Products > Test Equipment
nanoVNA vs SVA1015X VNA (Need entry level VNA)
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rplabs:

--- Quote from: tomud on August 31, 2022, 09:58:11 am ---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.

--- End quote ---

Hmm... I can only see in EU only this one from a seller in Italy and it costs 24K Euro.

https://www.ebay.at/itm/304194390464

For the same price you get the R&S ZVK up to 40GHz.

https://www.ebay.at/itm/324827992024

I am sure the ZVK will use less power also and also less space and it is a more modern unit.
tomud:

--- Quote from: rplabs on September 01, 2022, 09:30:07 am ---
--- 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.

--- End quote ---

Unfortunately, I also have such a problem and to be honest I have been looking for a decent VNA for a home workshop for many years. Unfortunately, when something interesting appears on the market, it is quickly bought by people who professionally trade equipment, and then sell it at very high prices :(

Unfortunately, to buy something at a good price, you need a lot of free time to follow the auction (unfortunately I do not have this time), when something appears at a good price, unfortunately it disappears immediately.

24k euro for 8510C IMHO is a crazy price. If I had a larger workshop, I would prefer to buy a few cheap damaged ones and assemble them into one functional measuring instrument. Even with a lot of bad luck, it would be cheaper anyway.

There is even an attempt to use the HP 8515A module on the Polish forum and do the rest yourself. But I don't know how this attempt ended (Unfortunately, the topic is in Polish: http://mikrofale.iq24.pl/default.asp?grupa=160341&temat=423430 )

Maybe it would be a good idea to look for hams who have such measuring equipment at home and talk to them about the chances of repairing such a device.

I am slowly starting to think about the Siglent SNA5000. I'm still waiting for independent reviews and most likely, if the reviews are good, I will buy up to 8.5GHz. Yes, I would like something more, but you have to think realistically ... and at the moment the most I miss the possibility of measuring in the 5.7GHz band.

nctnico:
The question is: do you really need a network analyser? IOW: do you need phase information for your measurements? A low cost option would be to use a spectrum analyser + sweep generator. This will be slow but at least can give you some graphs (amplitude and VSWR -if you have a directional coupler-).
rplabs:

--- Quote from: nctnico on September 01, 2022, 11:24:58 am ---The question is: do you really need a network analyser? IOW: do you need phase information for your measurements? A low cost option would be to use a spectrum analyser + sweep generator. This will be slow but at least can give you some graphs (amplitude and VSWR -if you have a directional coupler-).

--- End quote ---

Yes, you are right that for this task a spectrum analyzer + sweep generator will work but... I have the SA and I am looking for a sweep generator to cover also 8-12GHz and those are also not cheap.

I contacted a few sellers on ebay in EU and they were selling "good" units but in fact from pictures I could see errors. When I asked about errors they were saying just "no issue, it works. Buy it and test it by yourself and you will see it is OK." Right, so I need to pay a few K Euro and test it to see if it is really broken or not? Not to say that this is 20+ years old equipment which can fail anytime...
joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: rplabs on September 01, 2022, 09:38:01 am ---
--- 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.

--- End quote ---

https://groups.io/g/liteVNA/topic/first_tests_above_6_3ghz/87993520?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C1%2C20%2C0%3A%3Arecentpostdate%2Fsticky%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C20%2C87993520%2Cprevid%253D1643508180797191034%2Cnextid%253D1640273623127907015&next=1

***
The software I wrote doesn't limit the frequency the VNA uses.  If for example the user enters 1THz for the start frequency, the software assumes you are smart enough to know what you are doing and will gladly write the data to the VNA.   

I did attempt a few of my own experiments using harmonics but it's not something I am really setup for. 
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