Nano VNA 50Hz-900MHz Vector Network Analyzer

I Just bought and received in the post one of these Nano VNA antenna testing units. First impressions is it's a nice little piece of kit. I have tested some of  my 2/70 handy antennas with interesting results! I paid £29 pounds for mine on ebay. I'll report back when I've played some more with it.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1HyScp96w

Interesting looking bit of kit there Gary

I thought the MFJ259 antenna analyser I borrowed from a Ham friend was awesome but a working VNA for just £29!?!? Begs belief!

Looks like I'd struggle with my strongest glasses to read that screen though

Be interesting to see how you get on with it.

All the best,
Victor

Hi Vic,

You have to wonder how the Chinese do this stuff at the prices they achieve, that was delivered as well no additional postage. As you'd expect it came with no instructions whatsoever but a few hours on YouTube last night got me able to pull the basic info out of the system.

The screen isn't too small but I definitely needed my reading glasses to see it properly.

For £29 quid you can't go far wrong. The readings are pretty much what I would expect so far so I think it's fairly accurate when it's calibrated. I'll pop it on my H.F. Antennas over the next few days and see what that reveals.

73's Gary.

Yeah, sparked my interest

Open source, Chinese manufacture, hence the price. (Usually thousands for a bench VNA!)
Plus no multiple VAT, fat CEO's, board of directors, shareholders & investors (hidden behind "R&D" costs!)

I know, very much "technical" boys toys


That's what has been nice for me with a renewed interest in radio, seem to be firing on all neurons once again!

Go on Vic, you know you wan't to bud, perhaps you can teach me how to use it properly!

Glad the neurons are fired up again Vic, you'll be back on the phasor and vector diagrams soon enough, not to mention intermodulation products and harmonics!

73's Gary.

Ha, ha!

I wish Gary, I'm a bit more "old school". Unless it's got buttons and knobs, maybe a cathode ray tube, I'm usually at a loss!

However, I have added one of these to my "Christmas list". Who knows, perhaps I can update myself


Good on yer Gary, hope you suss the little b*gger out. If Santa's kind you'll be able to give me some pointers!

All the best mate,
Victor

Nice one Vic,

It looks like it's going to take me until Christmas to fathom it all out but at least for now I can do a nifty SWR sweep, it does show your losses in db as well which is pretty neat! Smith charts though Vic right over my head!!!!

73's Gary.

Yeah, I grabbed one too. Download a copy of NanoVNASharp and run it on a laptop next to the VNA and you get realtime updates on a nice big screen.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IZEtx2YdqchaTO8Aa9QbhQ8g_Pr5iNhr

Many thanks for that Jeff,

73's Gary.

I've got a RigExpert AA-35 analyser which I take with me everywhere, but it's a but more bulky than that. There is also a big difference in build quality and likely durability "in the field" but I am tempted by one of those because it goes up to VHF - I fancy building something outrageous for 446 for my home QTH as 11m is just too noisy.

I have been meaning to get to grips with Smith charts since I first came across them in "HF Antennas for all locations" by Les Moxon 30+ years ago but I am still to get round to that

26TC62 wrote:

I've got a RigExpert AA-35 analyser which I take with me everywhere, but it's a but more bulky than that. There is also a big difference in build quality and likely durability "in the field" but I am tempted by one of those because it goes up to VHF - I fancy building something outrageous for 446 for my home QTH as 11m is just too noisy.

I have been meaning to get to grips with Smith charts since I first came across them in "HF Antennas for all locations" by Les Moxon 30+ years ago but I am still to get round to that

Nice one, I don't think these things are going to be any good in a wet environment most of the electrics are exposed, I just put the Wilson 1000 on a metal bed frame I couldn't be bothered to put it on the car and it measured the lowest point of resonance at 26.300 Mhz. The SWR was over 2 with 6db of loss. I know with sufficient grounding it's spot on but was just messing around. I'm now looking for stuff to measure lols!

73's Gary.

very useful tool 50Hz-1.5GHz