or Contest)

Key dates:

Applications Close: midnight (GMT) on 17 October 2016

Announcement of Winner (estimated): 31 October 2016

PrizeTektronix – RSA306B

Additional Prizes:  none

Competition Site: https://www.element14.com/community/groups/roadtest?ICID=menubar_resources_roadtest

Site or element14 Community: www.element14.com/community

Judges: members of the element14 community team chosen at the Organiser’s discretion.

Judging Criteria, All of the following which will have equal weighting:

· Demonstrated competence with the technologies including links or descriptions of past projects

· Qualifications as indicated by current job role and/or schooling/vocational training;

· A thorough description of how the prize would be tested;

· Likelihood that the Applicant will blog about the prize and provide a review on element14.com;

· Originality;

· Innovation.

Organiser: Premier Farnell plc (registered in England and Wales under company number 876412) whose registered office is at Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds, UK

Conditions for Qualification: in addition to meeting the requirements of these terms, all persons applying to take part in the Contest (each one an Applicant) must:

· Provide a RoadTest application describing what he/she would do if awarded the Prize including similar previous projects, product experience and qualifications

Terms: these terms and conditions which govern the Competition and to which the Organiser reserves the right to make changes from time to time and the latest version of these Terms from time to time will be posted to the Site.

  1. Eligibility
  2. Applications:
  3. Selecting Winners:   
  4. Liability:
  5. General:

1.1 Save as set out in these Terms, the Contest is open to any natural or legal person, firm or company or group of natural persons or unincorporated body.

1.2 All Applicants must be aged at least 18 at the time of their application.

1.3 Applicants must not enter the RoadTest if doing so or taking part may:

1.3.1 cause the Organiser and/or themselves to be in breach of any agreement (including but not limited to any contract of employment) to which they are a party or in breach of any law, regulation or rule having the force of law to which the Organiser or the Applicant may be subject or any policy of the Organiser or the Sponsor;

1.3.2 Require the Organiser to obtain any licence, authorisation or permission to deal with the Applicant; or

1.3.3 Be in breach of any policy or practice of their employer. Some employers prohibit or restrict their employees from taking part in competitions such as these or receiving prizes under them and the Organiser respects those policies and practices.

The Organiser reserves the right to disqualify any Application made in breach of these Terms and to reject any Application which it reasonably believes may be or become in breach. The Organiser reserves the right to require evidence in such form as the Organiser may reasonably require of any Applicant’s compliance with any of these Terms and to disqualify any Applicant or Participant who cannot provide such evidence reasonably promptly. 

1.4 Multiple applications are not permitted.

1.5 Applications may not be submitted by an agent whether acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal or otherwise.

1.6 The Contest is NOT open to:

1.6.1 Any person or entity who is a resident or national of any country which is subject to sanctions, embargoes or national trade restrictions of the United States of America, the European Union or the United Kingdom;

1.6.2 Any employee, director, member, shareholder (as appropriate) or any of their direct families (parents, siblings, spouse, partner, children) (“Direct Families”) of the Organiser and Sponsors; or

2.1 Each Applicant must fully complete and submit a RoadTest Application by the Application Close.

2.2 By submitting a Registration Form, each Applicant:

2.2.1 Authorises the Organiser to use his or her personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) for the purposes of running and promoting the RoadTest;

2.2.2 Authorises the Organizer to copy, reproduce and publish their application should they be accepted as a Participant;

2.2.3 Will be deemed to have read, accepted and agree to be bound by these Terms. Applicants are advised to print and keep safe these Terms;

2.2.4 Authorises the Organiser to copy, reproduce and use the Application and/or Review for the purposes of the RoadTest and as otherwise contemplated by these Terms. The Organiser will not be responsible for any inaccuracy, error or omission contained in any reproduction or use of the Project Blogs.

2.2.5 Licenses the Organiser to use the intellectual property in the Project (IP) for the purposes of this Contest. As between the Applicant and the Organiser the IP remains owned by the Applicant.

2.2.6 Grants the Organiser the right to use his or her likeness, photographs, logos, trademarks, audio or video recordings without restriction for the purposes of Contest or the promotion of it or the Site;

2.2.7 Agrees to participate positively in all publicity surrounding the Contest;

2.2.8 Agrees to be responsible for all expenses and costs incurred by him or her in preparing for, entering and participating in the Contest (save for any expenses expressly agreed by the Organiser to be borne by it in these Terms);

2.2.9 Confirms that he or she owns all IP used in his or her application or Project or Blogs and indemnifies the Organiser from any claim by a third party that use of any material provided by an Applicant to the Organiser infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party;

2.2.10 Agrees not to act in any way or fail to act in any way or be associated with any cause or group which would have a negative impact on the reputation of the Organiser and/or the RoadTest.

