One note on calibration. You want to calibrated as close to the antenna as possible as it will remove any errors introduced by the leads. After calibration it's good practice to check if the Open/Short/50ohm plots look good. Whenever you change ANYTHING recalibrate and recheck. This includes replacing leads, moving leads, starting a new measurement, etc. Another thing to keep in mind is that the RF connectors are fragile and have a very limited amount of mating cycles, sometimes only 1000. Adding and removing the calibration caps is one cycle each. Best practice is to mound leads to the VNA to reduce wear on the VNA connectors. This might not worry you much on a €60,- machine but will be important when using a professional VNA.
I just borrowed one of these testers and needed a quick tutorial to test my home made antennas. Your video was perfect - not too much not too little - just what was needed. I will link it to my club page, thank you.
When you have to snip a brand new antenna, being able to see that V curve helps so much. This is so far ahead of the old SWR Meters. I like to calibrate a little wider than the band, move the marker to the center of the band and save it on zero. That way it starts up ready to go. Also I just started using the extension lead so stiff cable doesn't tear the SMA port out of the board. Just have to calibrate at the end of the extension.😀
I got the top model with big UHF connectors, 4 inch screen 3000mah battery full steel case. Heavy cables and calibration kit. Upto 3ghz. Amazing results.
great video and very informative. I make homebrews for scanning enthusiasts under the name of Broadsword Antennas ( you may have come across some of my stuff) Currently use an expensive analyser but it only covers 133 to 560mhz so this is a very interesting product and will be buying one. Thanks for the video
Why not calibrate the feeder out? Then you will see the antenna alone, and if wished a Smith plot of antenna alone. Actually, a VNA is unnecessary just to get a VSWR sweep, as a scalar anaylser will do it.
Do you have a link to where you bought this one please? looking on eBay and it's a minefield as they have generic pictures. I have just sent an e-mail to you if you would rather reply there than post it on here.
Hi Dale this is the one I have purchased it does come with the battery, shielding and calibration kit www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-900MHz-Vector-Network-Analyzer-Nano-VNA-Kit-MF-Antenna-Analyzer-Meter-Tester/153637127219?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=453658403821&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
What happens if impedance is different? I have a cell phone signal booster. It works at 50ohm impedance. But coax is 75ohm. What would happen in long term or short term?
I ORDERRED THIS DEVICE TO YESTARDAY, I HAVE LIKE 40 DIY ANTENNAS THAT WORK SUPERGOOD, BUT SOME NOT SO THAT WHERE THIS DEVICE WILL COME IN, I THINK TO CHANGE SOME PARTS ON IT LOOKING TO YOUR VIDEO and WOW, this Item for THAT price is soo good, can`t believe it will arive like that! i just can`t wait to test my antennas that im listening to emergency police radios from and to see how good actually is my 17 meter antenna, with 17 meter i mean its 17 meters up in the sky on my 3th Floor Roof, Thats The Last Floor Of My Private House,Its 1M - 3M Antenna Actuallt Im using A Boafeng AND An Sdr's, soon i will make a Workshop For My CZcams Channel Where I Will make EVERYTHING , I Will Show How To Sufvive On A Minimalism And How To Make Stuff That Actually Works From Random Items And For Noise Reasons I Will bring All My radio Equipment There To Because In My Garage Doest Have Any Electric Items Now On, But There Will be, But When I Will Work With radios, All Will be Disconected, Here In The House I Just Can`t Deal With That Thing, In House I WIll Make Studio At The Same Time Because My Workshope IS in the House Now, But I Will Move It To A garage And The Room Where The Workshop Was I Will Make That Studio For Beatmaking, Music Making And Video Making And Videogame Streamiung And Just Chilling Place,m Like A Real mancave, I Will Make A Car Simulator To From Wood Frame From Logitech Steering Wheel And Pedals And A Shifter, I Will Make It So realistic, I Will Put A Vibrator Motors In The Chair Of The Car, I have A Real Vibrating Chair And I WIll Use Motors From That Vhair To My Simulator :) The Simulator Will be Suspended On Springs ANd Rubber So You Will Feel The Vibrations Much Better Because If The Simulator is On The Ground, The Hround Will Take Most of The Vibrations :) Soo jheah, Best of That, I Will Videotape Everything i do there soo, You Might Wana Subscribe If You Are In To That Kind Of Stuff, Ohh, Yes, Im making Antennas To :) A LOT OF THEM And This Device Will Be A Life Saver For Me :)
@@paul.alarner6410 People are dumb these days. You gotta watch out for the Village Idiots that go on Forums and think they know what they are talking about on a said project. They have no idea about anything relevant to the conversation. Like today I just wanted to know what oil to run in my transfer case on my truck. Wow half of the people didn't know what they are talking about, and it floods the search with the wrong results and the wrong info.
