I’ve been looking around at reasonably priced network analyzers. My needs are fairly simple. Most analyzers are just way too expensive. I really like the portability of the Rig Expert Stick 230 but the price is out of scope.
The goal was to find a fairly inexpensive network analyzer that covers 80 through 6 meters. Although the Nano VNA covers 10 KHz to 1.5 GHz, I have little interest in anything above 6 meters. I just want something fairly simple that will check impedance and SWR on these weird antenna systems I build and experiment with. Although it’s rather obvious, I feel that I should add that the Nano VNA is a delicate instrument and IMHO would not fair well in a outdoor environment such as field day.
As it turns out, the Nano VNA is pretty much what I have been looking for. For in-depth technical details visit the Nano VNA site. The Nano VNA comes with charging cable and and calibration terminators. Although I have not looked into it yet, software is available at GitHub to compliment or extend the Nano VNA capabilities. I ordered my Nano VNA via Amazon to avoid running into knockoffs.
While the Nano VNA can do a multitude of functions far beyond the needs of the average ham radio operator, the video I grabbed from YouTube explains the Nano VNA usage its most simplest form. For more information about the capabilities of the Nano VNA, a nanovna manual can be found here.
The video demonstrates how to calibrate and use the Nano VNA to measure SWR of a VHF antenna. Running an analysis for HF is just repeating the steps for a different band segment.
Amazon: Nano VNA Network Analyzer
Amazon: Rig Expert Stick 230
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