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Re: [TowerTalk] Slick New Toy

To: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Slick New Toy
From: Dave Sublette <k4to.dave@gmail.com>
Reply-to: k4to@arrl.net
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2018 07:50:05 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Any info on how it might do on a quarter wave vertical for 160, operating
within two miles of an AM broadcast station?

Dave, K4TO

On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 4:28 AM Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:

> Here's another nice new toy from DL-land by way of the UK. The designer
> is DG5MK.
>
> https://www.sdr-kits.net/VA5_Page
>
> $235 got the analyzer and a better quality cal kit shipped to my door
> just before CQWWCW. The better Cal kit was $20 of that cost. It took
> less than two hours to put it together (as I get older I get slower).
> It's a single-port true vector analyzer, and runs either stand alone on
> two internal AAs or from VNWA software via a USB port. Decent build
> quality, BNC is soldered to the board and bonded to the case at the
> point of entry. The case is a 2-piece metal clamshell, screwed together
> at four places. In other words, it's well shielded and has no Pin One
> Problem!
>
> There's a beautifully printed manual that covers building and operation,
> with excellent color photos. Text is excellent in the building section,
> pretty good in the button-pushing area, a bit weak in the concepts area,
> and badly disjointed to point of being awful in its description of
> calibration. The latter is a big deal, because it's the first thing you
> do once you turn it on!
>
> As near as I can tell,when running from VNWA software (FREEWARE), it can
> do almost everything the VNWA can do with S11 (single-port)
> measurements, except that choices of sweep rates and dwell time at each
> data point are a lot more limited. That means I can use the excellent
> TDR function built into the VNWA software! I don't know yet if I can
> import complex data made stand-alone. BTW -- the measurement plane is at
> the end of a 5 ft piece of RG142 from my stash. I find that a convenient
> length for getting to where I can measure antennas from my shack.
>
> This box is designed to be the one you use in the field and at the top
> of the tower, but with the VNWA software, you can make measurements in
> the shack, including TDR, then export antenna data to SimSmith to
> transform it to the antenna ffeedpoint, then use SimSmith to design
> matching networks and compute  loss in the feedline and matching networks!
>
> This is a VERY nice unit, and a real bargain!
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>
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