NanoVNA is a god send for all of us new Hams that trying to make some decent antennas with low SWR and get on air. Kudos to whoever designed this. I was looking at Rig Expert analyzers, but they are just so expensive. I'd rather buy another radio for that money. Thx for the video.
The NanoVNA has been one of my best ham purchases of all time. I have previously used very costly professional tools to do the same job, including the Wiltron/Anritsu Site Master series. This is a great gadget and is capable of so much, to be honest I prefer to drive it via the PC, which is fine for indoor work but less so for outdoor work. Too many people are scathing merely because of the price, the switches are not great, the sockets are supported by the PCB so it has to be handled with reasonable care, but it is amazingly accurate in most measurements. It is capable of so much more than simple SWR plots but at that price point it is fine not to use every option...
I am still finding new things to do with mine. I just tuned a TX/RX systems duplexer for GMRS on the H4. I put my HT antennas' on them and check VSWR and IMP and bandwidth. still learning new things new tricks with the VNA-H4. so happy with it. 73's
Love my Nano VNA. Extremely good value for money. Large learning curve, but when you learn it will absolutely make you throw out useless antennas. I love this instrument and it's so good too take the time to learn it 👌👌👌
Thanks for the video. Just bought one , i'm still a newbie . Re calibration I used to work at the uni , the Prof always calibrated his analyzer even though it was the price of house.
You did a great job demonstrating the basics of this device. I ordered one the other day and look forward to using it. Sure beats running in and out checking SWR every time a change is made to the antenna length.
If that is the same type H4 I got, I set it to 401 sampling points instead of the default 101, so interpolation between points is reduced. That takes a few seconds longer to run, but accuracy is better for finding resonant frequencies.
@@szekerespista3758 Pull over the main screen. Tap Stimulus. Tap Sweep points. Choose the number of points. If you do that before calibration, it remembers more calibration points.
@@szekerespista3758 Pull over the main screen. Tap Stimulus. Tap Sweep points. Choose the number of points. If you do that before calibration, it remembers more calibration points.
I have hand one of the none H4's for a few years now and it has been awesome. Built a few antennas with it including a homebrew version of Lord Cal's classic. Everyone should have one of these as part of their kit.
I bought a Nano VNA a few years ago, basically because it will show my antenna specs "on the cheap!" As a new Ham, cash was tight with buying all the gear so the cash I saved, (nearly £250) was well worth it. As my VNA screen is quite small I use it connected to my laptop, which makes life a lot easier, but it is not as convenient for portable. Thanks for a great video Mike, and the handy reminder on how to calibrate the thing! 73 Jim M7BXT
Its amazing how cheap stuff has become. I worked for a decade designing cellular PCMCIA cards and later USB dongles. Vector analyzers then were well into 5 digits. If you think that was expensive a fully optioned Agilent test set for wireless data was about 400K USD. That is all in one 6U rackmount box.
Just starting out and I live in a pretty bad geographical location and so need to optimise my antenna and cables as much as I can. This device looks awesome . Thank you for a really clear presentation.
Thanks for the quick run-thru, with some practical measurements. I've had one of these analyzers for a while, but got busy with other stuff, and your talk gave me a kick to get busy. My grandson and I will get busy now.😁
Best video to understand how to use the nano vna as an antenna analyzer for amateur radio purposes. Thank you Mike! Going to finally test the speaker wire fan dipole you wrote me back about.
i just got my first nano vna just 2-3 days ago & still learning but it Dont seam to be to bad & so far i am really impressed ...I did buy one with N Connectors instead of the dinky sma connectors & it goes from like 50khz to 3Ghz so it should cover way more than i will ever need !
The nano vna is an awesome tool! It’s what I carry in my POTA bag. Although I like the Rig Expert stick because of its screen, the nano can do a little more. We need a “paper white” nano vna!
I know how you feel, but the learning curve for ham use is really short. And I’m no genius…don’t even have my general yet. The key is finding the right vid to learn how to calibrate and some other tricks, looks like Mike found the good sources fast…took me a minute. Not too many good vids on this, and lots are 😴in depth vids that aren’t so useful
Very good, Mike. I've got an older NanoVNA that's about half the size of the one you are showing. It's getting a little hard on my aging eyes and may upgrade to this one. I have been extremely pleased with the capabilities of the unit and have not seen a need for any other antenna analyzer.
