FieldFox Handheld Analyzers

FieldFox Handheld Analyzers

Introduction

The Keysight FieldFox handheld analyzers can withstand your toughest working conditions with a ruggedized yet light weight and portable battery powered design for making measurements for RF devices like cables, antennas, filters, amplifiers, and signal/spectrum analysis. Create your specialized handheld analyzer solution by selecting FieldFox options and features to address cable and antenna test (CAT) spectrum analysis (SA) or vector network analysis (VNA) real time spectrum analyzer and over the air digital demodulation analysis required for your application. The FieldFox analyzers are always ready to make RF measurements, ensuring every operating mode is flexible enough to meet the needs of novices and experts alike. The newly introduced C-Series analyzer, N9912C in particular, makes the FieldFox a truly software defined instrument. This technical overview provides details of the standard FieldFox handheld analyzer features as well as selectable options for addressing your specific application needs.

FieldFox Handheld Analyzers

Why choose FieldFox?

• A truly software-defined analyzer, the newly introduced N9912C RF analyzer in particular, offers the maximum flexibility and the least initial investment to meet rapidly changing market requirements
• Ideal 5G deployment and field-testing tool with 120 MHz real-time bandwidth and over-the-air (OTA) measurements
• Ability for 5G, satellite and radar operators to make true RF coverage measurements, up to 54 GHz and beyond, and beamforming verification with phased array antenna support
• Simplified field signal monitoring with wideband capture and recording of fully corrected IQ data
• Highly efficient radar and EW systems diagnostics with spectrum analysis, full 2-port VNA, power meter, pulse and noise figure measurements and results that correlate with high-performance bench top instruments.
• Durable handheld analyzers that can withstand your toughest working conditions

Designed for You and the Work You Do Everyday

Carry FieldFox wherever you need to go

• Kit friendly at 7.35 lb. (3.34 kg)
• Large buttons are easy to operate, even when wearing gloves
• Field swappable battery lasts up to 4 hours
• Non-slip rubber grip securely fits in your hands and won’t slide off the hood of your vehicle
• Vertical “portrait” orientation makes it easy to hold and operate at the same time

Field-proof usability for better answers in less time

• Bright, low-reflection display and backlit keys enable easy viewing in direct sunlight or darkness
• Intuitively designed user interface for your workflow, enabling measurements in fewer key presses
• One-button measurements simplify complex setups and ensure quick, accurate results with confidence
• Calibration Wizard guides user to ensure simple and accurate calibrations
• Standard three-year warranty ensures field confidence, especially in harsh environments
• 5-, 7- and 10-year warranties are also available

Designed for your toughest working conditions

• Rugged enough to meet MIL-specs
• Completely sealed instrument enclosure provides measurement stability in harsh environments,
• -10 to +55 ºC (14 to 131 ºF)
• Specially designed to protect instrument from damage due to drops, shock or other external impacts
• Water-resistant chassis, keypad and case withstand wide temperature ranges and salty, humid environments
• Meets MIL-PRF-28800F Class 2 requirements
• Type tested and meets MIL-STD-810G, Method 511.5, Procedure I requirements for operation in explosive environments
• Type tested and meets IEC/EN 60529 requirements for ingress protection

Cable and antenna analyzer (CAT)

Fifty to sixty percent of microwave-link equipment issues are related to cables, antennas, and connectors. Degraded feeder lines cause poor coverage, link failures, and reduced sensitivity in the receive path. To maintain microwave link quality, it is critical to keep cable and antenna systems in good working condition. FieldFox is uniquely qualified to provide all the necessary measurements to troubleshoot and maintain these systems.

Insertion loss and cable loss

Insertion loss or cable loss characterizes the loss of a jumper cable, feeder cable, diplexer, or gain of a tower-mounted amplifier (TMA). With FieldFox, you can measure both the 1-port cable loss and 2-port insertion loss. Also, FieldFox’s extended range transmission analysis (ERTA) option, is useful for measuring long, lossy in-situ cables.

Return loss/VSWR

Return loss (RL) or VSWR is the single most important parameter used to measure and verify a cable and antenna system. This measurement reflects the power transfer efficiency of a given system.

Distance-to-fault (DTF) and time-domain reflectometry (TDR)

DTF helps you determine the location and nature of discontinuities in feeder lines. For example, short, open, or water ingress. With FieldFox, you can make RL and DTF measurements at the same time. This helps you correlate overall system degradation with specific faults in the cable and antenna system. The built-in cable editor lets you edit existing cable types onsite and save them as new cable types with user-defined names.

Measure both DTF and TDR in single sweep

FieldFox’s TDR complements RL and DTF measurements. TDR measures impedance changes along the cable and helps identify specific faults, RL exposes mismatch issues, and DTF indicates faults and poor connections. FieldFox is the only handheld instrument that can measure both DTF and TDR in a single sweep.

CalReady-calibrated at power on and ready to go

Save time and get right to work with FieldFox’s CalReady feature. With CalReady, theanalyzer is already calibrated and ready to make measurements such as S11, S22, 1-port cable loss, and DTF/TDR measurements without having to connect and disconnect additional calibration devices.

Broadband calibration

FieldFox allows you to make broadband calibrations, which means the instrument is calibrated over the maximum frequency range. After a broadband calibration, you can change the frequency range or number of points without recalibrating the instrument. The calibration is interpolated, and accuracy is maintained.

User cal kit support

For users who wish to use traditional mechanical calibration kits, FieldFox supports most Keysight/Agilent/HP cal kits and allows you to define your own custom calibration kits.

Fast and accurate calibration with ECal

The FieldFox calibration engine supports Keysight’s USB ECal modules. ECal support reduces calibration time and the need to make multiple connections during testing, while also providing for greater consistency between measurements. For FieldFox users, that translates into fewer human errors and increased accuracy.

Spectrum Analyzer

In microwave, radar, satellite communications, and commercial microwave backhaul, you may be responsible for hardware installation and maintenance as well as over-the-air signal quality. This could require regular monitoring for unexpected signals and performing signal surveillance. FieldFox’s spectrum analyzer will excel in a dynamic spectral environment. You may face measurement challenges such as the need to detect a low-level signal under strong signal conditions (requiring high dynamic range), or close-in small interference signals (requiring excellent phase noise). FieldFox’s superior dynamic range (TOI +15 dBm), close in phase noise (-117 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset), and fast sweep time make these challenging tasks easier. FieldFox’s spectrum analyzer also provides a full power measurement suite and complete trace and state control.