by William M. Kilpatrick
Volume 11:3, Jul-Sep 2004
When Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP 8902A measuring receiver in 1981, IBM had just announced the personal computer, the World Wide Web was just a glimmer in the mind of Tim Berners-Lee, and microprocessor clock speeds were in the single digits. Nevertheless, HP was able to produce a metrology instrument for attenuator calibration and signal generator performance testing in calibration laboratories that delivered such a high level of performance that it quickly attained “reference standard” status. This title still holds today, even though Agilent Technologies (formerly Hewlett-Packard) stopped production in 2002. Agilent has now introduced a new precision measuring receiver system called the N5530S that promises to continue this tradition and delver even better performance in key areas than the 8902A and has many other useful attributes that 21st Century technology allows.
