Rugged rackmount recorder captures IF bandwidths up to 560MHz

18th July 2017

Pentek Inc

Alice Matthews

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Datasheet

A new addition has been introduced to Pentek's Talon series of recorders, the Model RTR 2745 rugged rackmount recorder. This newrecorder, optimised for rugged operating environments, increases the bandwidth for record and playback of the Talon Rackmount Series with capability to capture and reproduce signal bandwidths up to 560MHz. The RTR 2745 is a turnkey, wideband recording and playback system that provides real-time capture of RF and IF signals.

With two 3GHz 14-bit A/D converters and built-in digital downconverters (DDCs), the system is suitable for capturing the IF outputs of RF downconverters with bandwidths as high as 600MHz. Selectable DDC tuning frequencies allow the RTR 2745 to accommodate a broad range of IF outputs.

“The RTR 2745 was designed to complement the wideband IF outputs of the latest RF downconverters,” stated Chris Tojeira, Product Director of Recording Systems. “With high speed, high dynamic range A/Ds and D/As, this system is our first to provide extremely wide bandwidth recording with matching playback.”

The DDCs provide a fixed decimation of four with selectable tuning frequencies to fs/2. This provides excellent flexibility when trying to match the IF of a selected wideband RF downconverter.

Two output channels with 2.8 GHz 16-bit D/Asand matching digital upconverters (DUCs) provide a fixed interpolation of 4 to allow for precise signal reproduction of recorded signals.

The 3GHz A/Ds can operate without the digital downconverters to provide an extremely wide baseband capture. The system offers flexible sample rates ranging from 1.5-3.0GHz. The RTR 2745 offers a storage capacity up to 61TB, utilising up to 32 hot-swappable solid-state drives (SSDs) that can be easily removed or exchanged during a mission to retrieve recorded data extends.

All Talon recorders are built on a Windows 7 Professional workstation and include Pentek’s SystemFlow software, featuring a GUI (graphical user interface), signal viewer, and API (Application Programming Interface). The GUI provides intuitive controls for out-of-the-box turn-key operation using point-and-click configuration management. Configurations are easily stored and recalled for single-click setup. User settings to configure data format for the signal viewer provide a virtual oscilloscope and spectrum analyser to monitor signals before, during and after data collection. The C-callable API allows users to integrate the recorder control into larger application systems. Enhancements to the GUI allow more efficient configuration of the recording channels.

The data format used for storage follows the NTFS standard, allowing users to remove drives from the instrument and read the data using standard Windows-based systems, eliminating the need for file format conversion.