Aeroflex 3500A Application Note
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Aeroflex 3500A Application Note

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Application
Note
Getting the most out of your 3500A
by Lyndon Zielke
The 3500A Radio Test Set was developed to be able
to quickly test and verify the operation of complete
radio systems. A complete verification of a radio system
includes testing of the transmitter and receiver of the
radio as well as the duplexers, cables and antennas.
The 3500A includes all of these test capabilities in a
rugged and light weight package that can operate on a
battery for up to 7 hours. This application note will help
you to understand how to best utilize all of its
capabilities so that you can get the most
out of your 3500A.
www.aeroflex.com
For the very latest specifications visit

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  • Page 1 Note Getting the most out of your 3500A by Lyndon Zielke The 3500A Radio Test Set was developed to be able to quickly test and verify the operation of complete radio systems. A complete verification of a radio system includes testing of the transmitter and receiver of the radio as well as the duplexers, cables and antennas.

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Measuring the duplexer 8.2.1 Measuring the pass band 8.2.2 Measuring the reject band Other Keys to Getting the Most Out of Your 3500A Top of screen icons Controlling the frequency range of the frequency find operation Copying screen saves using the Ethernet port...

  • Page 3: Basic Operating Principles Of The 3500A

    The right and left keys are used for moving the cursor from tile to tile. When you first power on your 3500A, you will notice that it takes less Think of these keys as your +/- tab keys. The right key moves through than forty seconds to boot up to the System screen.

  • Page 4: Instrument Screens

    As we have stated, there are four screens in the 3500A for performing radio testing. Selecting one of these screens is dependent on the type of testing that you want to perform. For audio only testing you could select the AUDIO screen. If you are only testing the receiver of a radio, then use the RECEIVER TEST screen.

  • Page 5: Fm Radio Transceiver Testing With The 3500

    If using an attenuator, the attenuation value can be entered in the Ext Attn dB field, located after selecting For this test, the T/R port of the 3500A should be interfaced to the “More”. antenna of the radio. An attenuator will be needed if the transmit power of the radio is greater than 20 watts.

  • Page 6: Fm Duplex Radio With Tone Squelch Testing

    You can also test a radio that uses a tone to open up the squelch 7. In the lower left hand tile: of the receiver of the radio. With the 3500A you will be able to both generate a squelch tone and measure the frequency and deviation Set the volume to 100.

  • Page 7: Fm With Dtmf Testing

    0-9. Keypad 2 is also used for digits A, B and C, After you have setup the 3500A for this test, you can save the setup www.aeroflex.com For the very latest specifications visit...

  • Page 8: Fm Receiver Testing

    3500A will also decode its own DTMF transmission. After you have setup the 3500A for this test, you can save the setup so that you do not need to go through these steps again. See the After you have setup the 3500A for this test, you can save the setup section on Saving and Recalling setups for quick testing.

  • Page 9: P25 Radio Test

    The 3500A is able to both transmit using this modulation to test these digital receivers as well as make key modulation measurements on signals from the radios conforming to these standards.

  • Page 10: Nxdn™ Radio Test

    3500A until the BER is ~5%. This is the sensitivity of the receiver of the radio. After you have setup the 3500A for this test, you can save the setup so that you do not need to go through these steps again. See the section on Saving and Recalling setups for quick testing.

  • Page 11: Dmr Radio Test

    Select the O. 1 53 pattern in the modulator tile of the 3500A. 8. Connect an RF cable from the T/R port of the 3500A to the Antenna of the radio. Select the random data pattern in the test application.
  • Page 12 15. Move the cursor to the “More” field in the DMR Demod tile and 8. Connect an RF cable from the T/R port of the 3500A to the press the “Enter” softkey until you can view the Color and Call Antenna of the radio.

  • Page 13: Setting Up Pass/Fail Criteria

    Figure 18 - DMR setup for measuring receiver sensitivity 4 Setting Up Pass/Fail Criteria Any of the meters in the 3500A can be expanded from their mini size into a full screen sized meter. A zoomed in meter includes Figure 20 - Zoomed in RF Error meter more setup fields, including a setup for pass/fail.

  • Page 14: Saving Setups

    5. Press the “Store” softkey and you will be automatically returned to the radio test screen. The 3500A is capable of saving many setups. There is not a fixed Figure 24 - Recall screen number of setups that can be saved, but the 3500A will continue to save setups until the save memory is full.

  • Page 15: Understanding The Modulation Fidelity Parameters

    Figure 25 - Page 2 of recall screen 3500A calculates how long it has taken for the signal to travel the round trip to the fault and back again. The time that it takes to...

  • Page 16: Measuring The Returns Loss Or Vswr Of An Antenna

    Max. If Max is already selected, toggle through the list back to Max. You will notice that as you toggle between Min and Max 1) If the cable that you are using to connect from the 3500A to the the cursor will move between the maximum point in the trace cable you are testing has changed then you must do and the minimum point in the trace.

  • Page 17: Tuning A Duplexer

    8 Tuning a Duplexer 4. From this setup, make the adjustments to the UUT pass band and The 3500A tracking generator option can be used to check the reject band. After tuning, the display should look something like operation or tune duplexers and filters. It could also be used with a Figure 32.

  • Page 18: Measuring The Pass Band

    6. Read the Marker level. Figure 35 - Zooming in to the reject band of the duplexer Figure 33 - Pass band ref level 9 Other Keys to Getting the Most Out of Your 3500A 7. Insert the duplexer. 8. Read the Marker level.

  • Page 19: Controlling The Frequency Range Of The Frequency Find Operation

    “Return” softkey or the “Setup” softkey. 1. From the Util menu, go to the Remote screen of the 3500A. The eleventh icon ( ) is an indication of the front end being Identify the IP address.

  • Page 20: Conclusion

    8. From this screen you can open or save the .bmp files that are stored on the 3500A. 10 Conclusion The 3500A was developed to test all parts of a radio system. This includes the radio, cables, duplexers, pre-selectors and antenna. Understanding how to use all of these capabilities of the 3500A will enable you to get the most out of your 3500A.

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