Panalyzor SB-8B Type T-10,000 / 30MHz input

[Opcom]

Well this thing was just found in an IBM rack that someone put a DEC logo on. Things get really strange around here on weekends. I don't even remember where it was from, but I do recall the rack, because the guy's wife was yelling shrilly at him while he was lowering it down the stairs.. It must have been over 15 years ago. This rack is almost at the back of a cluster of racks all cubed up in the corner. I think I will keep this one, and try to get it working. Need to make up a JS cable from the power sucklpy to the main unit and give 'er a whirl. I sort of regret letting the other panadapters go. But their owners will have fun with them anyway so spread a little happiniess..  The BC-?? unit on the top of the rack is the receiver that gets the AM BC band.

I have the manual copy for the 455KHz model of the panalyzor, the T-200. anyone got the copy for the 30MHz T-10,000 model?

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Wow...  you find the best stuff!

[Opcom]

There's alot of stuff in Texas and in the South in general, especially test gear around locations where there were many defense plants in the past. I'm not so sure how good this one will be but it's pretty! I'm caught betwen the softrock and a hard place, wanting a RealCRT(tm) type panalyzer, not wanting software defined items, and not affording true spectrum analyzers! I honestly have been looking long and hard at mini-circuits' products because there is no longer any DIY analog item for those 455KHz IFs.

I tried an upconverter for the "TV Tuner" spectrum monitor (55-900MHz) I built before, but it didn't work well and drifted too much, and the monitor has too wide a bandwidth, I have not been able to make it narrower. I'd realy love a well designed kit with selectable IF input freq's and an X/Y/blanking output for the CRT or scope and would pay for it, but even something close like the Clifton Laboratories Z-90 ( http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/Z90.htm has a display which at least looks like a CRT) is no longer made.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

If you want a low-cost Spec Analyzer, you could build this one for under $300 I think. Less if you don't need all the bells and whistles.

http://www.science-workshop.com/

I have no interest (other than wanting to build one myself) in the website etc...

[WB6VHE]

Hi Patrick:

If you are willing to shell out 29 dolares, you can get the manual
from manualman.com.  I have an SB-12 that I acquired five or so
years ago, and bought the manual from manualman, and it was worth
the price:  VERY nice, with fold-out schematics and everything.
With its help, I restored the old SB-12 to better than original spec,
and use it daily, both as a piece of test gear, and as a "panadaptor",
connecting the input to my antenna via a splitter and preamp.  I have
the VFO that goes with it, so can tune anywhere from 500 kHz to 30 MHz.
I recommend you spring for it; you won't be disappointed, and then
you can get that fine piece of vintage test gear up and running.
Regards,
Ken
W5KFS
ex-WB6VHE

[WA1GFZ]

Build a softrock for $15 and get real performance. Sweep type displays just don't cut it.

[Opcom]

Raster scan or row/column displays do not fit with the look and feel I am working towards. I will not defile the AM station with them (I would defile the SSB/digital station with them, should I wantonly slide the chair over a few racks some drunken and misbegotten halloween evening).

Analog panoramic receiving and display, properly implemented, is satisfactory for my requirements. The SB-8B has too wide a bandwidth resolution for a panoramic adapter on a voice communications receiver. It is better suited for a wideband receiver like the R-220.

I realize I am preaching to the choir here, and in some cases I am in the wrong church. I do not claim to be an expert but I have built one panoramic adapter covering 55 to 1000MHz in two bands from scratch (except the commercial RF tuner and the CRT HV circuitry -those parts came from the junkbox) and I have been studying this subject of old and new analog panoramic adapter theory and applications for a while. Here's why I believe the analog bandscope gear is acceptable to me (besides the beautiful appearance) I do not need a spectrum analyzer, I need a bandscope.

Home made bandscopes do not have to be limited to the usual 2-5" electrostatically deflected CRTs either. The aforementioned adapter project taught me how to make a deflection coil sit up and beg for its supper.

Most good analog panoramic adapters have a band-width resolution of about 700Hz when used with a 20KC sweep at 10 sweeps per second. By using a P7 phosphpor, the sweep rate can be lowered to about 5Hz and this will improve the BWR slightly. A good rule of thumb is 10KC sweep at 10Hz gives 500Hz resolution in the old designs. 45KC sweep at 10Hz gives about a 1KHz resolution.

This is poor compared to digital systems, but I keep in mind that a radio signal does not need to fill the entire bandwidth resolution to be detected, it just has to be there to peek through that moving window when the swept oscillator comes by. The only disadvantage to having a 1KC or 500Hz bandwidth resolution is that two narrow signals within that single space would appear as one. For general bandscope use on AM and SSB that is not important.

If it were desired to increase the BWR (to see the two PSK31 stations side by side instead of as a single pip), then the sweep width could be reduced or the sweep rate could be reduced. That would work well on an analog spectrum analyzer, but not well on the old tube type bandscopes. The individual detection of the aforementioned close super-narrow signals is not needed in a voice station.

As far as building, which I am also interested in, I would try to go with the options of a 500Hz wide final filter such as a CW I/F. filter and a wider one such as a 3KC SSB-type I.F. filter. It's only the 500Hz filter that most of the old gear lacks. The gear that had it generally used a crystal filter. The narrower the I.F. filter, the higher the sweep speed and the wider the sweep can be for the same RBW.

Manualman has a copy for the PANORAMIC T-10,000 PANADAPTER Model: SA-8B. I will ask him what's the difference on the SB-8B, it could be significant. Maybe I will need to pull my units out of the rack and take a tube count, etc, and see if they line up with what he has. I have the SA-8B T-100/200/1000 manual off BAMA. Just not the 10,000.

So with these thoughts swimming around in my noggin it is time for bed due to military duty in the morning, and to dream of backlit graticlules, exotic P14 and P47 phosphors on 10" round CRTs, and a parade of mysterious signals as I spin the SX-28's wheel.

[KB3DKS]

Patrick,
 I have the Singer IP-259 T-1000 display unit but no power supply. Also one of the others, without the module cutout on the upper right. Had several of those and scrapped them out years ago, but have some of the parts left. Various IF cans etc
 Lost the power supplies from a move but still have a couple of the power transformers so can build one back up. I also have a bunch of passive bandpass filters from an old radar display I think. 20kc, 68kc, etc. Can make a list up if you might be interested.
  You probably saw this fellows site, http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/SB8b.htm
 Using an external hetrodyne osc yields coverage just about anywhere.
 
  I agree with you, there is something "friendly" about a CRT panoramic and using it for monitoring what is going on across an operating segment is sure better than sitting there manually scanning with the tuner knob. Of course that is all programmable now using the SDR receivers but unless your antenna is some distance away from your shack, most computers, monitors, Switching P.S. wall warts, etc will throw low level birdies and other digital artifacts into the received spectrum when looking at low level signals.
 
Good luck with your project ! Will someday get around to mine functional but the best I can do right now is a Halli SP-44. Better than nothing.

73, Bill, KB3DKS in 1 Land

[Opcom]

Thanks! BTW what gas is your glow tube there?

[KB3DKS]

Thanks! BTW what gas is your glow tube there?

Hi Patrick,
 I think the tube is xenon filled. Believe it was used to illuminate a small object being analyzed.  I'm a bit of a tube collector and have the data stored someplace. It has been awhile.

 Too cold here now, below '0', to get some pix of the Panalyzor stuff but will before too long.

Bill, KB3DKS in ! LAnd