ANRITSU MT8212 CELL MASTER Better than S332 Analyzer

[freddaniel]

Heads Up - Many cellular providers are dumping their stock of used Anritsu MT8212 Cell Masters which are like the S332 antenna analyzer but often include a spectrum analyzer and tracking generator. Some are going for $300 to $700 Take a look on Ebay.

 

[prcguy]

What is the sellers name?

Heads Up - Many cellular providers are dumping their stock of used Anritsu MT8212 Cell Masters which are like the S332 antenna analyzer but often include a spectrum analyzer and tracking generator. Some are going for $300 to $700 Take a look on Ebay.

 

[freddaniel]

The latest listing is from testworld_inc who has one starting at $89.95 with all the options. The most important is option 21, which is the tracking generator. Forget any that just have one N-type connector, as it has no spectrum analyzer and is no better than a S331

 

[prcguy]

Thank you so much for posting this. I was able to get an Anritsu MT8212B in beautiful condition with options 19/21/25/27/28/31/33/34/42/62 and 63 in the Pelican case for $383 shipped. This thing is a really good spectrum analyzer from 10KHz to 4GHz, a single port antenna analyzer from 25MHz to 4GHz, a TDR, a two port scalar network analyzer from 25MHz to 3GHz, an RF power meter from -70dBm to 20dBm, an RF signal generator from 25MHz to 3GHz, it receives and demodulates FM, WBFM, AM and SSB (its a tunable receiver!) and a bunch of other stuff.

Basically for just a little more than the cost of a new POS MFJ-239 antenna analyzer you get about 90% of a communications service monitor and some microwave test equipment that probably cost in excess of $10k new. Now I'm off to tune up another UHF pass/notch duplexer with my new toy.

Thanks!

Heads Up - Many cellular providers are dumping their stock of used Anritsu MT8212 Cell Masters which are like the S332 antenna analyzer but often include a spectrum analyzer and tracking generator. Some are going for $300 to $700 Take a look on Ebay.

 

[Hit_Factor]

I was watching that auction and departing on a $400 bid. Couldn't quite pull the trigger.

Glad someone I 'know' got it.

 

[freddaniel]

These are a great value, even at $700 each. To calibrate the antenna analyzer, use a Narda 757 attenuator of 20, 30, or 40 dB terminated at 50 ohms as the precision load. These attenuators are flat up to 12 GHz, and unterminated, they provide a return loss of half the attenuation value. The attenuator will also serve to test the calibration of the spectrum analyzer/tracking generator. The open and short are easy to fabricate.

 

[prcguy]

I already had HP shorts and opens plus some precision loads to 18GHz. Using a good attenuator with low values like 3dB or 6dB with a short or open on the end is good to check the return loss or SWR accuracy after cal looking for exactly twice the return loss value of the attenuator.

I now find the sweep time is a bit slow on the transmission test or tracking gen/spectrum analyzer mode for tuning a duplexer but it seems very accurate on the actual loss values it measures. Mine has a bunch of cell phone test modes that supposedly demodulate certain types of cell phone waveforms. That could be interesting if its a stand alone receiver/demodulator for those bands.

These are a great value, even at $700 each. To calibrate the antenna analyzer, use a Narda 757 attenuator of 20, 30, or 40 dB terminated at 50 ohms as the precision load. These attenuators are flat up to 12 GHz, and unterminated, they provide a return loss of half the attenuation value. The attenuator will also serve to test the calibration of the spectrum analyzer/tracking generator. The open and short are easy to fabricate.

 

[surfacemount]

Has any of you (I've been watching these for a long time now, and ran across this in here by happenstance) ever figured out anything about how those software / firmware features might be added? Clearly, a few need a board, but I am wondering if they took a page from motorola's flashport book...

 

[prcguy]

I'm not up on how Anritsu does it but many other mfrs make a unit with all features and needed hardware inside and you pay to enable those features. One good example is the HP/Agilent/Keysight FieldFox series. The basic unit only has a spectrum analyzer and maybe an antenna analyzer and you simply pay for a key code to punch into the unit to enable much more elaborate things like 2-port vector network analyzer or built in RF power meter, etc.

You usually cant extend the frequency range in the above example, so you can pay to get a bunch of features within the frequency range of the unit you originally bought. If you need a higher frequency unit you would have to buy a new one at that point.

If a person could figure out how to decode things and produce a key code to enable features, you could make a lot of new friends.

Has any of you (I've been watching these for a long time now, and ran across this in here by happenstance) ever figured out anything about how those software / firmware features might be added? Clearly, a few need a board, but I am wondering if they took a page from motorola's flashport book...

 

[surfacemount]

Thanks, this is my working theory also

 

[kd7ckq]

how in the world did I miss this? Looks like I missed all the good deals.