SARK100 Antenna Analyzer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2013
- Short clip of the problems I have had with this recent purchase from ebay. Made this so the supplier can see my problems. Sent back to China and awaiting repair or replacement?
In the end I received a refund, only took 3 months from the point of ordering. The joys of ordering from china. Now just got to get the import duty back.
Bought the YouKit Fg-01 Mk 2. Wish I had waited and bought this in the first place.
Great bit of kit, simple to use. Just what I wanted. Live and learn:) - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I got one, the exact model shown in this video. I think tonight I'm going to do a demo video on it. I'm conflicted about it's quality. Sometimes it seems right on, sometimes it seems a bit off (but in the ball-park). I can't really trust it, although I have since done a modification - replacement of the SO-239 connector) and haven't yet tested it.
I notice when I do the calibration, I connect a 274-ohm load (reads 274 on the Multi-meter) but displays around 250-260 ohms on the analyzer. 50 and 150 ohm loads display correctly. People seem to be more satisfied with the (more expensive) MINI 60 version of this meter.
Thanks, almost ordered one.
Thanks for that, not a technically minded I hoped it would be plug and play straight out of the box. Sadly not in this case. I have now opted for a
YouKits FG-01. This seems to fit my needs perfectly.
Many thanks
Mike
Hi, I know I'm commenting on an old post now, but I bought one of these pre assembled from China years ago , it works just fine, but I have noticed that powered by anything under 12 Volts it's readings go all over the place with no indication low supply voltage is the problem. I now use it with a USB powerbank and 12 Volt boost converter rather than AAA batteries and it's great.
I purchased a MR100 and had the same kind of results. Sent it back and bought an AA-55. Got a refund. Love my new analyzer..
I recently purchased a Sark 100 in Jan. of 2023 and my analiser acted the exact same way. Exactly. It doesn't matter what length of t2lt coax antenna or standard antenna I tested on the device, it would not acknowledge any sort of resonance. Very disappointed with the unit but I guess you get what you pay for. Going to try to send it back for refund. Amateur Call Sign KB2UTF.
same problems here bought from an ebay seller and frequency reading is way out.
When you made these did you ground one end of resistor or do both ends go in center pin
I realize you put this video together several years ago but I just purchased mine recently. I was wondering if you can tell me where I can purchase a battery case to put inside the back panel.
Michael VA6XMB
i have one with a faulty usb connection. when I plug in the usb, the com6 comes up. but the device doesn't seem to appear. the driver appears with a generic icon of a device but it doesn't say sark 100 or anything. is this normal?
what is the normal connection process and what comes up as a display?
I would like to be able to connect it to the pc.
cheers
simon
Is there a place to get the ohm resistors on a fitting suited for the Sark or how was it made please . Thank you !
Just bought one of these had the same problem The dds chip is 500 khz below where it should not be hence the display error.
hello
what is the firmware you downloaded and how did you do it. was it through the usb cable or did you have to take any components off?
where did you get the firmware?
cheers
simon
i managed to get the sark connected to the pc, but the programme failed, now the sark wont work. is there a way to get it working again. would I have to connect it to something. or remove the chip and reprogramme it. is there a way to reset the chip or something?
any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
simon
Will the sark 100 cover 2 meters
Mike Clark, please can inform me the resistors used load 50, 150 and 274 ohms, need to calibrate sark-100 - thanks
Yes but they do NOT work
Thank you for saving my money.
fred and fernando please update the information after upgrading the firmware
Hi Gary. I just soldered resisters across a pl259 connector. If search sark100 in google you will find the manual to down load. Shows how to calibrate towards the end of the manual.
Good luck
Mike
What did you use for the 274ohm did you put 2 in parallel.
Hi Mike thanks for the info, had mine to days, and its going back it should of come with BNC came os-239 an that socket is lose, chip paint and a cross thread screw wrong color an it don't look like the one i ordered, WHAT CAN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gary
Can you get batteries?
Were you using the internal ATU on the Yaesu?
clearly he was not.
Salve anche io ho acquistato uno sark 100 e sto incontrando gli stessi problemi. Ho fatto la calibrazione con le resistenze. Verificando con un dummy a varie frequenze leggo 50 ohm solo dalla banda 40 m up 15 m per le altre bande ho numeri della z e del swr non coerenti.
Ho caricato il driver dell'FTDI FT232R il sistema delle porte mi fa vedere che quando lo collego appare un aporta COM 5. se lo scollego sparisce ma quando provo a collegarlo al computer con il software PSOC il sistema mi risponde device not present o non alimentato.
Ho provato anche a caricare un altro driver ma niente da fare.
