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Staff- April 1, 2004
Electro Rent expands Anritsu offerings
Through an agreement with Anritsu (Morgan Hill, CA), Electro Rent (Van Nuys, CA) can now lease the Scorpion family of vector network analyzers to its customers. Electro Rent, which offers short-term rentals and leases of computers and test and measurement instruments, has an inventory of more than 26,000 instruments, including power meters, bit-error rate testers, and signal generators from Anritsu.
The Scorpion family consists of 12 models, covering the 10-MHz to 9-GHz frequency range. The analyzer is available with two to four ports, making it useful for a variety of tasks, including high-volume passive RF test, S-parameter measurements, and balanced/differential measurements. www.electrorent.com.
T&MW announces award winners
At a ceremony held on February 24 during 2004 APEX conference in Anaheim, CA, Test & Measurement World announced the recipients of several test industry awards. After welcoming guests to the celebration, Larry Maloney, publisher of T&MW, recognized the 12 winners of the 2004 Best in Test Awards, which we had announced in our December 2003/January 2004 issue. A representative of each company came to the podium to receive an award plaque from Rick Nelson, T&MW's editor.
Maloney then announced which of the 12 winning products had been selected the 2004 Test Product of the Year by T&MW's readers. This year's winner is the Willtek 9101 handheld spectrum analyzer, a portable instrument that makes RF spectral measurements up to 4.0 GHz, so users no longer need to lug bulky test equipment into the field. Russ Byrd, VP of North American Operations for Willtek, accepted the award plaque from Nelson.
To conclude the ceremony, Maloney announced that Christopher Grachanen has been chosen the Test Engineer of the Year. One of six nominees who were announced in our September 2003 issue, Grachanen was selected by T&MW readers for this honor. Grachanen is manager of the metrology laboratory at Hewlett-Packard in Houston, TX, and his many accomplishments include leading the development of a certification program for calibration technicians.
Nelson presented Grachanen with a medal, and Eric Starkloff of National Instruments (the company that sponsored the award) presented him with a plaque. As the Test Engineer of the Year, Grachanen was given the opportunity to designate engineering programs to receive a total of $20,000 in education grants, courtesy of National Instruments. Grachanen then made some brief remarks to the gathering.
For complete information about the Best in Test Awards program, including profiles of the Test Product of the Year and the Test Engineer of the Year, go to www.tmworld.com/bit.
Economic outlook
Machine vision. DVT (Duluth, GA), a manufacturer of machine-vision products, has announced that its February 2004 bookings and sales were 55% higher than in February 2003. In addition, the company reports that year to date, its sales have grown by more than 37% over last year. www.dvtsensors.com.
Data bus. High-tech market research firm In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ) predicts that the market for devices enabled with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) will experience an annual growth of 18.3% between 2003 and 2008. In-Stat credits the market growth to the continued adoption of USB in consumer electronics and communications and also to the introduction of high-speed USB into PCs and PC peripherals.
Electronic design automation. The EDA Consortium reports that the EDA industry had revenues of $1021 million for Q4 2003, a 13% increase over Q4 2002. The consortium says this is the first quarter since Q1 2001 to show double-digit revenue growth. www.edac.org.
Rohde & Schwarz takes over own sales
Rohde & Schwarz (Munich) has announced that it will begin selling and servicing its own test and measurement products in the US and Canada beginning June 1. Since 1993, Tektronix (Beaverton, OR) has served as Rohde's representative to the test market in these countries.
Rohde & Schwarz does have a US subsidiary based in Columbia, MD, but that division has concentrated on the company's broadcasting and communications products. In 2003, the US division took over the servicing of Rohde's test and measurement equipment, and as of June 1, it will be responsible for selling the equipment as well. www.rohde-schwarz.com.
Agilent supports eBay offerings
Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) has undertaken two programs that help ensure the quality of used test equipment bearing the company's logo. The Advantage Assurance program can give buyers confidence in used equipment purchased through eBay. A person who wants to sell a piece of Agilent equipment through eBay can ship the instrument to Agilent and pay the company to calibrate it. After calibration is complete, the seller posts the instrument for sale on eBay. As part of the agreement, Agilent will ship the instrument directly to the winning bidder. In addition, Agilent will also provide one year of free technical support.
Under the CertiPrime program, Agilent remanufactures its test equipment (usually demo or off-lease units) to bring each instrument up to its latest standards. An instrument gets a production-level calibration, firmware upgrades, and new parts as needed. Agilent delivers CertiPrime used instruments with software and a full set of manuals.
Customers get a 1-year warranty and the same level of support that is given to purchasers of new equipment. Currently, the CertiPrime program covers about 150 models, including Infiniium oscilloscopes, OmniBER communications testers, spectrum analyzers, and microwave instruments. www.agilent.com.
