Oscilloscope help - new to using

[Big Kahuna]

I've got a 60mhz Oscilloscope and was interested in starting to look at modulation waveforms. I wanted to get more information on how to pick up the signals for AM and SSB.

I've been told to just take some wire and coil it around my coax a couple of inches behind the transmitter. Then connect my probe to the X channel and connect the aligator clips from my probe to each end of the wire that's coiled around the coax.

I'm still learning how to use the oscilloscope but this worked to far and I understand the measuring process for AM.

For SSB you're supposed to see a trapezoid? Do I need to change something in my setup to be able to view the SSB waveform? On the videos I saw online it just looks like a trapezoid and as they increase or decrease modulation it gets bigger or smaller.

Do I need demodulator equipment or all that stuff or will my wire coiled around the coax work to pick up everything I need to measure?

I suspect doing all this is easier with a tone generator.. can you use a tone generator held up to a microphone - I think I found one online?

 

[dudmuck]

You mention the X channel coupled to RF, but I dont see where you mention Y channel.

The Y channel must have your microphone audio, or whatever audio is fed to transmitter.
Your o-scope must be in X-Y mode.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Okay - I'm not sure I follow.

Here a picture of what I did. I'm getting a good waveform on AM and SSB and on one radio I could see some clipping but the clipping didn't go away till the mod was like at 50%. When I was at 100% I could see the clipping but everyone said my audio was loud and clear and not overdriven?

 

[dudmuck]

you got half of it there, just put your audio into the other channel.
Oscilloscope Measurement Methods

 

[Moleculo]

If you want to view the trapezoidal measurement, you have to add the audio, as dudmuck pointed out. You need a an RF demodulator to do that. Something like this is fairly inexpensive and will do the trick:

You can order it here:

RF Sampler | RF Demodulator | AM Modulation Monitor | Products