2.3 All applications submitted to this RoadTest must meet the following criteria:

2.3.1 Applicants must be the author, creator and owner of the proposed review idea. Applicants must not submit someone else’s idea;

2.3.2 The proposed application must be reasonably achievable by the within the time constraints of the Contest; 

2.3.3 Applications must not include or propose any of the following, the inclusion of which shall render any proposed application ineligible:

(a) Applications which relate to socially taboo topics, such as illicit drug use or sexual gratification;

(b) Applications that are or could reasonably be considered to be illegal, immoral, discriminatory or offensive as determined by the Organiser;

(c) Applications in relation to them which if accepted would infringe or breach any of the policies or terms of access or use of the Site.

2.4 No Application may contain any of the hazardous substances identified by Article 4 of Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament on the Restrictions on the Use of Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment ("the Directive") or the use of such hazardous substances in the in any such Project must not exceed the maximum concentration values set out in the Directive.

3.1 Winners will be selected by the Organiser on the basis of the quality of his or her application and its adherence to these Terms.

3.2 The total number of Winners selected will be at least the minimum number set out above but the actual number is at the sole discretion of the Organizer and/or the Sponsor, if applicable.

3.3 The Organiser will use all reasonable efforts to announce the Winners via an update to the RoadTest page by the date listed above.

3.4 Winners agree to take part in all publicity which the Organiser or the Sponsor wishes to use to promote the RoadTest, the Products featured or other Contests with which the Organiser may be connected from time to time.

3.5 Details of the Winners may also be published in the media.

3.6 Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties or other charges payable in relation to any prize.

3.7 

4.1 The Organiser hereby excludes all and any Liability arising out of the Contest or the acceptance, use, quality, condition, suitability or performance of any Prize, even where that Liability may arise from the Organiser’s negligence.

4.2 Nothing in these Terms will affect any Liability of the Organiser for death or personal injury arising from its negligence, for breach of Part II of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (in the event that any entrant is entitled to claim rights under the Consumer Protection Act 1987) or for any matter in relation to which it would be illegal for the Organiser to exclude or to attempt to exclude its Liability.

4.3 Subject to 4.2, neither the Organiser, any parent company nor any subsidiary of the Organiser or such parent company or any of their directors, officers and employees (together referred to in these terms and the ‘Associates’) makes any guarantee, warranty or representation of any kind, express or implied, with respect to this Competition or the Prizes potentially available under it. Neither the Organiser nor any of its Associates shall be responsible for any Liability that may arise out of or in connection with person’s participation in this Competition, the claiming, redemption or value of any prizes under it, the use or enjoyment of such prizes or any events or circumstances arising out of or in connection with any of them. Any implied warranties of condition, merchantability or suitability or fitness for purpose of any of them are hereby expressly excluded. Wherever used in these Terms, ‘Liability’ shall mean any and all costs, expenses, claims, damages, actions, proceedings, demands, losses and other liabilities (including legal fees and costs on a full indemnity basis) arising directly or indirectly out of or in connection with the matter concerned. 

5.1 The RoadTest is organised and sponsored by the Organiser. The Organiser reserves the right to delegate all or any of its powers, rights and obligations arising in relation to the RoadTest to any Associate and certain such rights and powers are assumed by the Organiser on behalf of itself and each Associate. Reference to “Organiser” shall be deemed to include reference to each Associate.

5.2 The RoadTest may be terminated at any time if there are, in the sole opinion of the Organiser, an insufficient number of entries, or if the Applications are not of an appropriate standard for a competition of this nature. The Organiser has the right to cancel or suspend the RoadTest at any time due to circumstances outside its reasonable control.

5.3 The Organiser shall have the sole discretion to disqualify (without correspondence or right of appeal) any Applicant it considers to be adversely affecting the process or the operation of the RoadTest or to be in breach of these Terms or to be acting in a disruptive manner or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other Applicant or Participant.

5.4 The Organiser has the right to amend or add to these Terms from time to time. Revised Terms and Conditions will be posted on the Contest Site and it is a condition of entry to the RoadTest that Applicants agree to comply with these Terms and, if appropriate, such Terms as amended from time to time.

5.5 Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation or construction of these Terms and Conditions.

5.6 These Terms and the operation of the Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and any claim or matter arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Comment List
Anonymous
  • Perhaps in 15 years from now the desktop OS will be irrelavent as everything will be uploaded to the cloud and displayed via tablet?

  • The reality is that Linux doesn't have much to offer in the desktop space, which is why it's not being used by almost anyone who values productivity and it's the reason why there are no professional tools for Linux.

     

    Linux has always been in this broken-state-but-almost-usable and it always felt like with a bit more work, it's gonna be just great. That's how it felt 15 years ago and that's how it feels today, so unless something changes in the way it grows, I believe this will be the case 15 years from now too. That alone, is a huge deterrent for a company, because it translates to unnecessary maintenance and unhappy customers. The fact that there's a big and vocal crowd that throws mud at anything proprietary isn't helping either.

