REVIEW

SAM JEWELL, G4DDK E-MAIL: [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 2011 RADCOM

Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

Signal Hound
Compact 4.4GHz spectrum analyser
and matching tracking generator
The SA44B spectrum analyser and TG44
tracking generator are housed in identical
extruded aluminium cases. At just 20cm
long and weighing 290g they should be
easily accommodated on most work benches.

PHOTO 1: The SA44B spectrum analyser (front)

and TG44 tracking generator.

INTRODUCTION. A spectrum analyser is a

very desirable item of test equipment. It enables
you to check the spectral cleanliness of your
signal, find instability problems and can act
as a selective measurement receiver and a
great deal more. A new professional spectrum
analyser can cost many tens of thousands of
pounds. Even pre-owned spectrum analysers
can be very costly. Then if something goes
wrong they can be expensive to repair. But all
that is changing. Several companies now offer
high performance spectrum analysers, based
on software defined radio (SDR) technologies,
within the budget of many amateurs.
The Signal Hound SA44B costs less than
many HF transceivers. It is made by the
American company Test Equipment Plus
(TEP) [1] and is a high performance spectrum
analyser covering from near DC to 4.4GHz
with a performance that should be more
than adequate for most radio amateurs.
The SA44B can also be used as a
measurement receiver with CW, SSB, AM
and FM demodulation capability across the
entire 4.4GHz frequency range. The claimed
amplitude accuracy is better than 1.5dB
from 0dBm down to the displayed noise
level (which depends on frequency and
resolution bandwidth) and 2dB from 0
to +10dBm. Using the internal reference
the frequency accuracy is better than 1ppm
(part per million).

38

PREREQUISITES. The Signal Hound is not a

standalone item. A laptop or desk top computer
with two or more USB 2.0 interfaces is required
to use the Signal Hound SA44B and TG44.
The Signal Hound is powered from the computer
over the USB interface. The same interface is
used to pass data to and from the instrument.
All data processing is done in the computer;
you'll need a Windows system with at least
a 2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE ANALYSER

SYSTEM. I was requested not to open up the
case of the review analyser so, of necessity, this
section relies heavily on the manufacturer's
description of the Signal Hound hardware.
From the basic block diagram in the
manual, it appears to use a conventional
superhet RF front end with a digital sampling
back end that converts the filtered intermediate
frequency signal to an I/Q (in-phase and
quadrature) bit stream. The bit stream
passes over the USB connection to the host
computer for signal processing and display
on the computer screen. Few details of the
signal processing are given in the manual.
The spectrum to be displayed enters the
SA44B through an SMA socket on the front
panel and then to an attenuator with three
selectable steps, from 0 to 15dB. The attenuator
is directly connected to the input in order to
retain response down to DC. This could make
the attenuator vulnerable to damage if any
DC appears at the input. For this reason
an external DC block, with good frequency
response to at least 4.4GHz, should be used
whenever the low frequency response is not
needed. The DC block is not supplied with
the SA44B, but is available as an accessory.
The attenuator is followed by a wideband
preamplifier that can be switched into the
signal path when extra sensitivity is required.
The preamplifier cannot be used below 500kHz.
After the preamplifier the input spectrum
passes to one of two mixers. In its simplest

FIGURE 1: 144MHz output from Kenwood TH-6F.

Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

operating mode, the local oscillator that feeds

the two mixers is stepped, under software
control, over the required frequency range in
200kHz steps (or less) in order to produce a
series of bands at 200kHz intervals. These
are filtered to 250kHz wide individual bands
by the 10.7MHz IF filter. This arrangement
produces a whole series of responses from the
input spectrum. At least one of the responses
will be the band of image frequencies from
the input spectrum. The software is left to
process this complex spectrum to identify
and remove not only the image frequencies
but also any other internally generated spurious
signals. It does this extremely effectively.
A disadvantage of this technique is that
covering a span of 4.4GHz in 200kHz steps
can take over 30 seconds. Narrower spans take
considerably less time. A 5MHz bandwidth
filter is used during wide frequency sweeps.
Narrow bandwidth filtering down to as low
as 0.1Hz takes place in the host computer
using FFT (fast Fourier transforms).
For anyone familiar with conventional
spectrum analysers the Signal Hound SA44B
may require a period of adjustment. It took
me about an hour of playing with the SA44B
to familiarise myself with it enough to start to
get the best out of it. It can be time-consuming
to use the SA44B to adjust circuits as the
screen display is not in real time. There
can be a noticeable delay between making
adjustments and seeing the result on the
screen. In these circumstances it is best
to make circuit adjustments using narrow
spans and then to open out the span to see
the results at higher or lower frequencies.
An external 10MHz reference input,
via a BNC socket on the rear of the SA44B,
can improve the frequency accuracy of the
instrument as well as its phase noise
performance. A second BNC connector
on the rear of the SA44B provides a trigger
input/output connection. This is useful for
synchronising sweeps to some external
event. It will accept both 3.3V and 5V
(TTL) levels. The TG44 tracking generator
sweep is triggered from this same connection.
Located centrally on the rear panel is a
type B USB 2.0 connector to allow the

RADCOM SEPTEMBER 2011

REVIEW
Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

supplied USB lead to connect the Signal

Hound to the host computer. A bi-colour
LED on the front panel shows green when
the Signal Hound is powered and flashes
amber when it is receiving data from the
host computer.

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI)

DISPLAY. A software defined radio relies
heavily on the quality of the controlling
application software. I'm pleased to say
that the Signal Hound GUI seems to have
been well thought out, is easy to use and
works well. The version current at the time of
this review was 2.07. This version provides
support for the tracking generator as well as a
number of useful utilities such as harmonic
measurement, channel power and phase
noise. These are in addition to the usual
spectrum analyser facilities of carrier level
and spectral response.
Figure 1 shows the captured output
spectrum from my Kenwood TH7 handheld
(suitably attenuated) when transmitting an
unmodulated carrier on the 144MHz band.
The GUI provides a large screen area for the
spectrum display in a 10 by 10 matrix. The
usual spectrum analyser control 'buttons'
are located down the right side of the screen.
The 145.500MHz signal is the vertical line
near the middle of the frequency scale.
Frequency, Span and Amplitude buttons
control the main functions of the analyser.
In this case the top of the screen has been
set to a 0dBm (1mW/50) reference level.
The vertical screen display is set at 10dB/division
and the horizontal screen is set to show from
100MHz on the left to 200MHz on the right.
Sweep time is 920msec. The displayed average
noise level (DANL) is approximately -75dBm
with the 144MHz carrier at -12dBm. No markers
have been selected; the resolution bandwidth
(set automatically by the computer) is 50kHz.
Image reject is switched on. When switched
off there are several spurious responses in
addition to the main image 21.4MHz below
the wanted display signal. This indicates over
70dB of spurious display rejection at this
frequency. The same or better performance
is seen with a carrier at 433MHz.
Of course an analyser needs to be able to
'zoom' right into a signal in order to be able to
analyse modulation. In order to obtain a clear
and unambiguous display this means using
a resolution bandwidth filter that is much
less than that of the occupied bandwidth
of the modulated signal. Figure 2 shows a
433.5MHz narrow band FM signal. This is
a screen capture showing the output from
my Kenwood TH7 handheld, modulated
by a single tone. The resolution bandwidth
of 200Hz clearly shows the individual
sidebands of the FM signal.
Along the top of the display in Figure 2
you can see a row of buttons including one
marked 'Utilities'. When you click on this a
drop-down menu allows access to a number

