The common way to examine electrical signals is in the time domain, using an oscilloscope. The time domain is used to determine amplitude, time and phase information, which is necessary to describe the behaviour of an electrical system.

When the time domain does not give the information you want from a signal, you can measure the frequency domain. For that purpose a spectrum analyzer is available. This instrument measures the frequency spectrum of a signal.

Key features of the spectrum analyzer are:

• determine a spectrum of up to 16K long records
• simultaneous use with the oscilloscope: you can see the signal both in the time domain and the frequency domain
• intuitive adjustment of the horizontal and vertical offsets and gains using advanced graphical controls
• five different window functions to reduce discontinuity errors in the Fast Fourier Transform
• high precision Discrete Fourier Transform to eliminate discontinuity errors
• linear and logarithmic vertical axes
• frequency axis linear, logarithmic, in octaves and in thirds of octaves
• interpolation to improve graph
• averaging of measurements to reduce the influence of noise
• measuring maximum values
• Total Harmonic Distortion calculation up to 100 harmonics
• Spectrum analyzer controlled frequency sweep on instruments with function generator
• extended cursor measurements
• all settings accessible through popup menus
• storing and recalling reference signals
• easy to use speedbutton toolbar for easy access of all functions
• comment tags to mark specific events in the signal
• colour hardcopy supported
• explanatory comments with all controls