So much diversity to the NanoVNA. I've been using one for nearly 5 yrs now. I like how you can set your manual antenna tuner with it along with many other things such as find the frequency of an unknown or unmarked crystal. That just a few of the things it will do. Along with my digital O-scopes and spectrum analyzers it really add to my bench. BTW I now have a frequency deviation meter that I acquired a few months ago. Catch ya on the bands sometime. I'll be bringing my Packet BBS back up now that I'm finishing my ATV and satcom station.
Hi. When doing the demo where you are connected to the antenna, to see you SWR at different frequencies, are you taking in account the piece of coax connected to your antenna< So you are not actually seeing the SWR at the antenna feed point, unless you take in account the coax length at a specific frequency and taking account for the velocity factor of the coax. I always thought need a specific length of coax that is a multiple of a half wavelength x the velocity factor of the coat. That way you will have an accurate SWR for the feed point. Sorry if I didn't explain that very well. 73 de WA3RSL
Hello very interesting video!! Thanks. A few questions before I buy the nanoVNA-H4. Is the plastic housing no problem with RF radiation? And isn't the mounting of the SMA connectors on the printed circuit board mechanically weak?
@@hamradiotube Thank you. I have learned of many places to purchase equipment through you and others so I was just curious ... Have a great weekend ...
I _really_ love my RigExpert but…they get expensive above 6m and I’d like to play with 2m & 430MHz. Might have to try one of these. Thanks, Mike! WB3CFN
Your screen looks different than mine on the nano VNA. Mine has a wormhole of circles on it. How do I get rid of that. I just want to see the SWR curve
That's a pretty cool device. It would be really handy for testing used coax at a hamfest before you buy it. It's certainly a lot cheaper than the MFJ 259. Maybe it would be a good idea to get extra calibration pieces in case someone drops them in the grass. Also mount a little holder on the side of the device to hold the pointer (and get another one or two of those too).
When analyzing a mobile antenna, should you look for an open field or parking lot away from homes and buildings as you do when testing with an old style SWR meter or does it matter? Mine has a mini SD slot to save configurations and even snapshots. Is it necessary to recalibrate each time?
Question. Say I want to tune my mobile antenna, such as the Wolf River coil and I don't really want to bother with calibrating the vna. Since I'm just looking for resonance and don't much care about the absolute values like swr, reactance, resistance, etc. Can I do that? Obviously at some point in the past I had determined that the antenna is working properly and has a satisfactory swr at whatever frequency I'm tuning it for so I'm just looking to get back to that point. I don't know for sure but I suspect the calibration is to be sure the readings are accurate.
You don't need to calibrate it every time, no. But if you calibrate it for a different set of frequencies you may get inaccurate results if you don't re-calibrate it again when you want to tune your antenna.
The one from Amazon is a newer version. And it's also available. They appear to be similar but the newer one has an SD card slot for storing data. Other than that it appears to be minor upgrades to what I reviewed.
@@hamradiotube I got it on the way. I'm building a BBTD whole house antenna and this tool will be invaluable for getting it dialled in. I should be able to do 80 to 10 meters when it's all done. My G90 will be very happy. Then I'll make a ETHER to see which one I like better. Thanks for the video and the link. 👍🏼
I'm not a tech guy so forgive me if this sounds like a stupid question. Do you have to Cal for each frequency, if you have it setup and Cal for 2M? I am trying to set it up for the HF bands now. TIA Scott-KB9JTN DM43
I have efhw a buddy gave me , does have to be up in a tree to check the SWR or could just be on the ground, Thanks Im new to this ham radio stuff KD9WTH 73
I always wonder how SWR relates to signal output. As the SWR goes up of course the output of the transmitter starts degrading due to protectioon circuitry. But if that were removed as a factor and tuned with an antenna match where does the field strength go at those high points and low points. IOW, I want a field strength measurement at a remote site hundreds of feet away via maybe a spectrum analyzer. Has anyone ever done this? Does the field strength match the pattern of the network analyzer? We know that feeding into a 52 ohm load that is purely resistive that the swr will be perfect across the spectrum. But there will be no signal strength.
finally got it setup for swr reading did that when i turned it off and cam eback later all settings wee gone so i hd to do them again. anyone know how to save my settings so i can go back to them again withiut having it redo all of them ?
Hey, a question about calibration of these units: how would you calibrate your unit before testing a very large HF antenna system? I can't go out, rise up to the 80-foot level to the feed point, and short out the ladder line, then come back in to the shack, just to calibrate the feed system. What would you do, step-wise, to ensure the best possible calibration for this work?
Didn't you get the word that we all have to sell our nano VNA's?. A certain you tuber has declared that only linux programmers are capable of using this complicated piece of equipment. :)
Firmware updates only require carefully reviewing changes. That means take your time and dont be impatient. They are a great device and my only complaint with them is poorly formatted instruction manual.
