We present the technical details of a broadband microwave spectrometer for
measuring the complex conductance of thin films covering the range from 50 MHz
up to 16 GHz in the temperature range 300 mK to 6 K and at applied magnetic
fields up to 8 Tesla. We measure the complex reflection from a sample
terminating a coaxial transmission line and calibrate the signals with three
standards with known reflection coefficients. Thermal isolation of the heat
load from the inner conductor is accomplished by including a section of NbTi
superconducting cable (transition temperature around 8 β 9 K) and hermetic
seal glass bead adapters. This enables us to stabilize the base temperature of
the sample stage at 300 mK. However, the inclusion of this superconducting
cable complicates the calibration procedure. We document the effects of the
superconducting cable on our calibration procedure and the effects of applied
magnetic fields and how we control the temperature with great repeatability for
each measurement. We have successfully extracted reliable data in this
frequency, temperature and field range for thin superconducting films and
highly resistive graphene samples