We pulled both the power supply and the harmonic generator from the remote rack and tested them in the lab, together with spare supply and spare generator. We used a spare 9.1MHz source on the bench.
In the lab, regardless of the combinations (supply and generator), 45MHz thing was clean.
In the rack, we tested the original generator with spare and original supply, with 9.1MHz source coming from the distributor in the rack. In both of the cases there were huge 45+-2MHz-ish humps.
Evan reported in the past that using IFR at the rack didn't change the results, so we didn't bother to look at 9.1MHz source.
In all of these test cases both in the lab and rack, the only thing connected to the harmonic generator was power supply, 9.1MHz source and the network analyzer on 5x output. Everything else was terminated.
We also looked at the supply voltage in the lab. We opened the chassis and used clips to access gnd and +15V test points. Under the load, both of the units didn't show any huge high frequency noise. RMS voltage measured on the scope was about 1mV, which was dominated by some pickup (it got smaller when I hand held the chassis away from the 9.1MHz source). Fil also measured the spectrum and it was within the spec. And anyway, the harmonic generator didn't show any hump in the lab, so the power supply is pretty much exonerated.
Fil put the original units back in.
Rich, yes. I took measurements of some of the other ports of the HG in the CER a few days ago (measurements attached).
001.TXT: 45 MHz output
002.TXT: 27 MHz output
004.TXT: 135 MHz output
005.TXT: 90 MHz output
007.TXT: 36 MHz output
The power supply is a LIGO low noise unit boxed into a standard chassis. More details here. Possible points of investigations: power cable shielding, power decoupling at the generator side, grounding issues.
I went back and looked at the IFR data from a few days ago, and it seems that this may be a problem with the 9 MHz coming from the OCXO. The first attachment shows the output of the harmonic generator when powered from the IFR versus the OCXO. The IFR measurement still has peaks around the 45 MHz, but they are much smaller than with the OCXO.
As a check, Dan and I measured the spectrum directly out of the IFR and out of the OCXO (no distribution amplifier involved). In both cases, the spectrum on either side of 9.1 MHz looks pretty clean, but the OCXO has much worse noise between 0 and 2 MHz, and the shape qualitatively matches the peaks that are seen on the outputs of the harmonic generator.
We also did some related tests, like looking at the 45 MHz spectrum of the spare HG when powered from the 9 MHz distribution amplifier. This spectrum has the same huge peaks as the primary HG.
Keita and I looked at the noise from the ±15 V power supply, but we didn't see anything outrageous. As advised, we ac coupled the spectrum analyzer with 1 nF. The spectrum seemed to be roughly a few hundred nV/Hz1/2 out to a few megahertz, but we found it hard to get a clean measurement.
The direct RF spectrum of the 9.1MHz shows no side lopes at 1-2MHz offset. This describes the total power including both AM and FM sidebands. Odd harmonics generators are typically squaring up the fundamental and then filter out the desired frequency. So, they should be first order insensitive to AM.