Amazon Antenna Analyzer

[jonwienke]

Amazon.com: Vector Network Analyzer, Elikliv Mini HF VHF UHF Antenna Analyzer with 10KHz-1.5GHz 2.8 Inch Digital LCD Display Touching Screen Standing Wave Measuring Instrument: Home Audio & Theater

Amazon.com: Vector Network Analyzer, Elikliv Mini HF VHF UHF Antenna Analyzer with 10KHz-1.5GHz 2.8 Inch Digital LCD Display Touching Screen Standing Wave Measuring Instrument: Home Audio & Theater

www.amazon.com

I'm not expecting it to be super-accurate, just something to check antenna tuning reasonably well on a limited budget. Thumbs up or down?

 

[BM82557]

I've been looking at something similar if not identical on Walmart -

Portable Handheld Vector Network Analyzer 50KHz-900MHz Digital Display Touching Screen Shortwave MF HF VHF UHF Antenna Analyzer Standing - Walmart.com

 

[jonwienke]

Probably the same manufacturer, unless one is a clone of the other.

 

[cmdrwill]

I wonder how good they work? The Wallymart one looks good to me. I probably do not another antenna tester.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

The RTL-SDR.com site has some good information and reviews about this type of product.

Search Results nanovna

Hackaday also has some good information.

NanoVNA Is A $50 Vector Network Analyzer

There was a time when oscilloscopes were big and expensive. Now you can get scopes of various sizes and capabilities on nearly any budget. Vector network analyzers — VNAs — haven’…

hackaday.com

Very impressive for the price.

 

[vagrant]

Per the Oct. 4 2019 post SteveSimpkin linked, it appears there will be an upgraded 2.0 version going up to 3 GHz in early 2020 for around the same price point. I'll give that one a try when it comes up on Amazon Prime.

 

[jonwienke]

It probably won't be until then that I will be able to justify the purchase anyway.

 

[Ubbe]

If you consider the cost for a color display and LiPo battery, there's not much left for the rest of the hardware and software from that $40. It got a 40dB dynamic. It probably overloads easy if connected to an outside antenna?

/Ubbe

 

[mancow]

Check out the nanovna-user group on groups.io. There is a wealth of info there.

I have one and they work great.

 

[jonwienke]

Looks like it's getting added to my wish list then.

 

[mancow]

The nano-saver software makes it a fully functional piece of lab equipment.

 

[ladn]

Check out the nanovna-user group on groups.io. There is a wealth of info there.

I have one and they work great.

I recently picked one up as well. The io user group is very helpful as are some of the YouTube videos.

 

[jonwienke]

Well, I got one, and it seems to be pretty decent for the price. The biggest gripe I have with it is that the display settings are tied to calibration, so if you change a scaling parameter, you have to recalibrate to save your screen settings, or you lose them when you reboot. So far it gets a thumbs-up.

 

[chief21]

I'm somewhat turned off with these inexpensive testers from far-away places. Last year, I purchased one of those slick, digital SWR/Power meters which worked great... until about 4 months later when it didn't. Emails to the vendor and manufacturer have gone unanswered.

 

[jonwienke]

Vendor/mfr support for this sort of stuff is typically crap or non-existent. But OTOH you can buy several, have all but one fail, and still be a lot cheaper off than most other options. So far mine has been working as expected. [fingers crossed]

 

[KE5MC]

I picked up one about a week ago. New firmware load available Nov 25th. Mine came with a May load and no shield adjacent to the two SMA connectors. Upgrade to firmware is not difficult, but requires putting device in DFU mode by shorting two pad on edge of PCB before next power on. Looks like the reflowed copper outline in the PCB is present, but no shield in place. I'm thinking I can cobble up something as a shield. Bare buss wire soldered to the outline making sure the gage is taller that the parts on the PCB. Then a thin sheet of copper over the outline and soldered to the buss wire. Not as good as the real deal, but better than nothing. Really not sure if I would be a to tell the difference.

 

[jonwienke]

It's good enough as-is to give you a detailed idea of your antenna performance and do a reasonably good job of tuning a duplexer, which is all I need it to do.

 

[ladn]

I purchased one last week as well. I found a fairly active support community at groups.io.
Nothing in electronics is ever easy. After purchasing the VNA, I found I also needed to purchase a set of SMA adapters from Amazon.

I'm still getting comfortable using it. I've found the screen a tad hard to see and navigate when I try to set marker points. Using it with a laptop PC and external software is much easier.

 

[KE5MC]

Old school PDA stylus helps with screen navigation, if you can find one.

 

[ladn]

Old school PDA stylus helps with screen navigation, if you can find one.

YES it does! I've also used the push button end of a ball point pen.