Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Alan Wolke W2AEW Explains the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) (Video)



I told Alan that his video on VNAs was -- for me -- very timely.  The video popped up on YouTube on the day than my NanoVNA was being delivered.  TRGHS. 

 Alan does a great job in explaining what the VNA does.  Particularly useful for me was his explanation of the VNA's ability to measure phase differences (through the use of directional couplers).  

 I am having fun with my NanoVNA, happily measuring SWR and the bandpass characteristics of various filters.  Mine came with what looks like a guitar pick -- this is used as a stylus to hit the small boxes on the touch-screen.  A nice touch...   

 I wish there was some good software for use with this VNA.  Apparently the nice software described by Joe Smith (yesterday's blog post) is quite expensive.  Is there a free alternative out there? 
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5 comments:

  1. TonyJune 10, 2020 at 3:19 PM

    "NanoVNASaver" is brilliant.

    https://github.com/mihtjel/nanovna-saver

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 11, 2020 at 9:44 AM

    There is a Community version that is a free download, maybe Joe's program works with that. No VNA in my toolbox, so I don't know. Worth a look. Ed KC8SBV

    ReplyDelete
  3. KenJune 11, 2020 at 8:01 PM

    Nanovna sharp works for me and it's free and intuitive to use.

    G4IIB

    ReplyDelete
  4. KenJune 11, 2020 at 8:03 PM

    I got nanovna# from github

    ReplyDelete
  5. N6GRGAugust 23, 2020 at 10:43 PM

    Yes VNASAVER is great but, doing al the things you can do with the saver Without the saver is challenging. I love the Nano, got the 4 version, need to work with it more, saw a great issue of QST using a T and coax and a capacitor to tune an antenna, and most importantly,,relied on the Smith Chart to do it. Not sure they had NanoVNA when this came out though, now with a dynamic smith chart you can do amazing things. The article was in feb 202 qst page 43

    ReplyDelete