     

    I wrote software for test equipment and on almost every occasion, after considering all the options, I went with Windows only. It's simply not worth the investment in supporting a platform that your customers aren't using, or are using as a secondary platform, and it's hard to support to begin with (higher initial and maintenance costs, due to continuously changing components and the variety of configurations).

     

    It's also worth saying, that companies/individuals who can afford a piece of equipment that costs several thousands of dollars, probably own other things which are of similar value, including software, and most of them are Windows-only too, so their environments are already Windows-centric.

     

    On a final note, before shaming Tektronix for not catering to that segment of the market, take a look at GPU manufacturers, who have a real incentive to support those systems and make an honest attempt at it, but simply fail to produce quality drivers, even tho they're perfectly capable of doing it, on Windows.

     

    Razvan

  • The specifications that are available as pdf at the top of this page are very clear:

    PC requirements

     

    The RSA306B Signal Analyzer requires a PC equipped with the following features:

    • USB 3.0 port
    • 64-bit Windows 7, 8, or 10 OS

     

    For full performance of the real time features of the RSA306B, an Intel Core i7 4th generation processor and 8 GB RAM is required.
    Processors of lower performance can be used, with reduced real time performance.
    Storage of streaming data requires that the PC be equipped with a drive capable of streaming storage rates of 300 MB/sec

  • I'm not secure about it, but woud really like to try. Some Tektronix scopes and signal analyzers are working on Linux (using the usbtmc driver), so why shouldn't this. But before having it connected an dmesg, cannot say anything

  • sounds great, where did you find this information? is that also the case for Mac OS X?

  • nice kit, I would definitely give it a try image and the limitation to windows is not that bad - we could use it with Matlab (Instrument Control Toolbox) on Linux image

    USB 3.0 requirement should be mentioned above...

  • While I do use Linux on a daily basis and would like to see a basic driver for the RSA306/B be developed for Linux (e.g. just raw data capture), the truth is that it's probably Windows only because of a desire to protect the intellectual property (IP) on the analysis software. As almost all the analysis is done in software (the RSA306 only seems to know to read-samples at 112MS/s to its internal buffer and transact the buffer over the bus), the risk to them in "giving away" the analysis tools is that potentially even all their expensive add-on software licenses for things like Bluetooth-LE, LTE, W-LAN analysis could be somehow abused, especially if someone were to analyze and circumvent their licensing system or adapt it to be used with other equipment. The risk would be damaging to their sales, so they've gone with a particular licensing solution which isn't/might not be cross platform.

     

    They could release the information about the way it works over USB so that a raw access driver might be developed or an API for Linux, but they haven't. It disappoints me slightly, but when you buy an instrument (e.g. a high end Lecroy oscilloscope or an older top-end Tektronix oscilloscope) that's built using Windows as the foundation of the software, either you use it "as it was intended", or you're left with nothing. It's the same here - with the cost of the instrument, the price of the attached computer and software/OS is less relevant and you can "afford" to dedicate a laptop to its use (and run Windows ... along with all the privacy concerns etc). The majority of the world still uses Windows for something-or-other, so for them, it's a non-issue.

     

    The other problem would be the raw data rate and processing involved. With the amount of variations in quality of Linux drivers for various pieces of hardware, it's more difficult to support and guarantee correctness of operation, especially when pre-qualification tests are being run and people are "relying" on the instrument to save them money in future qualification testing. Bugs could occur, bottlenecks could cause problems with instrument performance, validation would be difficult and people might be skeptical/displeased if they were to just release compiled binary blobs for x64 only that could not be audited or mandated a particular flavour of Linux (of course, I can hear the whinging already). So no, given that all the analysis is done in software, they're not going to just give that away.

     

    Tools for this sort of data analysis (e.g. GNU Radio) in Linux are woefully slow in my experience. I tried analyzing raw .r3a captures using a basic workflow that just runs a frequency-shift and filter operation to decimate the 112MS/s input to a 2MS/s stream. This, running on an i7-4770k overclocked at 3.9Ghz under Ubuntu with RAID array storage only processed at 29MB/s (the stream is 224MB/s real-time due to 14-bit ADC -> 16-bit samples by padding). It's nowhere near real-time, and that's before any significant analysis is done. As a result, the "free" tools available are nowhere near as optimized or as capable at this stage - even if a driver were available for raw data "dumping", it still wouldn't yet be useful with present-day tools at a "real time analysis" level. That's why I have a lot of respect for SignalVu-PC's capability and understand this is the difference between an open-source level of performance and a proprietary closed-source level of optimization.

     

    So, I suppose you're willing to miss out on a cool piece of equipment just because you're not willing to run Windows? Each to their own ... but I'd rather have the gear and the knowledge that comes with it.

     

    - Gough

  • yes, it's strange how "cool new stuff" can be limited to such mess.

  • Winblows only?!? that's a non-starter in my book. Too bad.

  • Good point - I have built several antennas in that range, but for compliance work we would need them to be calibrated.