Hello very interesting video!! Thanks. A few questions before I buy the nanoVNA-H4. Is the plastic housing no problem with RF radiation? And isn't the mounting of the SMA connectors on the printed circuit board mechanically weak?
Bought my NanoVNA-H three years ago. Handiest and most versatile gadget I own.
NanoVNA is a god send for all of us new Hams that trying to make some decent antennas with low SWR and get on air. Kudos to whoever designed this. I was looking at Rig Expert analyzers, but they are just so expensive. I'd rather buy another radio for that money. Thx for the video.
These things are worth their weight in gold!!!! I use one EVERYtime I goto a POTA park just to check the antenna system prior to getting on the air.
The NanoVNA has been one of my best ham purchases of all time. I have previously used very costly professional tools to do the same job, including the Wiltron/Anritsu Site Master series.
This is a great gadget and is capable of so much, to be honest I prefer to drive it via the PC, which is fine for indoor work but less so for outdoor work. Too many people are scathing merely because of the price, the switches are not great, the sockets are supported by the PCB so it has to be handled with reasonable care, but it is amazingly accurate in most measurements.
It is capable of so much more than simple SWR plots but at that price point it is fine not to use every option...
Good plug w/ IMSAI Guy. I learned sooo much about my nano & tiny sa from him. My RigExpert died & my Nano VNA keeps me in the antenna building game.
I am still finding new things to do with mine. I just tuned a TX/RX systems duplexer for GMRS on the H4. I put my HT antennas' on them and check VSWR and IMP and bandwidth. still learning new things new tricks with the VNA-H4. so happy with it. 73's
Had one of the Nanos for a couple years , still in the box , was a little intimidated by it . Thanks for the video will use it now
Love my Nano VNA. Extremely good value for money. Large learning curve, but when you learn it will absolutely make you throw out useless antennas. I love this instrument and it's so good too take the time to learn it 👌👌👌
Thanks for the video. Just bought one , i'm still a newbie . Re calibration I used to work at the uni , the Prof always calibrated his analyzer even though it was the price of house.
You did a great job demonstrating the basics of this device. I ordered one the other day and look forward to using it. Sure beats running in and out checking SWR every time a change is made to the antenna length.
This video prompted me to grab a NanoVNA to build my first antennas this weekend. Thanks! - Drew (N5WLF)
That's awesome!
If that is the same type H4 I got, I set it to 401 sampling points instead of the default 101, so interpolation between points is reduced. That takes a few seconds longer to run, but accuracy is better for finding resonant frequencies.
Ahh good to know. I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for the info.
How to increase the sampling points?
@@szekerespista3758 Pull over the main screen. Tap Stimulus. Tap Sweep points. Choose the number of points.
If you do that before calibration, it remembers more calibration points.
@@szekerespista3758 Pull over the main screen. Tap Stimulus. Tap Sweep points. Choose the number of points.
If you do that before calibration, it remembers more calibration points.
Thanks!
Thanks so much!
Honing my Hamvention 2024 shopping list with review videos; this one is very useful. Thanks, Mike.
I have hand one of the none H4's for a few years now and it has been awesome. Built a few antennas with it including a homebrew version of Lord Cal's classic. Everyone should have one of these as part of their kit.
I bought a Nano VNA a few years ago, basically because it will show my antenna specs "on the cheap!" As a new Ham, cash was tight with buying all the gear so the cash I saved, (nearly £250) was well worth it. As my VNA screen is quite small I use it connected to my laptop, which makes life a lot easier, but it is not as convenient for portable. Thanks for a great video Mike, and the handy reminder on how to calibrate the thing! 73 Jim M7BXT
Great video mike.i have the original vna that came out.Much smaller than the model you have. very powerful tool for ham radio.
Best 'how-to-measure-SWR' with the NanoVNA video that I've seen. Thank you sir!
Wow, thanks!
Its amazing how cheap stuff has become. I worked for a decade designing cellular PCMCIA cards and later USB dongles. Vector analyzers then were well into 5 digits. If you think that was expensive a fully optioned Agilent test set for wireless data was about 400K USD. That is all in one 6U rackmount box.
It's hard to read outside in the bright Sun, but great indoors.
can also tune ur manual
antenna tuner and then connect your radio
This channel is just invaluable for me to learn the greatest new test equipment out there. TY!
Just starting out and I live in a pretty bad geographical location and so need to optimise my antenna and cables as much as I can. This device looks awesome . Thank you for a really clear presentation.
