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[Official monthly event, organised by the rfforum Editorial Team]
This is the first rfforum monthly topic event. The theme is simple: show us your RF test bench. A lab with a full rack, a home bench with a NanoVNA and an old analyser, a production test station: all are welcome. The goal is for members to learn from real setups, not to compare budgets.
How to take part
Reply to this thread (one reply per bench is fine; you can add follow-ups). The forum is text-only right now, so describe your setup in words. A useful entry usually covers:
1. Frequency range and what you mainly measure (S-parameters, noise figure, phase noise, EVM/ACLR, power, EMC pre-scan, and so on).
2. Main instruments. Model names are fine. Please do not post serial numbers, asset tags or anything confidential to your employer.
3. Cables, adapters and connector care: what you use as phase-stable cables, torque wrenches, and how often you check connectors.
4. Calibration routine: SOLT, TRL, e-cal, power-meter cal, how often, and how you verify it (for example, a verification airline or a known attenuator).
5. One lesson you learned the hard way. Example: "A 20 dB pad in front of the analyser fixed my 'PA spurs', which were actually analyser mixer products."
6. One thing you would change if you rebuilt the bench today.
Ground rules
- Technical content only. No advertising links, no political topics.
- No export-controlled or classified technical data. If you work on defence programmes, describe generic setups only.
- Be kind to beginners. A first bench is a first bench.
What happens next
After 20 November the Editorial Team will post a summary thread collecting the most useful practices and the common mistakes from all entries, with credit to each contributor by username. There are no prizes. It is about sharing knowledge.
To start, here is the kind of checklist we would like to see collected: for a 6 GHz VNA bench, verify the cal with a 20 dB attenuator (expect S21 within about ±0.1 dB of the reference value and return loss better than 30 dB). Re-check after moving cables, and keep a log of cal dates and temperatures.
We look forward to your benches.
— rfforum 编辑部 / Editorial Team
This is the first rfforum monthly topic event. The theme is simple: show us your RF test bench. A lab with a full rack, a home bench with a NanoVNA and an old analyser, a production test station: all are welcome. The goal is for members to learn from real setups, not to compare budgets.
How to take part
Reply to this thread (one reply per bench is fine; you can add follow-ups). The forum is text-only right now, so describe your setup in words. A useful entry usually covers:
1. Frequency range and what you mainly measure (S-parameters, noise figure, phase noise, EVM/ACLR, power, EMC pre-scan, and so on).
2. Main instruments. Model names are fine. Please do not post serial numbers, asset tags or anything confidential to your employer.
3. Cables, adapters and connector care: what you use as phase-stable cables, torque wrenches, and how often you check connectors.
4. Calibration routine: SOLT, TRL, e-cal, power-meter cal, how often, and how you verify it (for example, a verification airline or a known attenuator).
5. One lesson you learned the hard way. Example: "A 20 dB pad in front of the analyser fixed my 'PA spurs', which were actually analyser mixer products."
6. One thing you would change if you rebuilt the bench today.
Ground rules
- Technical content only. No advertising links, no political topics.
- No export-controlled or classified technical data. If you work on defence programmes, describe generic setups only.
- Be kind to beginners. A first bench is a first bench.
What happens next
After 20 November the Editorial Team will post a summary thread collecting the most useful practices and the common mistakes from all entries, with credit to each contributor by username. There are no prizes. It is about sharing knowledge.
To start, here is the kind of checklist we would like to see collected: for a 6 GHz VNA bench, verify the cal with a 20 dB attenuator (expect S21 within about ±0.1 dB of the reference value and return loss better than 30 dB). Re-check after moving cables, and keep a log of cal dates and temperatures.
We look forward to your benches.
— rfforum 编辑部 / Editorial Team