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Sub $1000 VNA for antenna matching
dermeister:
I am looking to buy a VNA for determining the filter network components for matching antennas to low-power embedded systems RF SoCs. The max frequency I work with is 2.4 GHz for BLE and 802.15.4. The VNA will only ever see bench use, so it does not need to be portable or have an integrated screen.
There are a few low cost (<$1000) VNAs I’ve been researching like NanoVNA, LibreVNA and LiteVNA, but I’m a beginner at using VNAs so I’m not sure what performance specifications are required for my application outside of the max frequency. Ideally I would like the antenna matching process to be as simple as possible, so if any VNAs automate it more than others, that would be a consideration I would take into account.
Can anyone recommend a VNA for what I’m trying to do?
nctnico:
An alternative could be to buy a used 4G base station analyser that has VNA abilities but many of them only seem to support a Smith chart and no capacitance / inductance cursors. For your purpose and budget I would take a long hard look at LibreVNA. I have owned a NanoVNA but found it too cumbersome to use with the small screen.
wasedadoc:
The original nanoVNA only goes to 1.5GHz. Other similar devices do go higher. I have the "black and gold" V2 which goes to 3GHz (using harmonics). That has a 3.2 inch screen. Small screens on these device can be mitigated by linking to a PC. However I've never used mine to do antenna matching so cannot say with certainty that one of the low cost VNAs will adequately meet your need.
nctnico:
One of the problems with the NanoVNA is that there are so many versions out there and -AFAIK- different people working on firmware. And no overview on what is what.
Mechatrommer:
--- Quote from: nctnico on November 26, 2022, 04:43:43 pm ---For your purpose and budget I would take a long hard look at LibreVNA. I have owned a NanoVNA but found it too cumbersome to use with the small screen.
--- End quote ---
why dont you get larger screen 6GHz LiteVNA? its only $100+ do you really need full 2 port feature? LibreVNA has serious internal mismatch issue. i have both Nano and Lite.. Nano seems to become useless (and probably my Deepace KC901V too) once i have LiteVNA.
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