Parameter

Frequency range
Marker frequency accuracy

Manufacturer's claim

1Hz to 4.4GHz
1ppm

Marker amplitude accuracy

100MHz
0dBm
-30dBm
-60dBm
1GHz
0dBm
-30dBm
-60dBm
2.4GHz
0dBm
-30dBm
-60dBm
1dB gain compression
100MHz
+16dBm typical
1GHz
+19dBm typical
Displayed average noise level (DANL)
100MHz, preamp off
-148dBm
100MHz, preamp on
-161dBm
1GHz, preamp off
-144dBm
1GHz, preamp on
-158dBm
Residual spurious at the input connector
1Hz to 500kHz
-70dBm
500kHz to 1GHz
-57dBm
1GHz to 2.3GHz
-47dBm
2.3GHz to 2.6GHz
-40dBm
2.6GHz to 3.0GHz
-27dBm
3.0GHz to 4.4GHz
-35dBm

of useful functions. The first of these is 'Audio

listen'. This opens a small window from which
you can select frequency, IF bandwidth, mode
and de-emphasis. It is first necessary to display
the signal you want to listen to by placing the
marker on that signal. Now you can apply
the selected demodulation parameters. The
computer speaker allows you to listen to
the selected signal. A little lower down the
utilities menu you will see 'Measuring Receiver'.
This opens a window showing the frequency
and modulation characteristics of the selected
signal. Many other utilities are included but
space precludes reporting on them all.
MEASURING SPECTRUM ANALYSER
PARAMETERS. Since a spectrum analyser
is likely to be relied upon for a number of
amateur radio related measurements,
some idea of its accuracy was required.
I felt it was worth checking a number of the
manufacturer's claims against professional
test equipment that originally had cost many
times the price of the Signal Hound. In Table
1 the first column identifies parameters,
column 2 shows the manufacturer's
specification and column three contains
my measurements. The fourth column has
my comments. Although my equipment is
not formally calibrated, it is regularly compared
with calibrated equipment. Even so, some
discrepancies may be noticed, which may be
due to differences in measurement technique
or interpretation of specifications.
TG44 TRACKING GENERATOR. The TG44
is housed in the same robust case as the SA44
Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

Measured

<10kHz to 4.4GHz
0.25ppm*

Comments
Internal TCXO at 21C.
* Measured with
100kHz span at 2.4GHz.

-0.6dB
-0.4dB
-0.5dB
-0.35dB
-0.3dB
-1.0dB
-0.1dB
-0.5dB
-1.5dB
+18dBm
+20dBm
-158dBm
-170dBm
-152dBm
-165dBm
Att. 15dB, preamp on
Not measured
-57dBm
-55dBm
-55dBm
-60dBm
-48dBm

15dB attenuation, preamp off.

Marker offset to avoid
low level spurious output
at 100MHz and 1GHz.
Normalised to 1Hz
from measurement at
100Hz resolution bandwidth.
Att. 0dB, preamp off
Not measured
-20dBm
-20dBm
-28dBm
-27dBm
-27dBm

PHOTO 2: Front of SA44B analyser. The front of the

TG44 tracking generator is similar.

PHOTO 3: SA44B rear panel. The TG44 is similar.

and has a similar single SMA connector on the

front panel for RF output, two BNC connectors
on the rear panel for interconnection to the
spectrum analyser and a type B USB2.0
USB connector for connection to the host
computer. A BNC to BNC lead, USB cable
and SMA male to male adapter are supplied
with the TG44.
The TG44 can be used with the SA44B
spectrum analyser to create a simple but
effective scalar network analyser system
that can be used to measure RF gain, frequency
response, gain compression and insertion loss.
Used with a suitable directional coupler or
bridge, it can also be used to measure return
loss. The reviewed software does not allow
for normalisation in this mode, but this may
be added in a future release.

39

REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 2011 RADCOM

Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

FIGURE 2: 433MHz FM modulated output from the Kenwood TH-6F.

FIGURE 3: 2.3GHz filter response plotted with the help of the TG44 tracking generator.

In addition to use as a tracking generator,

the TG44 can also be used as a CW
(unmodulated) signal generator with output
from 10Hz to 4.4GHz. This is an enormous
frequency range and makes the TG44 worth
having in the shack for this purpose alone.
Note that the harmonic output of the generator
is quite high, which may make it unsuitable
for some measurements. An external low
pass filter or two could easily solve the
harmonic problem for many applications.

