[NCARC] 1.3 GHz Vector Network Analyzer Kit (USB powered) available

[WA5SWD@att.net]

http://www.sdr-kits.net/VNWA/VNWA_Description.html

As I mentioned at the last NCARC meeting, there is now a VNA kit available from England.
The USB powered version seems most likely to be the preferred version but postings to 
the Yahoo group seems to indicate that the development of the software is not yet stable.

An assembled version of this kit IS available for those with limited kit-building skills, and even 
I would be willing to part with the extra cash as the equipment to properly troubleshoot this 
kit would be a hassle to obtain, and I've built kits and 'scratch' RF equipment for nearly half
a century.

The payment has to be in British pounds, through PayPal.  Alternate payment methods may
be acceptable by arrangement with the provider.  I have found PayPal to be deceptive in the 
past and refuse to use them, ever again.  Your experiences may be different with PayPal but
I use the 'Once burnt, twice shy' rule.

For those of you unfamiliar with an RF Vector Network Analyzer, consider your MFJ259B on steroids.  Imagine getting a pictorial representation of the complex impedance for your antenna
over whatever frequency sweep you want.  The whole HF spectrum?  Easy?  Oh, you want to
do it at the end of a random length of coax?  No problem.  Oh, how about checking that new 
bandpass filter or Duplexer?  Piece of cake!  ALL of the HF frequencies AND VHF?  How 
about HF, VHF and UHF?  Same deal.  EASY!  Oh, Let's do Path loss and relative gain on
antennas, as in 'Antenna shoot-out'  Still easy.  Measure RF loss on an unknown sample of 
coax?  Can do!  How hard?  Still easy!

OK.  There has  to be a catch somewhere, right?  A used HP 8753D costs at least $7000,
is a large 19 inch rack width and quite heavy (70+ lb?).

This little kit, assembled, is under $500, is light weight and powered by your laptop USB port.
A minor drawback is that it only measures as a two port device where the 8753 is a four port
device.  Don't worry too much about that unless you are well advanced in RF measurements.
Two port measurements will do everything I mentioned.  

Read about their kit.  My HP8753 goes up to 3 GHz where their kit only goes up to 1.3 GHz.
They push the parts to get that high.  I think the PC has to have a very high clock rate to attain
the highest frequency, and the kit will not work with Vista and one other operating system.
I'm a bit fuzzy on this point.

OK.  I have not purchased their kit yet.  I have no financial interest with these folks of any kind.
The opinions I have expressed are purely my own.  There are several other competing products 
out there but this one has the highest frequency coverage of any I have seen so far.  If this
 seems interesting to you I advise that you check it out yourself.  Please report back to the 
group if you find incorrect or misleading statements, either theirs or mine.

Ed Lawrence  WA5SWD




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