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Efficient Cable and Antenna Testing
Article Reprint
This article first appeared in the December 2012 www.keysight.com/find/fieldfox
www.keysight.com/find/contactus
issue of Above Ground Level and is reprinted
with their kind permission. Published in USA, August 3, 2014
5991-2963EN
www.keysight.com
rf and microwave systems
Efficient Cable
and Antenna Testing
Ensure fast, accurate and efficient cable and antenna testing by using
appropriate instrumentation and the right measurement techniques for
verifying and troubleshooting cables, connectors and antennas in RF
and microwave communications systems.
By Rolland Zhang
F
Faulty cables, connectors and anten-
nas cause roughly 50 to 60 percent of
cellular base station problems. Com-
ponents may become damaged during
installation, operation and mainte-
nance of a telecommunications system
or may suffer reduced performance
as they age. Extreme weather may
damage outdoor installations. Even
sheltered installations can be problem-
atic, potentially exposing components
to mishandling, stress, heat, vibration
and containments that can leak into
the system. Such failures cause poor
coverage and unnecessary handovers
in the cellular system, making ap-
propriate testing all the more critical.
Cable and antenna measurements are
often used to verify and troubleshoot
the electrical performance of RF and
microwave transmission systems and
antennas. Key to ensuring fast, ac-
curate and efficient cable and antenna
testing (CAT) is use of appropriate
instrumentation and the right measure-
ment techniques.
CAT basics
When verifying and maintaining
the operation of RF and microwave
Photo 1: Agilent's FieldFox combination microwave analyzer's base function is a cable
transmission systems and antennas, and antenna analyzer, and it can be configured to include spectrum and network analy-
measurements are often made along sis. Offering amplitude accuracy of