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| Anyone have feedback the Minicircuits eVNA-63+ 6 GHz VNA? |
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| JohnG:
I have been on the lookout for a moderate cost VNA for my company. I recently came across one from Minicircuits, and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it? https://www.minicircuits.com/WebStore/Vector-Network_Analyzer.html It is in line with small VNAs like those produced by Tek, Pico, etc. I don't need top of the line, but the NanoVNA is just not cutting it (amazing price/performance, but I need more performance). Mainly I need more dynamic range and a bit better frequency response, but also it gets old dealing with flaky and non-standard communication protocols. Any comments or info are appreciated. Thanks, John |
| profanum429:
I haven't used the Minicircuits one but that software looks like a carbon copy of the VectorVu software from Tektronix for their (now discontinued) TTR VNA series. I wonder if they obtained it from Tek now that they are out of the VNA business... |
| KE5FX:
Interesting, I didn't know Tek had discontinued their VNA. It's (still) a rather crowded market. From a message I posted a few months ago to an email list where the same question came up: (snip) There's a massive selection of VNA options in the $10K-and-under price class. A few years ago, tempted by Copper Mountain's evident success, I built a 6 GHz 4-receiver USB VNA with the intent of jumping into the commercial market. By the time I finished the prototype hardware, the bang:buck ratio was no longer competitive with some of the other offerings, so I ultimately killed the project. In the course of making that decision, I did an informal market survey, which now includes more than a dozen competitive manufacturers: - Arinst - Deepace - Anritsu's Shockline and SpectrumMaster series - Keysight P937xA Streamline series - Obviously the Keysight FieldFox qualifies - Megiq - Even MiniCircuits now offers a 6 GHz USB VNA (eVNA-63+) - Copper Mountain - Pico Technologies, as discussed here - Tektronix TTR506A - LA Techniques - Transcom / Setup Electronica T6 - Siglent (not handheld, but much lighter and cheaper than some of the older competitors) And that doesn't even count the low-end offerings in the NanoVNA, LibreVNA, PocketVNA and similar families, or Henrik Forsten's nicely-executed homebrew job at https://hforsten.com/improved-homemade-vna.html. Ultimately, none of them including my own was a suitable replacement for my old 8753C/85047A outfit. Most were either too expensive, lacked important features, specifications, and/or quality, or had some combination of the above drawbacks. If I were looking for a portable unit in the 4K range, I'd probably look for a used FieldFox. But if you don't actually need any of the FieldFox's specs or unique features, it would be crazy not to start by spending a few hundred bucks on one of the newer Asian offerings and see if you outgrow it. Failing that, the Megiq is probably a decent choice, going by Shahriar's review on his Signal Path channel, and the new ones from Tek, Keysight, and Mini-Circuits look intriguing as well. None of them will be as cost-effective as a used HP, though, and certainly not as cost-effective as the newest generation of Nano-class models. Not even close. (end snip) So, since you're in the position of having outgrown the low-cost Asian imports, my vote would be for an 8753C/D/ES or used FieldFox. You can probably buy two or three of those for what the Mini-Circuits model costs. |
| JohnG:
Thanks, your list is pretty comprehensive. The Fieldfox series never got on my radar, so to speak, not sure why. I will give it a look. I was hoping to avoid another boat anchor, because I'm getting tight on space. John |
| TheSteve:
If you get a FieldFox the cheapest unit with a proper 2 port VNA is the N9923A. After that for better performance(and a lot of other features) you'd need the N9914A and up. |
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