[time-nuts] Keysight N5511A - phase noise measurements down to theoretical-177 dBm/Hz

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 8/22/2019 5:55 AM, Anton Moehammad via time-nuts wrote:
> The cost of this N5511A started from 135K USD is there anything I can buy or build for less than 1K USD for phase noise measurement ?
> _______________________________________________

Kind of an open ended question, but here goes ...

It is easy to homebrew a phase detector using a high LO drive mixer
(eg JMS-5H+ $12.95) followed by an LT1028/LT1128.
Then all you need is a low frequency spectrum analyzer.
If you don't need to go below 20 Hz offset, you can use
software that makes your PC sound card into a spectrum analyzer.
Depending on what you are doing, you may need to add an op amp
after the LT1X28 to make a phase locked loop.


Rick N6RK