My 2c, having owned MFJ269, AIM4170, VNWA2.3 & 3, AA54, SARK110, old
noise bridges, and used a friends FG-01 on a DXpedition.
The MFJ is old, not all that accurate and really useless in the presence
of other strong RF, eg BCB. Sold it. I'd call it obsolete vs current
competition.
AIM4170 (old serial port) was next, still own it and use it, the
separate DC power and PC is a pain for "handheld" but done that, nice
graphics, accurate, PC output, full calibration capabilities, it's a
full S11 analyzer + TDR.
VNWA 2.3 then upgraded to VNWA 3, full 2 port network analyzers, these
are in a league of $$$ bench instruments, rarely used for antennas, but
most heavily used of all.
AA54 bought as real "handheld" for on tower or at antenna, no PC needed,
funky menu system, simple B&W graphics, no auto find capability, but did
what I needed in the yard and on DXpeditions, SO239 connector and rugged
case make it pretty sturdy.
SARK110 is the latest, fits in shirt pocket, much better color graphics
and PC output than AA54, a real S11 analyzer, TDR, signal gen, etc.
Most bang for the buck. Cal capabilities. Fragile connector. Several
auto modes that are useful when tuning. Rechargable battery, decent
life. The winner for me.
You Kits FG-01 (now FG-011), smallest, does the swr measuring job, easy
to navigate, cheapest
Caution: Experience (bad) shows the SARK110 and FG-01 won't handle much
RF, you can blow the front ends if tuning an antenna while another
nearby is transmitting which can happen on DXpeditions. Probably true
for all of the others, but so far avoided with the AA54. The others
stayed home.
Big antennas can sometimes hear enough RF to make these handheld units
yield ambiguous results. There really aren't the bandpass filtering and
bullet proof front end needed that you find in R&S, Agilent, etc.
Learned that recently and needed to fall back to my K3 at 5w to be sure
of the tuning. Or add your own bandpass filter.
Grant KZ1W
Redmond, WA
n 3/27/2016 12:08 PM, dick.bingham wrote:
Greetings All
I am getting fed up with multiple trips between new antenna matching stations
and the
tx-source/VSWR and not converging on a good match in quick order !
Please send me - OFF LINE - your recommendation for a handheld impedance
measuring tool that covers 400KHz to at least 150MHz. I looked at the RigExpert
AA-220 in the latest QST and it looks like a decent tool.
I certainly do not want to restart this topic but new stuff is becoming
available and I don't want to settle for second best if 'best' is not 2X more
costly!
73 Dick/w7wkr CN97uj
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