[MCARC] NanoVNA--the hottest thing in amateur radio!

Thu Dec 10 12:36:46 EST 2020

Good idea... Why didn't I think of that!!!!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Stillwell" <gwtouring at bluevalley.net>
To: "Marshall County ARC" <mcarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 9:26:14 PM
Subject: Re: [MCARC] NanoVNA--the hottest thing in amateur radio!

Dennis the key is to buy the xyl something that cost more than the nanoVNA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Mason" <masondw at bluevalley.net>
To: "mcarc" <mcarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 10:38:30 AM
Subject: Re: [MCARC] NanoVNA--the hottest thing in amateur radio!

Ok Nate.. At first I thought it were a April 1 thing, too good to be true, knowing how hard it is to tune cavities!  Now I want one, only thing I think the XYL might have a problem.  hee... Dennis

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nate Bargmann" <n0nb at n0nb.us>
To: "Marshall County ARC" <mcarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, December 4, 2020 9:03:44 PM
Subject: [MCARC] NanoVNA--the hottest thing in amateur radio!

The hottest little piece of test gadgetry is the NanoVNA.  Perhaps
you've heard it mentioned on the air or read about it in a magazine.  In
very simple terms it is an SWR analyzer on steroids!

The VNA--Vector Network Analyzer--has been around for quite some time
and have been quite expensive.  A few years ago there have been VNAs
available for amateur use with a price tag in the few hundred dollar
range.  Some required a connection to a computer in order to function.

Over the past couple of years interest has been high in the NanoVNA
which has a built in LCD touch screen display.  These units come from
and have been developed in Asia and are actually remarkably capable
despite their low price tag.  All of the software and hardware designs
are open source so there are a lot of "manufacturers" and it can be
difficult to decide which one could be the right one.

Last summer, on recommendation from Dave, K0RWM, I ordered a NanoVNA H4
from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083PQ4RXZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As I understand it, the name sort of breaks down as follows:

NanoVNA -- This is the hardware and firmware design from a user named
"edy555" (no, I've no idea...).

H -- This is the hardware and firmware extended by "Hugen" and others.

4 -- refers to the 4 inch (diagonal) LCD touch screen.  The original
NanoVNA has a 2.8" screen.

With that in mind I've been doing a fair amount of reading and a little
bit of experimenting including installing a completely different
firmware than it came with that improves the accuracy of the unit.

More information can be found at:

https://nanovna.com/

Plenty of discussion about these devices takes place on the various ham
radio forums.  A dedicated mailing list/forum is at:

https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users

The archive goes back to June 2019.

One of the users has been working on a slide presentation while perhaps
not a tutorial may give some idea of where the NanoVNA fits into the
radio amateur's toolbox:

https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users/attachment/19143/0/NanoVNA%20by%20k3eui.pdf

Finally, these things just keep evolving and now a new hardware design
is being touted by an entirely different development group and these
devices have some very interesting specifications:

https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html

The NanoVNA V2 Plus4 looks very very enticing.  It's claimed dynamic
range of 90 dB below 1 GHz is getting into useful territory for duplexer
tuning.  At $129 plus 5 bucks shipping it looks like a bargain.

Of course, it also has its own support list/forum:

https://groups.io/g/NanoVNAV2

As near as I can tell, the NanoVNA H4 that I have will do everything the
much more expensive RigExpert AA-230ZOOM that I have will do.  Both
units can be used with cross-platform software that extend their
capabilities.  A VNA takes the lead by being able to analyze two port
devices, such as filters, as well which a single port device cannot do.
For those familiar, the VNA can act much like a tracking generator but
provides much more information regarding the characteristics of the
Device Under Test (DUT).

YouTube has many videos dedicated to the NanoVNA and others.  Some of
the best I have seen are done by W2AEW:

https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew/featured

He does a good job explaining the Smith Chart starting with Video #274i,
for example, and many more topics of interest to hams and electronics
tinkerers.

If you're dropping suggestions for a stocking stuffer to that gift
buying person, you could do far worse than playing with a NanoVNA on
Christmas Day!

73, Nate

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

Web: https://www.n0nb.us
Projects: https://github.com/N0NB
GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819

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