AGILENT’s Fieldfox Handheld Analyzers Provide Precise Microwave Measurements

Defence Turkey: Agilent Technologies’sole authorized distributor in Turkey, the Spark Group, opened its Spark Calibration Laboratory with a 2 million dollar infrastructure to provide the necessary technical services for advanced technology required projects such as the "national ship," "national tank" and "national satellite" on 23 November 2011. Could you please inform us your structure and activities of your laboratory in Ankara?

As a result of the fast growth of the electronic industry in Turkey, the technical infrastructure of maintenance, repair and calibration services has become inadequate to cover the needs in Turkey. This obliged Spark and the customers to be dependent on abroad in this field. This means briefly as follows; high cost spent on repair and calibration, long idle periods resulting from the logistic of the equipments to abroad. As Agilent Technologies, we have always targeted to contribute to Turkey as a priority. We are proud to provide the necessary methods and tools that will give support to Spark in this field in Turkey.

This infrastructure is able to give the services of maintenance, repair and calibration for Agilent branded various test and measurement equipments like network analyzer, signal analyzer and signal sources up to 50GHz. With the services provided by ‘Maintenance, Repair and Calibration Laboratory’ of Spark, our customers in Turkey isno longer dependent on abroad. Through the easily attainable, low cost and time saving services, there are contributions to the quality of the products produced in Turkey and idle equipment has become usable again. Turkey is the first one in the region to have a laboratory with a very big technological infrastructure and a technical staff who is able to use this technology.

ÇAĞAN IRMAK, Market & Business Development Director of Spark: In addition, the capital spent on these services stays inside the country.

Defence Turkey: It is seen that with the rising technological strength of Turkey, and the given examples of the increase in maintenance and repair needs, the Spark Calibration Laboratory fills a very important gap in this regard. Could you please enlighten us about your cooperation and activities with clients in field of Defence & Aerospace, Homeland Security?

Spark Group of Companies has always had their priority to give the best services to their customers. They have also differentiated themselves in the sector by continuously developing the quality of their services. In this respect, they defined the needs of the market and their customers well, and decided to take action.

Spark Calibration Laboratory is giving maintenance, repair and calibration services to all Defence sector companies like Aselsan, Mikes, Havelsan, Roketsan and TAI. We are in cooperation with universities. And we are in touch with Armed Forces and Homeland Security. And of course, while giving all these calibration and necessary adjustmentsservices,Spark Laboratory is using all the methods authorized and certified by Agilent.

Defence Turkey: Do you have a new strategy focused on enlarging your facilities in Turkey? Can Spark Calibration Laboratory be considered as a hub in this region? Do you give services to other countries around Turkey through your laboratory in Ankara?

Why not? From time to time, we are asked this question by some of our customers. We are in the evaluation period. Spark Calibration Laboratory is the unique "Agilent Service Provider" in the region as certified by the producer company, Agilent Technologies.

Spark Calibration Laboratory, with this certification by Agilent in Europe and Middle East, can certainly be considered as a hub in the region. We are giving services to the countries other than Turkey. We are in touch with some countries in the Middle East like Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Defence Turkey: Agilent’s FieldFox handheld analyzers provide precise microwave measurements and were designed with on-the-go applications. Could you please inform us about FieldFox handheld analyzers in detail?

Agilent has applied its proprietary technology and innovation to achieve breakthrough customer utility for portable RF and microwave analyzers in four areas.

The first is FieldFox’s ruggedness. This product was designed to be used in the harshest environments. The ergonomic packaging is in a completely sealed enclosure without fans or vents. The case materials were carefully chosen to withstand wide temperature variations including an operating temperature range of -10 to +55 deg C and a non-operating range of -51 to +71 deg C. FieldFox analyzers were put through rigorous environmental tests resulting in a MIL-PRF-28800F Class 2 compliant design. FieldFox has also been type tested by an independent testing entity for operation in an explosive atmosphere in accordance with MIL-STD-810G, Method 511.5, Procedure I, and has passed those tests. Because of these rigorous design elements FieldFox analyzers can make accurate, precise measurements under the toughest conditions. And with Agilent’s focus on quality, FieldFox analyzers come with a standard three year warranty.

The second is FieldFox’s portability. FieldFox incorporates Agilent proprietary technology that enables the highest performance yet only consumes 14 watts. This results in an easy to hold and operate analyzer that weighs only 3 kilograms with a long battery life of 3.5 hours. The "portrait" orientation and 7.4 inch (188 m) width makes FieldFox easy to hold and operate. Coupled with a carefully designed keypad layout makes it easy for a user to operate with their thumbs. Because FieldFox may be used day or night, inside or outside, it includes a bright, low-reflective display and five display modes that optimize viewing under a wide range of lighting conditions. The keys are also backlit to enable operation in darkness.

The third is FieldFox’s flexible configuration. Start with what you need now and add cost effective functionality in the future. You can choose among three base configurations: RF and microwave combination analyzers, microwave vector network analyzers (VNA),and microwave spectrum analyzer. The FieldFox combination analyzers’ base function is cable and antenna analysis and can be configured to include spectrum and network analysis. To save space in a field kit, built-in capabilities can be added to provide up to 10 instruments in 1. Additional capabilities include: power meter, independent signal generator, vector voltmeter, interference analysis, variable DC source, frequency converter and GPS receiver.

Every FieldFox option is available on the combination analyzer.The VNA can be optioned to include full 2-port S-parameters, time domain, and Agilent’s unique calibration techniques: CalReady and QuickCal. The spectrum analyzer can be optioned to include a full-band tracking generator, full-band preamplifier, channel power meter and interference analyzer.

The fourth is FieldFox’s unprecedented accuracy. For the first time, measurements in the field match those in the laboratory. Agilent has incorporated benchtop measurement science into the portable FieldFox analyzers. The FieldFox CAT and VNA modes have the same calibration engine as the industry leading PNA-X vector network analyzer. High-performance spectrum analyzer, power meter and DC supply measurement science is incorporated into each of these modes. The result is unprecedented measurement accuracy with no warm-up time that matches benchtop measurements.

Additionally, Agilent simplified calibration with an innovation called QuickCal. It includes built-in calibration standards inside the instrument enabling accurate measurements in the field without the need to carry external calibration accessories. Another unique feature that saves time in the field is CalReady – turn FieldFox on and it’s ready to make calibrated CAT or VNA measurements directly on port one or port two with no warm-up time.

To enhance spectrum analysis, the design team leveraged the power measurements used in Agilent spectrum and signal analyzers into the FieldFox analyzers. This enables users to make fast, accurate one-button power measurements of channelized communication systems easily and with confidence. FieldFox microwave spectrum analyzers save time by improving accuracy with InstaAlign, an internal amplitude alignment that occurs automatically as the environmental conditions change, without any user intervention. This provides an industry-leading amplitude accuracy of ±0.5 dB at power-up, with no warm-up required. The FieldFox spectrum analyzer is compliant with CISPR11 class B. FieldFox is the only 26.5 GHz handheld spectrum analyzer with a built-in full-band tracking generator.

Defence Turkey: Thank you again for your time. Lastly, would you like to add anything for our readers of Defence Turkey?

FieldFox analyzers were designed from the ground up by working closely with customers all over the worldincluding direct input from Turkish customers. Nine different user interface languages are available on FieldFox including Turkish, Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and English. FieldFox brings a unique combination of advanced measurement capabilities in an extremely rugged package. They’re equipped to handle all field measurements from routine maintenance to in-depth troubleshooting and more – everywhere technicians and engineers need to go. With the new microwave FieldFox analyzers, you can carry precision with you!