Ho scritto al fornitore gli ho mandato foto delle schermate dove da i numeri e alla fine mi hanno attivato il rimborso senza chiedermi indietro l'oggetto!!
Peccato perchè mi sarebbe piaciuto che funzionasse. Opterò per qulacosa di meno cinese!
do these need to down load software in to them toget them to work?
No
CAN YOU SAY HOW YOU MADE THE PLUGS WITH THE RESISTORS PLEASE.
he obviously measured resistors with his multimeter in resistance mode.. then soldered them to a PL259 plug....
I see lots of bad reports here but seriously I bought the Sark 100 and had no problems at all. To put things into perspective I tested the mfj and the rig expert aa55 and the readings were the same on all three.. so I was actually pleasant surprises that the Sark worked accordingly, so I don't get the bad reviews..
I guess most hams will always justify their results on how much they spend on equipment, thinking by buying better equipment somehow it's going to work better.. China brand or not test equipment is all made to an industry standard.. maybe the bad results were because you had no idea how to use the Sark and all your antenna's were completely out of whack to begin with.
como posso comprar um shark 100 e qual a via
Same Problems, frequency is ok, but amplitude on higher bands very small, almost zero. Measurement results all wrong , usb output sometimes ok, but programming not possible. It is a real shame.
do you mean that sark100 have a lack of gain in high bands, right?
Seriously, the Yaesu FT450D has in internal automatic ATU, which may explain why it achieves a low SWR with your antenna and the SARK100 doesn't!
seriously .. im sure he knows that.
I am waiting for a replacement from china, I downloaded the manual and was following it for the calibration procedure. Still got some strange results.
I have 2 they are trash
Strangely, bought mine from China and after calibration it works fine.
thanks
So does anyone know how to get the USB port to work with a PC? I've installed the drivers but when I try to communicate with it using a PC I don't get any response.
may be FT232 RL chip got problem with it. May be you can read the blog comments > sark-100.blogspot.com/2013/04/sark100-clones-at-ebay.html#comment-form
I got it working, there was no problem with the hardware, it just took me a while to get the DOS command entered properly. I don't believe those blogs are accurate. Everything on mine works as it should and there are no problems with the chips. BTW, I have since installed the Bluetooth module which makes it a lot easier to use with the Android app on a tablet.
from 1.9MHz to 29MHz almost OK,
but at 50MHz, doesnt work well.
AD9851 could run at 70MHz, so why?
thanks for the info. I'm planning on getting one
Why?
i got ome its carp to m6ltv nige 73
I got help by the seller 1984yht888:
„HI, we have found the problem,AD9851 is ok pls change the two L1 and L2 to 0.1uH."
Perhaps he will give help also for the usb connection. (Perhaps I am to silly)
Revise los diodos cerca del conector pl del sark100
There are 2 bogus parts on the chinese clones, the AD9851 and the FT232RL. The AD9851 which is the dds synthesizer is producing a frequency that is 1.5x lower than it should be. The FT232RL is the usb to serial chip that should allow to control the antenna analyzer from your computer. So far, it seems that it does not work either on most units. Please see the sark100 blog for more info: sark-100.blogspot.ca/2013/04/sark100-clones-at-ebay.html#comment-form
I bought a Sark 100, performed the calibration, and found theoretical versus measured resonant frequency for my 40m antenna was off by over 1 megahertz (actual 7.200MHz, measured 6.150MHz). But after comparing with a rig expert antenna analyzer and getting the same result, it was obvious the problem was not with either antenna analyzer but was with my antenna.
Have you tried a different model? I am looking into something and was considering this...
@@heffptbo thanks for replying because I realize I need to change my comment. I splurged and bought a rig expert AA-55. And guess what - I got the same results as with the Sark 100. Turns out the theoretical formula for the total length of a full wavelength 40m loop antenna was too long for my install by about 10% (which is why you need a good antenna analyzer). So yeah if you get a good power supply (12VDC, 1.0A wall adaptor worked for me) to go with a Sark 100, it could be a good buy. I don't regret the Rig Expert purchase, but this, or a nanoVNA, are cheaper options.
@@davidmartin123 thanks for the reply, that sounds good.
hello.you are checking my sark 100 caliber. you are checking whether the device is working properly.
so its shite ? oh well.
My two are both rubbish ..
Pure junk
You get what you pay for. Do you think you can buy a relaible, accurate measurement device for such a low price ? OMG. Forget it. Many HAMs buying directly from China. The cheaper the better. Please don't complain if you do it that way.
..that's a tad harsh. Perhaps suggest that he try it on different antennas? These Sark100 analyzers work fine if not defective. I put mine up against an AA50 RigExort and it was dead on balls accurate.