Name: Signal Hound BB60C
Brand: Signal Hound
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Modes of Operation | Signal Hound

device be open and idle. After a self-calibration occurs, the global device state is undefined. It is

necessary to reconfigure the device before continuing operation. One self-calibration is performed upon

opening the device.

Note: The BB60C does not require the use of bbSelfCal for device calibration. Instead, for the BB60C, if

the device deviates in temperature, simply call bbInitiate again which will re-calibrate the device at its

current operating temperature.

Modes of Operation

Now that we have seen how a typical application interfaces with the API, let’s examine the different

modes of operation the API provides. Each mode will accept different configurations and have different

boundary conditions. Each mode will also provide data formatted to match the mode selected. In the

next sections you will see how to interact with each mode.

For a more in-depth examination of each mode of operation (read: theory) refer to the Signal Hound

BB60C/A user manual.

Swept Analysis

Swept analysis represents the most traditional form of spectrum analysis. This mode offers the largest

amount of configuration options, and returns traditional frequency domain sweeps. A frequency domain

sweep displays amplitude on the vertical axis and frequency on the horizontal axis.

The configuration routines which affect the sweep results are

 bbConfigureAcquisition() – Configuring the detector and linear/log scaling

 bbConfigureCenterSpan() – Configuring the frequency range

 bbConfigureLevel() – Configuring reference level and internal attenuators

 bbConfigureGain() – Configuring internal amplifiers

 bbConfigureSweepCoupling() – Configuring RBW/VBW/sweep time

 bbConfigureWindow() – Configuring window functions for certain RBWs

 bbConfigureProcUnits() – Configure VBW processing

Once you have configured the device, you will initialize the device using the BB_SWEEPING flag.

This mode is driven by the programmer, causing a sweep to be collected only when the program

requests one through the bbFetchTrace() function. The length of the sweep is determined by a

combination of resolution bandwidth, video bandwidth and sweep time.

Once the device is initialized you can determine the characteristics of the sweep you will be collecting

with bbQueryTraceInfo(). This function returns the length of the sweep, the frequency of the first bin,

and the bin size (difference in frequency between any two samples). You will need to allocate two arrays

of memory, representing the minimum and maximum values for each frequency bin.

Now you are ready to call bbFetchTrace(). This is a blocking call that does not begin collecting and

processing data until it is called. Typical sweep times might range from 10ms – 100ms, but certain

settings can take much more time (full spans, low RBW/VBWs).

Signal Hound BB60C Programmer's Reference Manual

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