Thanks for the quick run-thru, with some practical measurements. I've had one of these analyzers for a while, but got busy with other stuff, and your talk gave me a kick to get busy. My grandson and I will get busy now.😁
Best video to understand how to use the nano vna as an antenna analyzer for amateur radio purposes. Thank you Mike! Going to finally test the speaker wire fan dipole you wrote me back about.
Awesome video demonstration as usual, Mike!
There is a upgraded version 4.3 that has a 32G card about 105 you can add the PL 259 SO 259 connectors came out to 122
Good video. I wish I had seen it when I first started digging into my NanoVNA trying to figure it out.
i just got my first nano vna just 2-3 days ago & still learning but it Dont seam to be to bad & so far i am really impressed ...I did buy one with N Connectors instead of the dinky sma connectors & it goes from like 50khz to 3Ghz so it should cover way more than i will ever need !
The nano vna is an awesome tool! It’s what I carry in my POTA bag. Although I like the Rig Expert stick because of its screen, the nano can do a little more. We need a “paper white” nano vna!
Great video, I really need to learn how to use my nanoVNA a bit better.
I know how you feel, but the learning curve for ham use is really short. And I’m no genius…don’t even have my general yet. The key is finding the right vid to learn how to calibrate and some other tricks, looks like Mike found the good sources fast…took me a minute. Not too many good vids on this, and lots are 😴in depth vids that aren’t so useful
Subscribed! You make good sense. Testing next week for Technician. See you on the air at some point. 73
Very good, Mike. I've got an older NanoVNA that's about half the size of the one you are showing. It's getting a little hard on my aging eyes and may upgrade to this one. I have been extremely pleased with the capabilities of the unit and have not seen a need for any other antenna analyzer.
So much diversity to the NanoVNA. I've been using one for nearly 5 yrs now. I like how you can set your manual antenna tuner with it along with many other things such as find the frequency of an unknown or unmarked crystal. That just a few of the things it will do. Along with my digital O-scopes and spectrum analyzers it really add to my bench. BTW I now have a frequency deviation meter that I acquired a few months ago. Catch ya on the bands sometime. I'll be bringing my Packet BBS back up now that I'm finishing my ATV and satcom station.
Just go tone sent to me to test out so now have to learn how to use it
Thank you this is great !!! Now you forced me to check all my cables and antennas ! :)))))
Hi. When doing the demo where you are connected to the antenna, to see you SWR at different frequencies, are you taking in account the piece of coax connected to your antenna< So you are not actually seeing the SWR at the antenna feed point, unless you take in account the coax length at a specific frequency and taking account for the velocity factor of the coax. I always thought need a specific length of coax that is a multiple of a half wavelength x the velocity factor of the coat. That way you will have an accurate SWR for the feed point. Sorry if I didn't explain that very well. 73 de WA3RSL
Hello very interesting video!! Thanks.
A few questions before I buy the nanoVNA-H4. Is the plastic housing no problem with RF radiation?
And isn't the mounting of the SMA connectors on the printed circuit board mechanically weak?
Great Video! Just curious, Where did you get the adapters from the coax to the leads into the VNA, any place in particular?
Oh boy, I get stuff from all over. Ham fests/swaps mostly but you can get them on Amazon too.
@@hamradiotube Thank you. I have learned of many places to purchase equipment through you and others so I was just curious ... Have a great weekend ...
Thank you so much - that was extremely informative 👏.
Got one. Need to figure it out.
No sir ... I respectfully disagree. You are indeed smart.
real life smith chart use will help on the extra test.
Good video. You need to change it to 401 sampling points. If you do not have that option, you need to update the firmware.
Barry, KU3X
Hmm, good to know. Thanks.
trying to find out where to buy more parts the short load and open pieces
Ebay
I _really_ love my RigExpert but…they get expensive above 6m and I’d like to play with 2m & 430MHz. Might have to try one of these. Thanks, Mike! WB3CFN
Your screen looks different than mine on the nano VNA. Mine has a wormhole of circles on it. How do I get rid of that. I just want to see the SWR curve
That's a pretty cool device. It would be really handy for testing used coax at a hamfest before you buy it. It's certainly a lot cheaper than the MFJ 259. Maybe it would be a good idea to get extra calibration pieces in case someone drops them in the grass. Also mount a little holder on the side of the device to hold the pointer (and get another one or two of those too).
When analyzing a mobile antenna, should you look for an open field or parking lot away from homes and buildings as you do when testing with an old style SWR meter or does it matter?
Mine has a mini SD slot to save configurations and even snapshots.