A LOT OF MISTAKES !!! How do not to use a VNA. First - It is clear it is not calibrated at all: after the procedure the zero port is open but the marker on the Smith chart is far from the right end. Second - You can not test an antenna sweeping the VNA from 50 kHz to 900 MHz: it measure on 101 points and it means there are 9 MHz between a point frequency and the next one or the previous one. If you need a measuring on a so large bandwidht, you have to use Nano VNA and VNAsaver togheter setting "segments" function. Third - Nano VNA generates about 0.1 mW of RF on zero port and an installed antenna... No, I leave to you to discover why it is a mistake to use a VNA to measure the SWR (or RL) on an installed antenna. Go to study before publishing a video and you will understand that and a lot of other things spreading less wrong infos.
Great tool with many applications to comer. But you will never control all this from a flimsy the touch panel. We should ditch the display and connect this to a chromebook via USB.
Cool! I didn't think about checking resonant frequencies without defining a band width. For a single band I like to setup up the start and stop frequencies 2 points wider for example if the actual start of my band is 26.965 Id set it to 25.000 and do the same on the stop or high end of the band. That way you actually see the V curve the SRW has. Without doing that you see pretty much a flat line usually favoring one side of the other.
These will get you in the ball park, this nanovna only shoots a 1/4 of a watt into the antenna to check for reflect and resonance. Now throw 1000 to 5000 watts thru that antenna system and see if the swrs change any. Just sayin'
How dare you even suggest this piece of garbage?! Cheap Chinese junk! It can only do 2/3 of things my Tek TTR500 can do! And my TTR500 was only $14,000! If you can't even afford a small price of $14,000, why do you even bother? Radios are for rich people only, get your easily affordable products outta here! I'm kidding, of course, but I see a lot of folks that rag on inexpensive gear just because it's not top shelf and this is how they sound to me as a beginner ham and not very rich person lol. Also I have no clue what a TTR500 can or cannot do, it was just the first model I found on Google.
One note on calibration. You want to calibrated as close to the antenna as possible as it will remove any errors introduced by the leads.
After calibration it's good practice to check if the Open/Short/50ohm plots look good.
Whenever you change ANYTHING recalibrate and recheck. This includes replacing leads, moving leads, starting a new measurement, etc.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the RF connectors are fragile and have a very limited amount of mating cycles, sometimes only 1000.
Adding and removing the calibration caps is one cycle each. Best practice is to mound leads to the VNA to reduce wear on the VNA connectors.
This might not worry you much on a €60,- machine but will be important when using a professional VNA.
Ideally you calibrate with terminations at the feedpoint, but that's a little impractical (yet can be done if you want the extra work.)
I just borrowed one of these testers and needed a quick tutorial to test my home made antennas. Your video was perfect - not too much not too little - just what was needed. I will link it to my club page, thank you.
Good basic overview. Thanks.
When you have to snip a brand new antenna, being able to see that V curve helps so much. This is so far ahead of the old SWR Meters.
I like to calibrate a little wider than the band, move the marker to the center of the band and save it on zero. That way it starts up ready to go. Also I just started using the extension lead so stiff cable doesn't tear the SMA port out of the board. Just have to calibrate at the end of the extension.😀
Love mine for antenna work.
Got one works well have read online some say they don't have a battery or come missing the extras mine came with a little stylus as well
Thanks for the info!.
Well done, dude.
I got the top model with big UHF connectors, 4 inch screen 3000mah battery full steel case. Heavy cables and calibration kit. Upto 3ghz. Amazing results.
Can you check the gain of the antenna ?
How do I set the range ?
even though it says 396mhz you should probably change the start/stop stimulus range to zoom in to get better accuracy
Right! ...and it is not the sole mistake. Check my comment
Very useful thanks
Great info cheers
Just note... the measurement was done including feed line which could make impact in case of high frequencies. Cheers.
great video and very informative. I make homebrews for scanning enthusiasts under the name of Broadsword Antennas ( you may have come across some of my stuff) Currently use an expensive analyser but it only covers 133 to 560mhz so this is a very interesting product and will be buying one. Thanks for the video
The latest one can go upto 1.5ghz I think there might even be firmware to extend to 3ghz but could be wrong
Love your antennas Darren! Got 3 of em!
Why not calibrate the feeder out? Then you will see the antenna alone, and if wished a Smith plot of antenna alone. Actually, a VNA is unnecessary just to get a VSWR sweep, as a scalar anaylser will do it.
8 months in - would you say this is worth its weight as a tool for the budding antenna maker - Cheers
Yea, is it?
Do you have a link to where you bought this one please? looking on eBay and it's a minefield as they have generic pictures. I have just sent an e-mail to you if you would rather reply there than post it on here.
Hi Dale this is the one I have purchased it does come with the battery, shielding and calibration kit www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-900MHz-Vector-Network-Analyzer-Nano-VNA-Kit-MF-Antenna-Analyzer-Meter-Tester/153637127219?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=453658403821&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Doesn't it have a touch screen? Also, you should look at SWR and impedance of the antenna. You want your SWR as close to 1.00 as possible (
What happens if impedance is different? I have a cell phone signal booster. It works at 50ohm impedance. But coax is 75ohm. What would happen in long term or short term?
