As the owner of two nanoVNAs and two lab grade VNAs I have run comparisons between them.? They all do their intended job well, and can be very useful in testing hardware, as well as providing a nearly priceless opportunity for education in high frequency electronics.
Yes the expensive jobs have important advantages over the little unit.? But when one factors in certain characteristics, such as convenience and cost and user interface, the nano gives far more per dollar.? Yes I can do better spectrum analysis with the big units and my measurements are both more accurate and have better noise performance for tiny signals.
So my educated analysis indicates that the nano needs to be a part of any laboratory for casual measurements.? These casual measurements are probably more than enough to satisfy the needs of any radio amateur or other hobbyist.? For commercial and industrial uses, the expensive units are almost mandatory, as their accuracy can be verified and their frequency range wider, not to mention control over bandwidth.
My attempts at spectrum analysis with the nano have proven it to be not especially useful.? For instance, there are images.? Fine grequency control is lacking.? There is no control over resolution.? Precise analysis of filters is not one of its strengths.
Notwithstanding these and other limitations, I find the nano the unit of choice for the majority of my measurements.? This may not be true of anyone else but I am a satisfied customer.? One of my big VNAs only goes up toe 150 MHz and that's useful for most of my spectrum analysis and other lower frequency work, which is the majority of my interest.? The other goes up to a few GHz but my needs seldom go there.? The small size and rapid deployment of the nano make it a fun unit to operate; while I am doing some work with it I notice things I might not see with the other VNAs.
So take what I say for what it's worth and for what you pay for it, and draw your own conclusions.
73, Bob K6DDX On Monday, December 23, 2019, 10:43:44 AM PST, hwalker <herbwalker2476@...> wrote:
hwalker wrote:
The Jan-Feb 2020 Issue of the ARRL QEX magazine has a cover story on the NanoVNA by Dr. George Steber:
"Dr. George R. Steber, WB9LVI, reviews a tiny vector network analyzer (VNA) introduced for about US$50 and compares its capabilities with full-featured lab grade analyzers that cost thousands of dollars. An RF VNA is the instrument of choice for measuring the electrical parameters of antennas, components, filters and more. Dr. Steber describes his experiences with the tiny VNA, termed a NanoVNA. He begins with a short description of some technical specifications, and relates how he acquired the NanoVNA. He then includes historical details on the evolution of the product. Next, he describes the general architecture of the instrument, and finally he describes the operation of the unit and including examples."
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? ? My original intention in starting this topic was to let our users know about the QEX NanoVNA article and to acknowledge one of my favorite technical authors. The original post does not, as stated by at least one responder, in any way, shape, or form advocate copyright infringement.
? Dr. Steber usually gives a down to earth technical description of a device's inner workings before preceding on to numerous practical use applications.? Those expecting some type of a-b comparison with high end commercial VNA's are likely to be disappointed.
? I guess the second reason for starting the topic was to acknowledge the NanoVNA's semi-Rockstar status as the cover boy for QEX magazine? :)
Happy holidays,
- Herb