40

IN USE. The TG44 was used in conjunction

with the SA44B to measure the response
of a two pole interdigital filter tuned to
2.320MHz. This filter forms part of my
2.3GHz band system.
Control of the TG44 is from the spectrum
analyser GUI. The controls for sweep and level
are located at the lower right hand side of the
GUI screen. In order to perform a sweep of a
filter, such as shown in Figure 3, the sweep
frequency limits should be set as appropriate.
For a filter the RF level should not be important,
so use the maximum available from the TG44
in order to achieve the largest on-screen
dynamic range.
First, connect the tracking generator directly
to the spectrum analyser using the RF cable
and connector adapters you will be using to
connect to the filter.

There should be a flat, straight line on the

display. However, it will probably be some way
below the top-of-screen reference line. Click
the 'STORE THRU' button on the GUI screen.
The through loss will now be subtracted and
the display will move to the top of the screen.
Connect the filter or other device under test
(DUT) between the test leads. The frequency
response of the DUT will appear on screen.
Click the marker peak search and the on-screen
marker will appear at the peak of the DUT
response. If it is a filter then the filter insertion
loss will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
Using marker delta or two markers, the filter
bandwidth or filter out-of-band response can
be measured. Wide sweep widths require the
TG44 10MHz output to be connected to the
SA44B 10MHz reference input.
CONCLUSIONS. My measurements on the
spectrum analyser revealed surprisingly good
results. Amplitude accuracy was particularly
good and certainly more than adequate for
the majority of amateur radio purposes.
Frequency accuracy, even using the
internal TCXO, was much better than
expected, but could be improved upon
further by using a suitable external 10MHz
reference, preferably one with low phase
noise. This makes the SA44B very useful
as a selective frequency measuring device,
Radio Society of Great Britain 2011

particularly when several signals are present

or waveforms are very distorted. A frequency
counter alone can easily be fooled into
measuring and indicating the wrong
frequency under these conditions.
The discrepancies in the DANL
measurements in the measurements
table may be due to differences in where
the visually averaged noise waveform was
taken to lie.
I wonder if TEP might not have updated
their manual from a previous version of the
SA44 since the spurious outputs at the input
connector seemed unduly pessimistic. I added
a fourth data column to the table entry to show
that without the attenuator set to 15dB and
the preamp switched out, the spurious levels
were closer to those in the SA44B manual.
The measured figures are very good for this
type of receiver where there is no RF bandpass filter to help with LO rejection.
I mentioned near the beginning of this
review that it might take a little getting used
to compared to a conventional spectrum
analyser. The reason for this is that wide
band sweeps can take many seconds to
complete. In some situations this can
make this type of analyser difficult to use
for adjustment purposes, since you might
have to wait a long time to see the results of
each adjustment made. For narrow sweeps
this should not be a problem.
The TG44 tracking generator proved
extremely useful but the GUI display froze
a few times when making adjustments to
the swept frequency range. This necessitated
re-booting the software. However, an updated
TG44 was due for imminent release and this
should eliminate these (firmware related?)
problems.
I would have liked to have seen a facility
for saving screen shots. Printing is already
taken care of, but if you want to save a screen
shot, such as the display of the TH-6F FM
modulation, it is necessary to use CNTL
Prt SC and then import the bit map into a
suitable editing program. If there is a facility
to do this already, I didn't find it!
For the tests I used a Sony Vaio laptop
with Intel CORE i3 processor with 2.3GHz
clock and 6GB RAM running on Windows 7
Professional.
Overall, I was very pleased with the
performance of the SA44B. If I didn't already
possess a good spectrum analyser I could be
very tempted to buy one of these. The TG44
is perfectly useable and has excellent
frequency coverage.
My thanks to Test Equipment Plus for
the loan of the review samples. The Signal
Hound SA44B spectrum analyser costs
799 + 19% VAT and the TG44A tracking
generator is 520 + 19% VAT. The European
distributor is Dutch company Foltronics, see
www.SignalHound.eu.
WEBSEARCH
[1] Test Equipment Plus www.signalhound.com