Will this work for am/FM signal generator

Wanting to learn to tune am fm circuits. Am fm signal generators and pretty expensive. Would this signal generator do what I need. It has the frequency range that am and fm use.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ohmatsu_leader_signal_generator_l.html

I'd say no. I'm pretty sure that generator has only AM modulation capability, so you couldn't do anything very useful with FM IF or detector stages.

I don't know whether you aspire to work on FM stereo, but that needs yet another set of capabilities that won't be found in a general purpose generator.

Cheers,

chazix

chazix said:

I'd say no. I'm pretty sure that generator has only AM modulation capability, so you couldn't do anything very useful with FM IF or detector stages.

I don't know whether you aspire to work on FM stereo, but that needs yet another set of capabilities that won't be found in a general purpose generator.

Cheers,

chazix

Click to expand...

That is my plan to work on am and fm. Guess I'll keep an eye on ebay and try to find a good am fm generator. Any suggestions?
Thanks

A Sound Technology ST1000A is the classic FM Signal Generator. I use one, works well. Try to find one that has been in use recently.

The best generators will have everything you need in one box. The ST1000A (very good, but expensive and they don't come up for sale that often) and the Sencore SG-165 (just OK, but cheap and common, often need service) are examples of those. The other path is to get any FM generator that covers the range, plus a generator specifically designed for the stereo multiplex function. That would be something like the Leader LSG-231, but they tend to be somewhat rare. There are a bunch of more modern generators that usually ship from Japan and other places, but have very little documentation available. Those would be Kenwood, Kikusui, Meguro and Panasonic, probably a few others as well.

Also, audiophile and better tuners need better grade signal generators like the Sound Technology ST 1000A. The lesser are fine for small table radios and console and compact units. Sometimes, you need better than TV shop grade instruments. And some applications demand them.

I don't know of any high quality generator that has both FM and AM. FM is more critical. You can actually use a function generator for AM as long as puts out 550KHz - 1.6MHz. You can adust the trim caps and coils for max sensitivity and you can simply adust the discriminator for best sound from broadcast AM. The sound is so lo fi that adustment is not critical. Even if you have an excellent tuner like a Sansui TU-X1, the radio stations don't broadcast a high quality signal.

I have an HP 8640b that will get the range to do AM and FM. The HP does not have internal FM stereo capabilities, but it should do OK with the proper external signal generator coupled in. Officially, the HP only does down to 500 khz, but in reality they will do about 445kc on the bottom, which is fine for a typical 455kc AM IF strip. I would agree that damn near anything will do AM alignments though.

I forgot to mention that when using the function generator for AM alignement, I plug it into a frequency counter also, so I can accurately set the frequency. If you have a synthesized signal generator, this isn't necessary.

Thank you for all the input. I will keep an eye out and see what I can find. Feel free if there's any more suggestions, I will keep checking back.