Shrinking Giants with HAROGIC: Testing the Latest Compact Spectrum Analyzers on a Budget!

Spectrum analyzers used to be giant beasts but at a very high cost. But despite the industry still being a niche, some manufacturers, Signal Hound, Aaronia, and the new HAROGIC in the market, are shifting everything by proposing not only "cheap" but also compact Spectrum Analyzers.

Still, there are some compromises these brands took to keep the price low, and we will see what the SAE-200 (~7k€ worth) lent by Harogic looks like and compare it at the very first stages with a BB60D from SignalHound (~5k€), and an X2000 of Aaronia (~10k€ not including extra modules).

Don't hesitate to share your impression, and keep in touch for further tests & tips with these devices ;)

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome
0:36 Quick summary
1:11 Size comparison with BB60, KC908, X2000 Aaronia
3:24 Teardowns
8:00 Interfaces
10:00 Setup for the tests
11:02 SAStudio: sweep and features
13:07 Sweep on steroid 1.2THz/s
15:00 DSP on FPGA and CPU
16:01 Zoom and traces
18:16 Real-Time Analysis and soft comparisons
28:02 BB60 vs SAE-200 close FM channels
36:51 Introducing also the KC908 for better comparison
37:43 IQ Streaming mode and basic FM decoding
42:25 Decoding numeric signal including GNU Radio
50:40 A mature API
52:08 Tests with a GPD MicroPC (Intel Celeron N4120)
56:40 Conclusion

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