Is it necessary to recalibrate each time?
Question. Say I want to tune my mobile antenna, such as the Wolf River coil and I don't really want to bother with calibrating the vna. Since I'm just looking for resonance and don't much care about the absolute values like swr, reactance, resistance, etc. Can I do that? Obviously at some point in the past I had determined that the antenna is working properly and has a satisfactory swr at whatever frequency I'm tuning it for so I'm just looking to get back to that point. I don't know for sure but I suspect the calibration is to be sure the readings are accurate.
You don't need to calibrate it every time, no. But if you calibrate it for a different set of frequencies you may get inaccurate results if you don't re-calibrate it again when you want to tune your antenna.
Mike what NanoVNA attenuator would you recommend? K5TGS
Well I only have one, but it's this one in 40Db. amzn.to/3XzGuPv
@@hamradiotube thanks for the fast reply Mike!! K5TGS
Approximately how long was the coax between the vna and the antenna you were measuring in this video?
Bout 100'
Never check coax like this, always unwind it first.
Which of the two Nano VNA's on your affiliate link do you like better or are they essentially the same.
The one from Amazon is a newer version. And it's also available. They appear to be similar but the newer one has an SD card slot for storing data. Other than that it appears to be minor upgrades to what I reviewed.
@@hamradiotube I got it on the way. I'm building a BBTD whole house antenna and this tool will be invaluable for getting it dialled in. I should be able to do 80 to 10 meters when it's all done. My G90 will be very happy. Then I'll make a ETHER to see which one I like better. Thanks for the video and the link. 👍🏼
I'm still getting a RigExpert AA-35 Zoom. It was on sale at HRO.
Amazon has these too so you don’t have to wait weeks from China.
Great video, I just ordered one. Very informative thanks, 73;s, WA2TWF
I'm not a tech guy so forgive me if this sounds like a stupid question. Do you have to Cal for each frequency, if you have it setup and Cal for 2M? I am trying to set it up for the HF bands now. TIA Scott-KB9JTN DM43
I have efhw a buddy gave me , does have to be up in a tree to check the SWR or could just be on the ground, Thanks Im new to this ham radio stuff KD9WTH 73
Can someone tell me the difference of this and the V2 ? Thank you
You didn't show how you calibrated isolation.
so what
@@hamradiotube you showed how to calibrate open ,short, load and thru.. Why not isoln?
Converter? From NANO VNA TO ANTENNA CONNECTION? WHERE CAN I BUY THAT?😢PLEASE😢
I always wonder how SWR relates to signal output. As the SWR goes up of course the output of the transmitter starts degrading due to protectioon circuitry. But if that were removed as a factor and tuned with an antenna match where does the field strength go at those high points and low points. IOW, I want a field strength measurement at a remote site hundreds of feet away via maybe a spectrum analyzer. Has anyone ever done this? Does the field strength match the pattern of the network analyzer?
We know that feeding into a 52 ohm load that is purely resistive that the swr will be perfect across the spectrum. But there will be no signal strength.
i love mine!!
Can I measure Zigbee 3.0 868,3Mhz with that device?
finally got it setup for swr reading did that when i turned it off and cam eback later all settings wee gone so i hd to do them again. anyone know how to save my settings so i can go back to them again withiut having it redo all of them ?
Will this work on 27Mhz (CB) and Marine VHF (156-174) Mhz as well? Thank you. WRXP230
yep
Hey, a question about calibration of these units: how would you calibrate your unit before testing a very large HF antenna system? I can't go out, rise up to the 80-foot level to the feed point, and short out the ladder line, then come back in to the shack, just to calibrate the feed system. What would you do, step-wise, to ensure the best possible calibration for this work?
Who knew Josh Gates was a HAM?!
Who is Josh Gates?
Nice review. I've had my eye on one for awhile.
Thanks for the review.
W5KAL
Didn't you get the word that we all have to sell our nano VNA's?. A certain you tuber has declared that only linux programmers are capable of using this complicated piece of equipment. :)
Really? I didn't get the memo. Who said that?
@@hamradiotube Casler
Firmware updates only require carefully reviewing changes.
That means take your time and dont be impatient.
They are a great device and my only complaint with them is poorly formatted instruction manual.
Bargain works well
Good information. But the background music is annoying.
You lost me at 2:25. The rest was just garbled lingo
Replay at half speed...
Hello very interesting video!! Thanks.
A few questions before I buy the nanoVNA-H4. Is the plastic housing no problem with RF radiation?
And isn't the mounting of the SMA connectors on the printed circuit board mechanically weak?