| Products > Test Equipment |
| nanoVNA vs SVA1015X VNA (Need entry level VNA) |
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| switchabl:
--- Quote from: jhov on August 31, 2022, 05:16:58 am ---I'm not sure how it compares to your other options, but a Pluto Plus SDR with albfers SATSAGEN software might be worth looking into. His latest version added VNA capability using an RF bridge. https://www.albfer.com/en/2022/05/29/satsagen-v-0-7-1-4/#content --- End quote --- I have the older revision of the Pluto, so I can't try this out. But the isolation between TX and RX is pretty bad. I expect the dynamic range to be very limited. You may be able to improve this somewhat by reducing the source power and adding some external gain. But in the end, it wasn't exactly built as a VNA. |
| tomud:
Pluto was designed as a low-cost SDR for educational purposes. You can attach the coupler, but as it was said, I would not expect miracles. Especially that for the price of a Pluto and a coupler with reasonable parameters, you can probably buy any budget VNA - which will be more convenient. @joeqsmith Yes, you can think of harmonics (even Keysight FieldFox works that way). However, at frequencies such as 8GHz and above, everything becomes more complicated and there are no simple solutions. It can be seen even from all budget VNAs what parameters they reach at the end of the bandwidth in which I work (whether it will be libreVNA or others). Even if a project of such a VNA is created and has acceptable parameters, it will not be cheap. There is nothing to cheat here, targeting frequencies of the order of 10GHz will not be cheap... At the moment, only the older VNAs remain - the question is to find one that is reasonably priced and undamaged (which won't be easy). Anyway, when buying old measuring equipment, you have to reckon with the fact that sooner or later you will have to repair something, replace the capacitors or something else. If I had more room in the workshop I would try to buy the HP 8510C, this is probably the only reasonable option in terms of cost and repairability. |
| joeqsmith:
For up/down conversion, I wasn't thinking harmonics but yes, there's a higher cost it seems the faster you go. This seems to hold true with with my bikes as well. The quicker they are, the more they cost. :-DD I was very surprised when they released the LiteVNA that supported 6GHz and only cost $130 USD. The fact it works at all is amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go next. |
| rplabs:
--- Quote from: tomud on August 30, 2022, 01:05:23 pm ---upss it will be painful financially... :phew: --- End quote --- Yes, that's why I search eBay and other local sites for more than 2 months without any hope now. Looks like it is cheaper to buy it from US and pay customs and shipping to EU. --- Quote from: tomud on August 30, 2022, 01:05:23 pm ---You can try to buy the HP 8510C + 8516A + 83621A, but it is not the latest equipment and you need a lot of space in the workshop... --- End quote --- I saw them and was thinking about it but only broken ones are cheap. The ones that power on and show something on display are almost the same as a not tested but powering on Rohde & Schwarz ZVM. Also the shipping costs will be probably high for that if it is not in a normal driving distance to the seller for pick up. I'm not in a hurry. It is just for my amateur radio hobby so I can wait for a good deal. |
| rplabs:
--- Quote from: joeqsmith on August 31, 2022, 03:30:37 am ---They changed the LiteVNA's firmware to use harmonics and cap it at 9.3, at least with the version I currently have installed. I've thought about putting together an up/down converter for it with some software support. I have some support today and demo'ed the NanoVNA I think above 2GHz. Maybe something to consider. --- End quote --- Interesting but I didn't see this mentioned anywhere. I saw only that LiteVNA upper frequency is 6.3GHz and reports that the noise floor is higher than NanoVNA V2plus4. Do you have a link with more details about 9.3GHz firmware running on LiteVNA? 9GHz would be OK for me now to test some filters, isolators and mixers for the amateur DSN project that I want to build now. |
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