Products > Test Equipment
Copper Mountain Technologies VNA
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virtualparticles:

--- Quote from: tomud on August 03, 2023, 06:49:08 pm ---As for the VNAs described here, I'd rather see sample measurements than opinions. With a description of what calibrators, test leads, etc. were used.

--- End quote ---

I can do that! I'll set up a drift test now, and post the results tomorrow morning. I'll include all the details of the measurement as well.
abeyer:

--- Quote from: tomud on August 03, 2023, 06:49:08 pm ---It's more of a company security policy issue. What is the difference whether a remote or local vulnerability will be used, e.g. using a flash drive.
With a good security policy implemented, a dedicated VLAN, such a thing can be minimized. Although it is known that it will never be eliminated, because here sometimes there is user stupidity (in general, the most common problem of hacking into the network).

--- End quote ---

The whole reason behind those security policies is the lack of attention to that kind of thing. Sure, you can isolate things in a properly secured VLAN... but who's gonna do that when you can just plug it into your wifi router? (and then ignore the fact that your toaster is now part of a DDoS botnet because every other Internet of Shit device in your home was on the same network.) And while you're correct that there can be attacks via USB or other things, too... at least you seldom pick up random USB drives from people on the internet and plug them into your test equipment. (I hope)

This isn't even just a concern for old devices. There is(was?) a recent RCE against fully updated current model Rigol scopes.
G0HZU:
In my case, my Agilent VNA is quite old now. It's running Win 2k. There will be ways to network it to my main Win 11 PC but I don't want to do it for various reasons including security.
I'm going to keep doing things the way I always have done with this old VNA. I'll just keep on trotting back and forth from PC to VNA, slowly wearing out the carpet :)

I've got various bits of test gear here that run old versions of Windows as the OS. The oldest is a scope that runs Win98. I've got a couple of really old Tek RTSAs here that run WinXP although one of them (RSA6114A) runs WinXP embedded whatever that means. I don't intend to network any of them via LAN. I do have them linked via GPIB for screenshots to another netbook PC that is not on any network.

I remember there being a big panic when one of the company VNAs came back from repair/calibration and it had been to two places to do the repair. Along the way something got onto it that caused a virus scan to trip an alert at the calibration house. That caused a lot of confusion and delay. It turned out to be a false alarm but sending old Win 2k and Win XP VNAs and analysers for calibration has its risks.

The company also has to be careful to not store any sensitive data on the equipment before sending it for calibration. It has to go to approved places only that also do virus scanning on arrival and dispatch. I guess that's another reason to move towards USB based analysers. Much easier to manage the annual calibration or any repairs.
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: virtualparticles on August 03, 2023, 06:58:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: tomud on August 03, 2023, 06:49:08 pm ---As for the VNAs described here, I'd rather see sample measurements than opinions. With a description of what calibrators, test leads, etc. were used.

--- End quote ---

I can do that! I'll set up a drift test now, and post the results tomorrow morning. I'll include all the details of the measurement as well.

--- End quote ---

Look forward to seeing how you test it.  I tried looking at a few of the low cost VNAs by running a cal directly on their connectors and then changing the temperature by 10degC.   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/nanovna-custom-software/msg3890843/#msg3890843
rfclown:
Several years ago I purchased a Copper Mountain R60 for the company I was working for to test antenna assemblies in production. My past experience had mainly been with HP boxes (HP8753, 5071), and I was pleased with the R60. When at that company, I had a FieldFox for a VNA at my bench. With the HP VNAs, I didn't have the TDR option, so I had to do my own math for that function. For antenna assembly testing (connector, cable, antenna), I needed to have a TDR function to find issues with manufacturing. The R60 software threw in the TDR option as free, so that was a real bonus. In fact, you can download their software, use whatever VNA you have, save in Touchstone, and read the files in and convert to time. Just make sure you do the sweep correctly (evenly spaced points from 0) because the software doesn't check that and you'll get bad results (at least it did this 7 or so years ago). I wouldn't hesitate to consider Copper Mountain again.


--- Quote from: G0HZU on August 04, 2023, 12:22:03 am ---In my case, my Agilent VNA is quite old now. It's running Win 2k. There will be ways to network it to my main Win 11 PC but I don't want to do it for various reasons including security.
I'm going to keep doing things the way I always have done with this old VNA. I'll just keep on trotting back and forth from PC to VNA, slowly wearing out the carpet :)
...

--- End quote ---

I completely don't understand this. Whatever VNA I use, I always read the data into a PC, usually using VISA/SCPI (GPIB, Ethernet, Whatever interface the device has). I never use sneakernet; I don't understand why anyone does. If you have a virus issue on your Windows based VNA, plug in a USB flash drive, and sneakernet to a PC, you can also transfer problems that way. If I connect GPIB or Ethernet and get my data via SCPI, how is that a security issue? If you connect with Ethernet, Firewalls work. I have a specific subnet which I only use for instrument control. I don't try the do the log into the instrument from the other side of the world thing. If I need to work remotely, I'll remote into my lab computer, and run my automation programs.

Copper Mountain is completely different in that you run their application and communicate with that to get the data.
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