tinySA | TinySA4 / tinySA Ultra / Ultra+ Menu Tree

The menu tree reflects FW version 1.3507 or later

A nicely formatted PDF file containing the whole menu can be found here

Spectrum Analyzer

PAUSE pauses the sweep
PRESET loads or saves configurations.
- LOAD STARTUP reloads the startup presets.
- LOAD X loads the settings from slot x, the text on the button depends on what is previously saved
- LOAD DEFAULTS loads the default settings
- SAVE SETTINGS enabling this option will automatically save various settings at power down and restore them at next startup
- LOAD from SD loads a preset from the SD card
- STORE supports updating the stored presets
  - STORE AS STARTUP sets the current settings as the startup preset.
  - STORE X stores the current settings in slot X. The text on the button depends on what is previously saved
  - STORE -> SD stores the current settings on the SD card
  - FACTORY DEFAULTS resets the startup preset to the factory defaults.
FREQUENCY sets everything related to the frequencies to scan.
- START sets the scanning to start/stop mode and sets the start frequency
- STOP sets the scanning to start/stop mode and sets the stop frequency
- CENTER sets the scanning to center/span mode and sets the center frequency
- SPAN sets the scanning to center/span mode and sets the frequency span
- ZERO SPAN sets the scanning to center/span mode, sets the span to 0Hz and sets the center frequency
- RBW sets the resolution bandwidth. Keep in mind a low RBW may increase scanning time substantially.
- MULTI BAND this option enables a segmented scan over multiple bands
  - xHz yHz Settings for one band
    - START start frequency of band
    - END end frequency of band
    - CENTER center frequency of band
    - SPAN span of band
    - LEVEL trigger or warning level for this specific band
    - NAME allows setting a name for this band
    - DISABLE disables this band in a multi band scan.
  - ALTERN enabling this option forces an alternating full screen scan of each band. When disabled all bands are concatenated in one screen
  - BANDS->SD writes the multi band definition to the SD card
  - SD->BANDS loads a multiband definition from the SD card
- VBW sets the VBW as fraction of the RBW or to automatic.
- SHIFT FREQ is used in combination with up/down converters and allows entering the actual START or CENTER frequency before the up/down conversion.
- MARKER -> CENTER set the center of the span to the frequency of the active marker.
LEVEL sets everything related to the level of the signals being measured.
- REF LEVEL sets the level in selected unit of the top of the display.
- SCALE/DIV sets the amount of units per division of the display.
- ATTENUATE sets the amount of attenuation applied to the input.
- UNIT selects the display unit. dBm, dBmV, dBuV, Volt or Watt
- EXT GAIN sets the level offset in dB caused by an external amplifier or attenuator.
- LNA controls the internal LNA. With LNA enabled the internal attenuator is disabled
- TRIGGER selects the trigger mode
  - AUTO is the normal spectrum analyzer scanning mode, triggering is not active.
  - NORMAL will display a new scan as soon as a signal in the scan causes a trigger event.
  - SINGLE will wait for a signal to cause a trigger event and display the scan.
  - LEVEL sets the trigger level
    - TRIGGER LEVEL when multiband is not used it activates a keypad for entering the trigger level
    - TRIGGER TRACE x selects a trace (1-4) to be used as trigger level and shows the trace table menu
  - EDGE toggle to select the trigger direction UP or DOWN
  - TRIGGER toggle to select the location of the trigger position on the screen as PRE, MID or POST
  - INTERVAL set the time grid used for starting a scan, set to zero to deactivate. Useful to see fixed interval repetitive events
  - BEEP outputs a beep via the audio output whenever a trigger level is exceeded. Also works in AUTO mode
  - AUTO SAVE when enabled saves the scan on SD card when the trigger level is exceeded. Be careful when used with too low trigger level as this could cause continuous writing and quickly destroy the SD card
- LISTEN puts the tinySA in Listen mode at the frequency of the current active marker.
TRACE selects a trace and controls various aspects of how the trace is displayed.
- TRACE n selects which trace to control
- ENABLE dis/en-ables a trace display
- FREEZE freezes the trace displayed
- CALC state selects various calculation options over time such as averaging or max hold and display the current CALC state. Selecting again resets the calculation
  - OFF disables any calculation
  - MIN HOLD sets the display to hold the minimum value measured.
  - MAX HOLD sets the display to hold the maximum value measured.
  - MAX DECAY sets the display to hold the maximum value measured for a certain amount of scans.
  - AVER 4 sets the amount of running averaging to 4.
  - AVER 16 sets the amount of running averaging to 16.
  - AVER sets forever averaging. Click again to restart
  - QUASI PEAK sets the quasi peak hold mode
  - TABLE->TRACE supports the definition of a static trace
- NORMALIZE will normalize the trace.
- SUBTRACT selects a trace to subtract from the current trace
- TRACE->TRACE copies the current trace data to another trace
- TRACE->SD writes the current trace data to the inserted SD card, the file name is created from the date and time
- SD->TRACE reads a trace from SD and stores into a frozen trace.
