what is the difference between the IFR 1200 S and the IFR 1500 ?

[FO4MM]

Hi 2 all,

I have an opportunity to buy one of these service monitor for good price.
But i do not have any experience with these test instruments so, I will greatly appreciate if someone could tell me what is the differnce
between the 1200 S/1500 ??

Thank you very much

[AA4HA]

The S has a spectrum analyzer built in but no menus. It is dials and knobs and perfectly servicable. The 1500 makes extensive use of menus to do things but may not have a spectrum analyzer.

[W9GB]

Parts availability (service) is better for 1200 series vs. 1500 series.

Kurt Gruber at KG Electronics in Wichita, KS would tell you to get the IFR-1200S.
He will work on 1500 series, but parts availability may prevent some repairs.
http://www.kgelectronics.com/

KG Electronics
Wichita, Kansas
+1 (316) 773-0948
+1 (316) 992-4441 Mobile.phone

Kurt Gruber's electronics workbench experience includes over 7 years at IFR working only on the IFR-1200 and IFR-500 models.  He has extensive parts supply for these 2 models.
He has over 20 years of experience as a service tech and estimates that he has repaired over 1000 IFR units (majority being 1200 and 500 models).  Common problems with a service monitor can be usually diagnosed in a matter of minutes, rather than hours or days.
Kurt makes no secret that he "Loves these IFR service monitors!".
I picked up a broken IFR-500A last year (20 years in field service), because I knew Kurt could sort out the issues.
It looks factory new!!  His backlog is usually 3 weeks.

IF you own an IFR-500 with an SN of 5000 or above, or a IFR-1200S with an SN of 10000 or above, it should have had all the bugs or minor flaws eliminated and you have a field tested box for well over 10 years.
Obviously, I would prefer to have a 1200 Super S. If you are fortunate to find one at a decent price, BUY IT!.

[KL0S]

The 1500 does have a spectrum analyzer. One word of caution - the analog signal generator attenuators in the 1500 are prone to failure. I found out mine had a problem one day when doing a SINAD test on a receiver and the meter was jumping all over the place. I had (then) IFR replace the analog attenuator with the digital electronic version after talking to Weinshel, the attenuator manufacturer. They told me that IFR specified the manufacture even after Weinshel told them there would be problems.

YMMV but I wouldn't buy a 1500 again with an analog attenuator...if you do make sure you get some kind of at least short-term warranty until you can determine it's working properly (problem is that it may fail unexpectedly...not a pretty sight at all).

Also be prepared to change out the CPU memory battery which isn't hard to do. The pix on the repeater builder website are from my battery replacement:

http://www.repeater-builder.com/test-equipment/aeroflex/aeroflex-index.html

see the 1500 documentation section.

73 - Dino KL0S

[FO4MM]

OK; thank you guys for all the infos.

73 de F04MM