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Smitih Charts, still relevant in 2024?
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tautech:

--- Quote from: Georgy.Moshkin on June 19, 2024, 09:45:41 am ---Hey, tautech, I think you've got me wrong. I see polar and Cartesian plots on your images.. And what I was saying is that polar plot = Smith chart. And it's probably how it's implemented on most of VNAs firmware.

--- End quote ---
Trace/Sweep, yes.
Just as Mag Loss and SWR sweeps are very similar yet in all cases addition of markers gives additional info at marker frequencies.
Smith and Polar are the same but their use depends on the info you need from them where Smith is superior.

To get even more precise detail scaling can be adjusted like using the screen overlays that Joe showed for his old analyzer.
In modern analyzers we just adjust the display scaling to see the detail.
radiohomebrewer2000:
I think Smith Charts are still valuable especially for someone learning radio electronics.  It will help you learn complex impedance and what it is made of: inductive reactance, capacitive reactance, and resistance.   

I recently got some Smith Chart paper to draw some Smith Charts. Found a lot of videos of Smith Charts on YouTube.  I did this so it would give me a better understanding of the Nano VNA I got.    But I also want to get into designing my own impedance matching networks.  So, I think knowing Smith Charts will help.

I am the type of person who prefers to draw his schematics with pencil on graph paper and then take a photo of it instead of drawing it via some software.    But, I am an amateur - not an engineer.
EggertEnjoyer123:
It's way easier to do impedance matching with a Smith Chart tool than without one.
mtwieg:
I'm wondering if the engineer in the OP was referring to the pencil-and-paper approach to matching network designs by scribing arcs on a smith chart. That certainly is rare nowadays. But I've never seen a VNA that doesn't have a smith chart display.

Or maybe they only worked with scalar network analyzers?
bson:
I don't understand what a Smith Chart really helps with - and never felt I needed one.

Certainly not impedance matching?  I mean, say I have source impedance of 50+j0Ω, a line of 50-j7Ω, and a load of 45-j20Ω.  So matching them requires 5+j27Ω which is a resistor and an inductor.  This is kind of elementary, no?  If I use the VNA to measure the impedances, isn't the impedance discrepancy obvious?  Of course, some devices like antennas don't have a fixed impedance but vary with frequency, usually shifting from inductive to capacitive at the resonant frequency - so can't be matched over a wide band, but how would a Smith Chart help with this?

I feel like I've always missed something here...
Explain it like I'm 5 please?
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