DISPLAY controls various aspects of how the display.
- PAUSE SWEEP pauses the scanning. When paused a 'TRIGGER button will appear for a single scan
- WATERFALL displays the power level over time in a waterfall map. A second click enlarges the waterfall.
- BIG NUMBER displays the current marker data in very big numbers.
- DRAW LINE draws a horizontal blue line on the display at a specified level
- SWEEP TIME sets the target time for a complete sweep in seconds.
- SWEEP POINTS sets the number of sweep points.
- SWEEP ACCURACY sets tradeoffs between sweep time and accuracy
  - NORMAL sets the default sweeping mode
  - PRECISE sets the precise scanning mode.
  - FAST sets the fast sweeping mode.
  - NOISE SOURCE optimizes the wide span scanning of noise sources.
  - NSPEEDUP sets the acceleration factor for narrow scans, use values between 1 and 20.
  - WSPEEDUP sets the acceleration factor for wide scans, use values between 1 and 20.
- ROTATE DISPLAY rotates the display 180 degrees
MARKER controls the markers on the display.
- MODIFY MARKER allows selecting a marker and shows a submenu to modify the MARKER TYPE.
  - MARKER n is used to select one of four markers
  - DELTA n sets the currently selected marker as delta marker.
  - NOISE sets the currently selected marker as noise marker.
  - TRACKING sets the currently selected marker as tracking marker.
  - TRACE n selects the trace on which to position the currently selected marker.
  - TRACE AVERAGE sets the currently selected marker to display the average level over the total trace.
  - SEARCH activates a sub menu for positioning the marker.
    - PEAK SEARCH positions the marker to the global maximum.
    - MIN<-LEFT searches the next minimum left of the marker
    - MIN->RIGHT searches the next minimum right of the marker
    - MAX<-LEFT searches the next maximum left of the marker
    - MAX->RIGHT searches the next maximum right of the marker
    - ENTER FREQUENCY enter the target frequency of the marker
    - TRACKING automatically positions the marker to the strongest signal.
    - PEAK n sets the minimum amount of dB above the noise floor of a tracking marker.
  - DELETE deactivates the currently selected marker and moves the menu one level up.
- MARKER OPS allows setting the frequency display range based on the active marker.
  - ->START sets the start of the scan to the frequency of the current marker.
  - ->STOP sets the stop of the scan to the frequency of the current marker.
  - ->CENTER sets the center of the scan to the frequency of the current marker.
  - ->SPAN sets the span of the scan to the frequency of the current marker.
  - ->REF LEVEL sets the REF LEVEL to the level of the current marker.
- SEARCH MARKER allows positioning a non-tracking marker on signal maxima or minima. See description of SEARCH above
- RESET MARKERS resets all markers to the default state
- 'n MARKERS enables n=2,4,6 or 8 markers
MEASURE helps to quickly set the tinySA for certain measurements.
- OFF switches of any measurement related setting and behavior and returns the tinySA to regular operation
- HARMONIC switches to a marker configuration for measuring the level of harmonics of a signal
- OIP3 switches to a marker configuration for measuring the Output IP3 level of a signal
- PHASE NOISE switches to a marker configuration for measuring phase noise of a signal
- SNR switches to a marker configuration for SNR measurement
- -3dB WIDTH switches to a marker configuration for -3dB width measurement.
- OCCUPIED WIDTH requests a dBc level and continuously measures the occupied width of the displayed strongest signal at the specified dBc level
- AM sets various settings to optimize observations of an AM modulated signal
- FM sets various settings to optimize observations of an FM modulated signal
- THD enables the measurement of the THD defined as the percentage of energy in the harmonics versus the energy in the fundamental as visible in the scan.
- CHANNEL POWER enables ACP and channel power measurement.
- LINEAR steps the internal attenuator through all attenuation levels and draws a green line showing the measured maximum level for each attenuation setting.
- NOISE FIGURE submenu with functions related to NOISE FIGURE measurements
  - MEASURE TINYSA NF measures the tinySA NOISE FIGURE at the specified frequency.
  - STORE TINYSA NF stores the measured NOISE FIGURE.
  - VALIDATE TINYSA NF validates the correctness of the measurement.
  - MEASURE AMP NF measures the NOISE FIGURE of an amplifier.
STORAGE various SD card storage related functions.
- LOAD CAPTURE loads a previously saved screen image
- LOAD SETTINGS loads previously saved settings
- LOAD CMD loads and executes a command file
- LOAD CONFIG loads a previously saved config
- AUTO NAME enables automatic naming of saved files using date and time.
- SAVE CAPTURE saves a capture of the screen
- SAVE SETTINGS saves the current settings
- SAVE CONFIG saves the current configuration
- MHz CSV when enabled sets the format of saved traces to be compatible with many wireless microphone management softwares
- SAVE TRACES saves the enabled traces
CONFIG activates the configuration menu.
- TOUCH activates the touch sub menu
  - TOUCH CAL enables the calibration of the touch panel. The results are stored in NVM.
  - TOUCH TEST is used to verify touch calibration.
- SELF TEST performs a self test after a cable is used to connect the CAL and RF connectors
