HP 11517A

Found it on eBay and it's a prize! Like anything one buys on eBay, it's a gamble. Sellers are reluctant to give a warranty on 30+ year old electronic test equipment, and there aren't many who have the facilities to test this stuff in the first place. Those who do, charge high (by ham standards) prices for their time and effort. That's more than fair, and if I were a government lab I'd be very happy to get one at say, 50% off list price.

But I'm a ham, and can't compete with those labs, so I feel very fortunate that this one had a low starting price and no guarantee other than 'came from a working lab.' It turned out very well for me.

The mixer is good from 12.4-40GHz (or as the label says, GC!) It came with a waveguide taper 11518A, P band, 12.4-18GHz, but it still picks up 24GHz signals just fine. I'll be on the lookout for a 11519A, 18.0-26.5GHz adapter.

The HP Application note for this mixer (AN 150-12) tells me that there is a low pass waveguide filter that I might want, in this case a K362A, although I bet the flanges won't match. What HP calls 'P' band is probably really Ku band, with WR-62 flanges.

There's a huge gap between here and the table below and I'll be darned if I know why that is!

HP band	Standard band	Waveguide	Frequency range (GHz)
P	Ku	WR-62	12.4-18.0
K	K	WR-42	18.0-26.5
R	Ka	WR-28	26.5-40.0
	Q	WR-22	33-50
	U	WR-19	40-60
	V	WR-15	50-75
	E	WR-12	60-90
	W	WR-10	75-110

Rectangular waveguide dimensions can be found here.
HP Spectrum analysis application notes can be found here.


Here's a photo of my new find - an HO 11519A adapter, good for 18 - 26.5 GC (GHz). Yay!


And the two adapters side by side.

EDIT: Expanded the waveguide table for higher microwave bands. Added photo of 11519A adapter.