HP 8970 Noise Figure Meter Control

The HP 8970 NF Meters were a quantum leap over the competition. Interfacing this instrument via HPIB to MATLAB improves its utility 10X.

The HP 8970a (or b) Noise Figure Meters were a quantum leap over the competition of the day. The 8970a debuted in the April 1983 HP Journal and the introduction reads:

" Noise figure measurements used to be mysterious, time consuming, difficult, and not very accurate. This instrument makes them quick, accurate and easy."

One of the key attributes of more modern "Noise Figure Analyzers", is the ability to plot of Noise Figure vs Frequency and Gain vs. Frequency rather than the simple LED readouts of the 8970a.

For far less cost that modern NFM demands, one can have this basic plotting capability and get the data into MATLAB to boot.