OWS's VNA6000-B 110dB dynamic range, $1500 USD VNA

[joeqsmith]

I was asked about OWO's latest low cost VNA, the VNA6000-B but there is little information being posted.  Basic specs can be found here:
https://nanorfe.com/vna6000.html

I can't see joining their mail list as they have it set to approve all posts, or in other words, I suspect they censor the crap out of it like their other group.  I can't see wasting their time or mine. 

Doing a search for OWO's account, they have not posted in their group for a very long time.  Nothing on this forum for well over a year.   Reading the posts there are a lot of people asking for more details and reviews but sadly, there isn't much being presented.

https://groups.io/g/NanoVNAV3/topics

There was one comment from OWO that gives a small hint of hope:

V3 has dedicated receivers for all channels and so doesn't have the switching problem of the V2, so it can measure narrowband devices.

While they claim 50kHz, I wonder if it works lower with less dynamic range, spurs.   My biggest concern is did they lock out firmware developers,... Let me start over.  Is Dislord developing the firmware for it?   Hopefully they were smart enough to leverage their talent and I see firmware being a shit show otherwise.   They don't disclose anything about the protocol that I could find.   Porting software for it is a complete unknown.   

They claim 2-port but you can see from other information they have provided about swapping ports for S22 and S12, it's not.   That's fine for me.  I assume it is still a squarewave drive which is blah, but workable. 

Talking with my bud flipper, we are thinking about getting one just to see if the design has any merit.  That 110 dB may require a week or more to do a sweep and filters the crap out of everything to get some number.  Who knows.   

Anyone ran it?   

OWO, if your out there, ship me one and I will will put it through the ringer.   If it works out, maybe create some sales for this thing. 

[switchabl]

I lost interest when they stopped supporting the V2 I bought from them after a couple of weeks and introduced an almost identical model with closed, incompatible firmware. It mostly works fine and for 100$ I don't really care. But I more or less gave up on the proper performance evaluation (and the firmware tweaks) that I was working on. And I can't see myself buying anything else from them, definitely not a 1000+$ instrument. It didn't help that their communication here on the forum was, in my opinion, at times very aggressive and unprofessional.

The NanoVNA-QT software is also fairly rudimentary, given the price point. And unless they have permission from the original xaVNA developer they may well be violating the license (GPL).

[joeqsmith]

And I can't see myself buying anything else from them, definitely not a 1000+$ instrument. It didn't help that their communication here on the forum was, in my opinion, at times very aggressive and unprofessional.

I have to agree. Not just the forums but PMs as well.   Their lack of presence is very concerning.   While I had no problems with the original firmware supplied with my V2Plus4, the V2Plus was a whole different story.  I waited more than a year and for something stable (would lock up) and eventually did a search for every version I could find.  Randomly found one that was stable.   The same story played out with my H4.   When I started playing with the LiteVNA and Dislords firmware, it was night and day different from any other experience with these low cost VNAs.   

$1500 is cheap, if it works, if it is supported......  It's not cheap enough just to try it for the fun of it.  Besides the cash, which could certainly be spent on things more useful, there is the time investment.