From The Manufacturer:
Anritsu’s handheld, battery-operated Broadband Site Master is the most accurate and convenient tool available for field installation, verification, troubleshooting and repair of microwave cables and communication systems. With calibrated vector error correction and a convenient user interface, difficult test specifications become easy to verify, quality is improved, and maintenance expenses are reduced.
The Broadband Site Master targets microwave site installers, point-to-point operators, point-to-multipoint operators, radio manufacturers, private/public networks that support microwave links, and defense programs responsible for the installation and maintenance of microwave cables. The Broadband Site Master tests both waveguide and coaxial cables more conveniently than laboratory-sized scalar analyzers or microwave vector network analyzers.
Cost Savings and Quality Improvement
Market competition requires operators to reduce per site maintenance expenses. Site Master’s Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) technique breaks away from the traditional fix-after-failure maintenance process by finding small, hard to identify problems before major failures occur. Sixty to eighty percent of a typical cell site’s problems are caused by problematic cables, connectors and antennas. Cables installed in aircraft and onboard ships are difficult to troubleshoot and can cause extensive downtime. When cables are damaged, mispositioned, or contaminated with moisture, Site Master identifies the problem quickly. Antenna degradation reduces the cell coverage pattern. Site Master can pinpoint the antenna problem from ground level in a few seconds so climbing the antenna tower becomes unnecessary.
FDR Technique
Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) and Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) have similar acronyms, and both techniques are used to test transmission lines, but that’s where the similarities end. The TDR technique is not sensitive to RF problems. The TDR stimulus is a DC pulse, not RF. Thus, TDR is unable to detect system degradations that often lead to system failures. The FDR technique saves costly, time-consuming troubleshooting efforts by testing cable feedline and antenna systems at their proper operating frequency. Deficient connectors, lightning arrestors, cables, jumpers, or antennas are replaced before call quality is compromised.
