In addition to the sine wave output
from an audio generator a function generator also can output other
waveforms like square, triangle, ramp or noise. The
arbitrary waveform allows generating your own waveform. One
way of doing that is to use a digital scope and capture a waveform
and load it into the 33120. There are built in
arbitrary waveforms like Cardiac, SINC, Neg_Ramp, Exp_Rise and
Exp_Fall.
The frequency range is 0.1 milli Hz (0.0001 Hz) to 15.000,000
MHz. The HP 8648A covers 100 kHz to 1,000 MHz so they have
some overlap in range.
The things I find most useful are the frequency and amplitude
settings for the output. The output includes both the AC and
DC levels. I have the duct cap on the front SYNC input
connector because when it's not there I tend to connect a BNC
cable to it expecting to get the output and waste time figuring
out why there's no signal.
It also has AM, FM, FSK, Burst, Sweep modulation capability so can
simulate many real world signals. This is one of the
instruments that's within arm's reach all the time.
This box also has the option for using an external
reference. I feed that from my house 10 MHz source that
comes either from the
PRS10 Rubidium
Standard that's GPS disciplined or the
FTS4060
Cesium standard.
Under System Menu -> Revision: 8.0--5.0--1.0
Will be used with
HP 467A Power Amplifier (DC
to 1+ MHz) for autio testing.
page created 22 Aug 2007.
