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write your own review of the Times Technology T100 VHF/UHF Vector Antenna Analyzer.
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N7MFY
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 3, 2009 21:00
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Excellent Price, value, and performance
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I bought one of these so that I could compete with two other technicians that use the MFJ269. I routinely kick their butts. The T100 is fast, accurate small/light, and the graphing feature is the wow factor.
Whew! With all that said, my wish list would include a more rugged housing, and a little head room above 470 mhz (Some of my repeaters are on 469mhz), as well as a more developed computer program. I'd like to see the graphs on the PC, (The T100's display is a bit small) and save/print them.
I started a T100 users group on Yahoo, and all are welcome to join.
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KI6QYJ
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Rating: 4/5
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May 3, 2009 03:13
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Quite a bargain
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Don't expect miracles like continuous coverage, control of sweep width or step, or any WXproofing or "armor" against drops or the like. But for the money this thing is a real bargain. Does what you need it to do, and gives you your choice of return loss, phase angle, series or parallel impedance (with sign for the J component), or SWR. Graphs, interfaces with your computer for computer-driven measurements, and has most of the features of the "big boys".
Ups: Comes with a full range of adapters and calibration fittings (open, short, 50 ohm +j0), drivers, even a short USB cable for connecting to your computer. Super-cheap, to the point where the thing is nearly disposable -- you can't get a dual-band handheld for this cheap, and you'll have to spend at least twice as much to get the same basic features from anyone else (even more if you want the UHF coverage). Runs of AA batteries, a definite plus -- easy to always have spares in the field. Backlight plenty bright. Appears to have a self-compensating LCD display (contrast self-corrects for display temp).
Downs: Cheaply built. Drop it from any altitude and it's probably toast. Don't even let it look at water. Clear plastic "window" over the display was already peeling back and lightly scuffed on mine when it arrived. But for the price, I wasn't expecting a RigExpert AA-200 or anything. DOES NOT cover 1.25m (220 Mhz) range.
I bought this specifically for V/U antenna construction, tuning, and repeater work. For the price you can buy two, have a spare on hand in case you drop yours off the tower, and STILL come in at half the price of a Mighty Fine Junk that'll cover 440. I got myself a RigExpert AA-200 for HF (MILES better than MFJ analyzers, check it out if you're in the market for something for HF use) and one of these for V/U, and got graphing displays with all four types of measurement for everything but 6m and 220 for only a little more than the UHF model MFJ, that has no graphing capability or computer interface (the AA-200 even lets you save plots in internal memory and download them later on).
Be ginger with it, don't drop it, keep it out of the rain, and it should last a good while. Ships in a padded box that isn't beautiful but does work fine for storage (and doesn't announce to anyone that there might be desirable electronics inside, a potential plus). I consider it money well spent in terms of value for the dollar.
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RFSOAKED
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 25, 2009 09:58
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Well worth the low cost!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Great tool if your dealing with VHF/UHF on a regular basis, it covers both the ham band and commercial so it was a win-win for me as it covers both my hobby and my other ventures.
If you connect it to the computer and use the included software you can get a better look at the spectrum display, it is a bit small on the builtin display but without making the device larger and using a larger display, and adding to its cost, its a good compromise. Plus its a nice handheld size.
If you use it a lot at the workbench and have a computer or laptop nearby consider using that as you can then turn off the backlighting and save battery life, though i managed about 5-6 hours off a set of NiMH rechargeables before it flashed the little battery symbol and the backlight started to flicker a bit from the voltage drop.
As for not being able to select the range you want to sweep, that doesn't really bother me any, its fast in displaying the results when making adjustments, and if you adjust the step and display you can narrow the display down to only a portion of the band, although its still sweeping the entire range you only have to look at part of it once you have your frequency of interest selected then adjust it to begin, center, or end for the display and you can chop the display down to a portion of the range.
It's also nice being able to display the entire band to identify an unknown antenna. Instead of having to grab an analyzer like the MFJ and tuning up and down its entire range to find where its resonant i can connect an antenna of unknown value and plot it out in a couple seconds and see where its resonant, then from there i can narrow it down and make adjustments. From start to finish you can tune up the average mobile whip in minutes, the only thing it doesnt tell you is cut X number of inches off.. HI HI
If only they would make a version that covers 1-50Mhz now!
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G0KSC
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 13, 2009 22:50
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Good for the money
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought one of these from Ebay for $159.00. It has a digital disply with plenty of unctionality. However, the only let down is the frequency sweep. You can not select to sweep a fre mhz, it has to sweep the whole band, i.e. 100Mhz to 170Mhz. With the screen res, it can be a little difficult if you have a real narrow band antenna.
Other than that it is accurate and a great performer.
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