Rohde & Schwarz EB200 Miniport Receiver

Description

Rhode & Schwarz EB200 Miniport superset receiver manufactured in Germany.  The EB200 is a full spectrum "DC to Daylight" unit capable of continuously scanning and receiving from 10 KHz in the Longwave spectrum up to 3 GHz.  This receiver is used as a base station, or with its battery pack, as a portable TSCM unit.  TSCM (Technical Surveillance Counter Measure) receivers are designed to operate on a wide swath of frequencies. As a base station, the receiver serves as a "do all" unit, and with the proper antennas attached, is capable of hearing most anything analog within its receiving range.  In fact, the battery pack allows this receiver to be used for lab applications, general listening, remote listening, or for use during emergencies.
This is a nice package for someone wanting a top quality lab receiver with TSCM capabilities that looks great and performs as nice as it appears.
Cosmetically, the receiver is used and in excellent condition with the exception of a decal and imprints on the top of the faceplate bezel verifying that the receiver was within compliance with laboratory standards.  The EB200 was acquired from private hands so it had been removed from laboratory / government use a few years ago.  These EB200's were an expensive investment at over ,500 when sold over the past decade or so. This unit does not have the optional shoulder sling hardware installed which is nice to see, as many of these were used in the field and banged around. This one looks like it spent all its life on a bench.
The EB200 comes with AC power cord adapter (also used as a battery charge cord), front panel clear overlay (shown in front panel picture with receiver off), and battery pack.  The supplied battery pack snaps on the bottom of the receiver and holds two rechargeable metal hydride batteries.
Note, the two NiMH batteries are towards the end of their useful life and can easily be replaced.
In addition, the EB200 comes with a copy of the user pocket guide (quick start manual), a variety of documents outlining the functions, features, and specs for the receiver, plus a factory CD containing the user manual.  This is a nice package for this receiving unit, and as it currently equipped, enables the user to have a wonderful base station, a nice emergency receiver, or a portable receiver for electronic counter measures.
Operationally, the receiver works just wonderfully.  It is designed with continuously running BITE (built-in test equipment).  When you power the receiver on, it takes a few seconds to cycle through its BITE which displays the results on the front panel.  The user then escapes this initial screen to begin receiving signals, but the BITE operates in the background and is designed to notify the user of any deviation from nominal with an output code informing of the type of fault.  During testing, the unit displayed clear BITE diagnostics and was very sensitive across a wide swath of frequencies.  You can see the BITE screen in the picture at the top of this listing.
Admittedly, we do not possess either the antenna or signals for testing above 500 MHz, but it is believed that the receiver will operate without flaw in these higher frequencies considering the BITE and the fact that there was no indication of being subpar with anything else on any of the lower frequencies.  The frequencies tested by us included those in the longwave, mediumwave, short wave, FM, VHF, and UHF bands and the corresponding modes for the various signals received up and down the frequency scales.  This was comprehensive testing to get a feel for the receiver, its capabilities, and its operations.
The EB200 is a receiver that is rich in user controls.  Many of these controls and operations are not readily apparent due to the menus which hide less commonly used operations and controls from view as ingeniously devised by the engineers at Rhode & Schwarz.  The user has a variety of bandwidths which include those for standard listening across the various modes or wide bandwidths for signal location when "sniffing" for bugs.
To summarize, the EB200 is an extremely compact, versatile, and reliable precision monitoring receiver that covers virtually any known frequencies and listening modes that you would want to utilize for hearing those man-made signals.  The fact that it can be powered remotely for a few hours on the battery pack and can be used (with a directional antenna) for electronic bug detection only further enhances this capability.  Few receivers can monitor the unbroken DC to daylight spectrum and even fewer still can do so using a battery pack for remote listening.  The EB200 is manufactured to exacting technical standards and displays a minimal of drift or internal noise and so it is a receiver of choice for those people wanting something of extraordinary quality and are willing to invest the money for this precision lab quality unit.