Is there a reason you didn't put your trace into SWR mode?
To conjure you
Can Nano VNA be used to measure the resonant frequency of RFID antenna
A think so yeah
I ORDERRED THIS DEVICE TO YESTARDAY, I HAVE LIKE 40 DIY ANTENNAS THAT WORK SUPERGOOD, BUT SOME NOT SO THAT WHERE THIS DEVICE WILL COME IN, I THINK TO CHANGE SOME PARTS ON IT LOOKING TO YOUR VIDEO and WOW, this Item for THAT price is soo good, can`t believe it will arive like that! i just can`t wait to test my antennas that im listening to emergency police radios from and to see how good actually is my 17 meter antenna, with 17 meter i mean its 17 meters up in the sky on my 3th Floor Roof, Thats The Last Floor Of My Private House,Its 1M - 3M Antenna Actuallt Im using A Boafeng AND An Sdr's, soon i will make a Workshop For My CZcams Channel Where I Will make EVERYTHING , I Will Show How To Sufvive On A Minimalism And How To Make Stuff That Actually Works From Random Items And For Noise Reasons I Will bring All My radio Equipment There To Because In My Garage Doest Have Any Electric Items Now On, But There Will be, But When I Will Work With radios, All Will be Disconected, Here In The House I Just Can`t Deal With That Thing, In House I WIll Make Studio At The Same Time Because My Workshope IS in the House Now, But I Will Move It To A garage And The Room Where The Workshop Was I Will Make That Studio For Beatmaking, Music Making And Video Making And Videogame Streamiung And Just Chilling Place,m Like A Real mancave, I Will Make A Car Simulator To From Wood Frame From Logitech Steering Wheel And Pedals And A Shifter, I Will Make It So realistic, I Will Put A Vibrator Motors In The Chair Of The Car, I have A Real Vibrating Chair And I WIll Use Motors From That Vhair To My Simulator :) The Simulator Will be Suspended On Springs ANd Rubber So You Will Feel The Vibrations Much Better Because If The Simulator is On The Ground, The Hround Will Take Most of The Vibrations :) Soo jheah, Best of That, I Will Videotape Everything i do there soo, You Might Wana Subscribe If You Are In To That Kind Of Stuff, Ohh, Yes, Im making Antennas To :) A LOT OF THEM And This Device Will Be A Life Saver For Me :)
Thanks
Can you get a BNC adapter for checking most scanner antennas ?
Yes
where can you attach a counterpoise?
@@paul.alarner6410 People are dumb these days. You gotta watch out for the Village Idiots that go on Forums and think they know what they are talking about on a said project. They have no idea about anything relevant to the conversation. Like today I just wanted to know what oil to run in my transfer case on my truck. Wow half of the people didn't know what they are talking about, and it floods the search with the wrong results and the wrong info.
Thank you very clear video.
A LOT OF MISTAKES !!! How do not to use a VNA.
First - It is clear it is not calibrated at all: after the procedure the zero port is open but the marker on the Smith chart is far from the right end.
Second - You can not test an antenna sweeping the VNA from 50 kHz to 900 MHz: it measure on 101 points and it means there are 9 MHz between a point frequency and the next one or the previous one. If you need a measuring on a so large bandwidht, you have to use Nano VNA and VNAsaver togheter setting "segments" function.
Third - Nano VNA generates about 0.1 mW of RF on zero port and an installed antenna... No, I leave to you to discover why it is a mistake to use a VNA to measure the SWR (or RL) on an installed antenna.
Go to study before publishing a video and you will understand that and a lot of other things spreading less wrong infos.
Mine came without case or battery!!
Hi Graham yes I have seen there are some cheaper units that come without the battery etc,
@@UKAFG It was £40 so about what you paid.
yeah mine too lol
Great tool with many applications to comer. But you will never control all this from a flimsy the touch panel. We should ditch the display and connect this to a chromebook via USB.
Cool! I didn't think about checking resonant frequencies without defining a band width.
For a single band I like to setup up the start and stop frequencies 2 points wider for example if the actual start of my band is 26.965 Id set it to 25.000 and do the same on the stop or high end of the band. That way you actually see the V curve the SRW has. Without doing that you see pretty much a flat line usually favoring one side of the other.
These will get you in the ball park, this nanovna only shoots a 1/4 of a watt into the antenna to check for reflect and resonance. Now throw 1000 to 5000 watts thru that antenna system and see if the swrs change any. Just sayin'
You're not going to get a 5000watt Vna !!😂😂
How dare you even suggest this piece of garbage?! Cheap Chinese junk! It can only do 2/3 of things my Tek TTR500 can do! And my TTR500 was only $14,000! If you can't even afford a small price of $14,000, why do you even bother? Radios are for rich people only, get your easily affordable products outta here!
I'm kidding, of course, but I see a lot of folks that rag on inexpensive gear just because it's not top shelf and this is how they sound to me as a beginner ham and not very rich person lol. Also I have no clue what a TTR500 can or cannot do, it was just the first model I found on Google.