- LEVEL CAL is used to calibrate the power measurement levels.
  - CALIBRATE 100kHz to 5.34GHz uses the CAL output for level calibration.
  - CALIBRATE above 5.34GHz requires an external 5.34GHz signal to remove the harmonic step at 5.34GHz
  - RESET CALIBRATION resets the calibration to factory defaults.
- VERSION shows the SW version information. Touch screen to return to menu.
- SPUR REMOVAL activates the two spur removal mechanisms.
- SAMPLE REP sets the number of repeat measurements at each frequency.
- BRIGHTNESS allows the use of the jog switch to change the brightness of the display
- DATE TIME sets the date and time. The tinySA Ultra will remember the time and date as long as the battery is charged
  - SET TIME sets the time.
  - SET DATE sets the date.
- PULSE HIGH enables a trigger signal from the CAL output at the start of each low input sweep.
- LO OUTPUT enables the output of the first LO through the CAL connector
- ENABLE ULTRA enables ultra mode input and output.
- MINIMUM GRID LINES sets the minimum grid lines to show, set to zero for always 10 grids
- JOG STEP set the frequency step when using the jog switch
- CLEAR CONFIG enter 1234 to reset the configuration to factory defaults.
- CONNECTION activates a sub menu for selecting the connection to the tinySA
  - USB selects the USB interface for connection
  - SERIAL selects the internal serial interface for connection
  - SERIAL SPEED enables the selection of the speed of the serial interface
- LEVEL CORRECTION activates the menu for correcting the input or output level
  - INPUT LEVEL allows calibration of the level reading by entering the known level of the signal under marker 1.
  - OUTPUT LEVEL allows entering of the actual level at some frequencies
    - 30MHz LEVEL allows entering of the actual level of the automatically activated 30MHz low output
    - 1GHz LEVEL allows entering of the actual level of the automatically activated 1GHz low output
    - 1.2GHz LEVEL allows entering of the actual level of the automatically activated 1.2GHz low output
  - IN CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the input level for the 0-800MHz range, see input curve edit
  - IN LNA CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the input level for the 0-800MHz range with LNA active, see input curve edit
  - IN ULTRA CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the input level for the 800MHz-6GHz range, see input curve edit
  - IN ULTRA LNA CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the input level for the 800MHz-6GHz range with LNA active, see input curve edit
  - OUT CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the output level for the 0-800MHz range, see output curve edit
  - OUT DIR CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the output level for the 800-1130MHz range, see output curve edit
  - OUT ADF CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the output level for the 1130-4400MHz range, see output curve edit
  - OUT MIXER CURVE allows entering of frequency dependent correction of the output level for the 1130-5400MHz range, see output curve edit
- HAM BANDS enables the gray shading showing the location of the USA ham bands
- EXPERT CONFIG activates the expert configuration menu
  - PROGRESS BAR controls the display of the green progress bar when scanning is slow.
  - DIRECT MODE enables a special mode for measuring close to the IF frequency, enable this mode if you see spurs at 1 GHz +/- 100 MHz
  - LINEAR AVERAGING This enables linear power averaging which is needed for correctly calculating the total power in a frequency band. Disabling makes the calculations a bit faster make weak signals visible when averaging is enabled.
  - HARMONIC sets the harmonic to use in harmonic mode. Leave at 3 unless you absolutely need to be able to see higher frequencies
  - FREQ CORR sets the correction to be applied to measured or output frequencies in parts per billion
  - NF allows entering the noise figure of the tinySA Ultra
  - DUMP FIRMWARE
  - INTERNALS supports setting some internal parameters. Do not use unless being instructed to do so.

Signal Generator

OUTPUT ON|OFF switches the output ON or OFF
FREQ sets the output frequency. See explanation on frequency slider
LEVEL sets the output level. See explanation of level slider
MOD controls the modulation of the output
- NONE disables the modulation
- AM enables AM modulation
- FM enables FM modulation
- FREQ sets the modulation frequency
- AM DEPTH sets the AM modulation depth when in AM mode
- FM DEVIATION sets the FM deviation when in FM modulation mode
SWEEP controls the sweep function
- SPAN sets the span of the sweep
- LEVEL CHANGE sets the level change over one sweep
- SWEEP TIME sets the sweep time
- SWEEP POINTS sets the number of points of the sweep as 25,50,100,200,290 or 450
START SWEEP starts the sweep when either span or level change has been set.
EXTERNAL GAIN sets the external gain (positive) or attenuation(negative) applied so the displayed level is corrected for this.
OUTPUT allows selection between cleanest signal or highest level and frequency accuracy

Mode switching

MODE activates the mode switching menu.
- Spectrum Analyzer activates the spectrum analyzer using the RF port for input
- Signal Generator activates the signal generator using the RF port for output
- Calibration Output controls the build in calibration reference generator using the CAL port for output.