"Chuck Harris" wrote in message
...
A tracking generator is a sweep generator calibrated to track
to the center frequency of a spectrum analyzer as it sweeps.

Got it?

It is used to display the bandpass characteristics of a network
using a spectrum analyzer.

-Chuck

Exactly. I found the 8556 plug-in, with a range of 20 Hz to 300 kHz, to be
very handy when I was designing lowpass EMI filters (which usually have a
cut-off frequency below 10 kHz or so, and increase in loss to maybe 60 dB by
100 kHz. The tracking generator could give me a quick look at the cutoff and
slope, so I could tweak the circuit in real-time. It's also handy for
acoustics, ultrasonic and vibration testing.

And the 141 has a plotter X & Y output, so you can drive an analog plotter
to trace the curve using a very slow sweep speed.

Ed