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How to correlate Spectrum analyzer dBm with Oscillosc mvPP?

April 26, 2017analyzer correlate dBm electronics forum forum edaboard spectrum

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How to correlate Spectrum analyzer dBm with Oscillosc mvPP?

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I’m trying to determine if my test instruments (bought on Ebay) are accurate. I’m feeding a signal from my Marconi 2022 signal generator into a HP 8590B Spectrum Analyzer and the generated and read out amplitudes are not the same. When checking the amplitude with my TDS-220 Oscilloscope the peak-to-peak voltage on the scope is nowhere near the value displayed by the Spectrum Analyzer! Various resources on the internet shows how to convert dBm to volts (50 ohm load) but i am reading much higher values on the scope (see for example http://ifmaxp1.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/dbm.shtml). I’m hoping that someone can shed some light on how i should correlate the readings on the Spectrum Analyzer with what i see on the Oscilloscope. I’m using pure sine waves. Thanks, /John.