[bars] RigExpert SWR analyzers?

Paul Pellegrini k1vk at yahoo.com
Sat Mar 30 19:30:07 EDT 2019 

 
Well I need to join the conversation about SWRanalyzers.  I bought a kit from FunkAmateur.  If you don’t want to getChinese products, this is a good alternative as it is from Germany.  The item is called a Vector Antenna Analyzerand it was designed by a German ham, DG5MK. The model I have is FA-VA4.

It is a kit and you need to put it together yourself.  It takes a couple of hours and the solderingrequires a small iron.  However, all ofthe surface mount devices are already on the main board so you won’t have tostress over doing that task.  It ispowered from a pair of AA batteries.  Thething I like best about this analyzer is that you can display 5 bands at one time.  I have mine set up to look at the 5 major HFbands at once.  So you only have to pushthe on button to see all the bands.  Thisis especially helpful if you have an 80 meter OCF (Off Center Fed) antenna whichcovers 80, 40, 20, 10 and 6 meters.  Yes,an 80 meter antenna will work on 6, try it.
The website for the analyzer is www.box73.de.  It is in German, but if you use Google itwill translate.  My FA-VA4 goes from 100KHzto 100MHz and cost $129.  The latestversion is FA-VA5 and it covers 100KHz to 600MHz and costs 179 euros.
PaulK1VK
+
    On Saturday, March 30, 2019, 1:00:04 PM EDT, bars-request at w1hh.org <bars-request at w1hh.org> wrote:  
 
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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: RigExpert SWR analyzers? (Guy DeMartinis)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:47:05 -0400
From: Guy DeMartinis <demartinisfam at gmail.com>
To: dptrainor at gmail.com
Cc: Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com>, bars at w1hh.org
Subject: Re: [bars] RigExpert SWR analyzers?
Message-ID: <A380B85A-F19C-4391-A8D1-E1CCA0F609C8 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Just a related antenna analyzer side note - I purchased a SARK-100 Antenna Analyzer for under $70 as part of my initial ultra-low-budget QRP HF station which includes a Bitx40 built into a lunchbox along with various MFJ necessities (dummy load, qrp tuner, etc.)... Less than ~$350 total including RF cable and materials for a home-made ?shorty-40? dipole. I can?t say I?d recommend the SARK-100 or related versions as the quality from the Chinese companies that build them is hit or miss. Mine worked well enough for me to tune my dipole and some other antennae with noticeable performance improvements.... But now that I have an MFJ-874 on my bench I will go back and compare some SWR readings to see if the SARK-100 is junk... or not?
Regards,
Guy
AC1BJ


Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 29, 2019, at 14:44, Dan Trainor <dptrainor at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Andy,  Glad you found manual.  Yeah, would be good topic  for a lecture or article.  SWR analyzers, for sure so darn useful for understanding the complete electrical profile of your antenna.  An essential tool for all that might experiment with antennas and/or want to improve there system. Or monitor health over time. It really opens your eyes as to what is happening with your antenna whether your drilling down on a specific frequency and looking at reactances or looking at SWR plot and other parameters over a wide span.  If anyone whats to borrow my AA-230 Zoom, to check it out or just use to plot out an antenna, just let me know.  Regards, Dan WA1QZX
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 2:02 PM Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Aha, the AA-230 Zoom manual is on DX Engineering. 
>> 
>> https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/instructions/reu-aa-230zoom_sn.pdf
>> 
>> Folks - maybe this would be good for a meeting lecture or newsletter article - an SWR analyzer is a piece of test gear which can greatly speed up and simplify antenna setup. No need to fool with a transceiver and SWR meter. These things connect to your coax and almost instantly show you how well your antenna will resonate on a particular band or bands!
>> Andy
>> 
>> 
>> On Mar 29, 2019, at 1:55 PM, Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Great, thanks, Dan. I see they are not made in PRChina but the Ukraine. The Comet one is made in Japan. I don?t see a manual download area on RigExpert?s site...
>> 
>> Andy
>> 
>> 
>> On Mar 29, 2019, at 12:50 PM, Dan Trainor <dptrainor at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Yes,  they are very good.  I have the AA-54 Zoom model.  Also the software for plotting SWR and other parameters is also very powerful. The units are high quality.  Highly recommend.  Dan WA1QZX 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Mar 29, 2019, at 11:24 AM, Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Folks, I was wondering if any of you use these. I recently watched this review and the capabilities seem really good compared to the Comet (or the simple Youkits one I have). 
>>> 
>>> https://youtu.be/Q2HDuv84mkw
>>> 
>>> Andy
>>> KA1GTT
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> bars mailing list
>>> bars at w1hh.org
>>> http://mail.w1hh.org/mailman/listinfo/bars_w1hh.org
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dan
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