Aeroflex and Bird Technologies combine to add new RF test capabilities

Aeroflex announced today (12 March 2013) that it has added support for the through-line Bird wideband power sensors (WPS) to the industry 3550 handheld radio test system.

The addition of the Bird 5017 and support for other Bird power sensors allows the 3550 to improve measurement accuracies for in field test applications. The Bird 5017 supports frequency ranges from 25MHz to 1GHz, with power accuracy of +/-4% of reading.

‘The addition of the Bird power meter technology to the Aeroflex 3550 enhances the unit’s capabilities and accuracies in field applications,’ said Rob Barden, director of marketing for Aeroflex Wichita. ‘In addition to the improved power measurement functions, the 5017 brings additional testing abilities to the 3550 for Peak Envelope Power and Crest Factor.’

‘The 5017 provides highly accurate power measurements and detection for true average power, peak power and duty cycle directly with exceptional accuracy and uses these precise measurements to calculate a wide range of other important factors, such as VSWR, return loss, reflection coefficient, crest factor, average burst power and CCDF,’ said Terry Grant, VP of sales for Bird Technologies.

The 3550 test system is lightweight (8.3 lbs. including battery) for field-testing of analogue, DMR, P25, NXDN and dPMR systems, and features 4.5 hours of continuous operation with its internal battery.

The 3550 Test System allows the user to test all aspects of the radio system - the transmitter, receiver, cables and antennas - with powerful features typically found only in bench top equipment. It also meets MIL-PRF-28800F specifications for humidty, shock and vibration, with an operating range of 0o C to +50o C.

Source: Wireless