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Reviews For: NanoVNA

Category: Antenna Analyzers

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Review Summary For : NanoVNA
Reviews: 36MSRP: 30-80
Description:
Very Tiny Palmtop 50 kHz - 900 MHz Vector Network Analyzer (two port) or use one port as an Antenna Analyzer
Product is in production
More Info: https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
33.3364.4
IN3ELX Rating: 2019-10-28
fantastic low cost Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The product is very good for its cost. The dynamics is good up to 150/300 Mhz. In VHF I have calibrated many filters. As an antenna analyzer it also works well in 430 Mhz.
KJ4RWH Rating: 2019-10-16
Game Changer $$ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I saw these NanoVNA mentioned in some online Ham forums and bought one ($46) They are simply amazing for the price. Actually it competes with devices costing 6X as much. It displays Smith charts, SWR, phase where ever you set it to view. Has a range of 500kc to 9gHz. You can set a band with of 1.5mHz to 150mHz and display your 2-160 OCF dipole's SWR. Be sure to discover the full use of the touchscreen. It will speed your input and contains shortcuts in the frequency input. There is pc software on the web for this as well. I believe screens can be saved and scan parameters can be set.(I've only dabbled with it for a few minutes) I enclosed a couple of pix to get you an idea of what it is.
https://flic.kr/p/2hvRJBR
https://flic.kr/p/2hvRJCx
G8JNJ Rating: 2019-10-01
Brings 2 port measurement to the masses Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Pro's

Very cheap (for what you get)
Reasonable accuracy, especially up to 300MHz, but still usable above this frequency
It is tiny and will easily fit in a shirt pocket
Fairly robust (if you are careful)
Free PC software available, which makes it a lot easier to use in the workshop and allows the import and export of files

Cons

Accuracy is constrained by the measuring bridge and number of sampled data points
The touch screen is a bit small
Current software is a bit buggy
The 'jog' wheel is nasty and unreliable, however it would be easy enough to replace it with three recessed miniature push buttons mounted on the top panel

he "Nano VNA F" is now becoming available (at a higher price) which has a 4.3" screen. I would guess this will get cheaper and also further drive down the cost of the original.

Overall I'm very impressed and would definitely recommend it as a useful 'cheap RF multimeter' type product.
W1ITT Rating: 2019-09-29
Game changer VNA Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Since the first of the year, I have bought two of these via Ebay and two via AliExpress. I kept one and friends have the others. They are the black one, not the gecko ones, and they all work well. Having a two-port device is the game changer as it enables "through" measurements on filters etc. Separately, I bought short cables with SMA connectors and Type N and UHF on the other end. I wouldn't recommend putting an adapter directly on the unit then hooking up to a fat cable as the SMA connectors solder directly to the pc board. These units come with calibration kits. They don't replace my HP/Agilent or Rhode and Schwartz analyzer but for most Amateur Radio applications they go far beyond the popular "ham" analyzers that cost a few times more. The operation is fairly intuitive and the multicolor touch screen display with Smith chart makes tuning a breeze.
QRPNEW Rating: 2019-09-29
Quality sucks Needs Improvement Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A very powerful tool thats hampered by its very small screen.

The software is very basic and needs to considerable improvement before you can think of getting rid of other ham VNA's like the VNWA, AIM and MiniVNA. Then if you have not used a true VNA you will have a steep learning curve and might miss some simple basic ways of doing and measuring things. Its great if you an expert at using a VNA and smith chart. I much prefer the VNWA and its software.

I went through 3 units and the biggest failing of these units is the JOG button which is very poor quality. The 1st unit I received was faulty from the seller. The second got stuck really badly and the seller wanted me to replace the unit. I refused and he finally sent a 3rd unit as a replacement. I doubt that if you used the unit measuring all your antennas it will be working by the end of your learning curve. The JOG wheel is crap.

The SMA connectors are a terrible choice especially the ones most of us can afford and the ones that are supplied. They have limited mating cycles and need to be adapted down using crap Chinese adapters making the whole thing unreliable and inconsistent. Chinese connectors are garbage. I would have preferred N style connectors. The case is very fragile and really should have been a metal enclosure. This trend to make everything SMA is just cheapness rather than considering how many times you will mate and unmate these connectors before they fail, especially the garbage Chinese SMA connectors. SMA's are a poor choice.

The menu interface is primitive and basic and navigating with the JOG wheel is easy enough when it works the interface is not very user friendly. It really should be driven by the software but this still has a long way to go before I would call it mature to the point where it exploits the NANO's full potential. I much prefer the MiniVNA, W5BIG and VNWA software which all allows you to work and measure what you need to do quickly. Even doing something like simple transmission loss like you would do on a Spectrum/tracking generator analyzer you dont have a standard menu choice for. Transmission loss would be the most used feature of the VNA and this is not clear cut and easy on this NANOVNA.

The tiny screen is terrible and hard to read. I would have rather paid double and got a decent screen that you can read. These cute toy screens are useless in the real world. If the firmware had many personality style measurement features like say the SARK110 where every measurement is defined you would not mind this crap small screen. The rigexpert is an example of clear well laid out screen that is small with a excellent menu structure.

Personally if you dont require a VNA I would just pass this unit by till it gets improved and look at other alternatives. You wont get one at such a great price though.

The NanoVNA is a breakthrough and powerful product that is let down by poor software, screen size and bad quality in its bold. If you are bored and need a new toy or just like playing with VNA's by all means go for it but I would not waste my money otherwise, there are far more decent products that can get the job done without the frustration of buying a immature and bad quality product. But I suppose thats everything from China its always cheap and nasty rather than designed for real use over the long run. So many sellers sell this product and the quality varies depending on who supplies it. Its just a money making exercise for these sellers rather than wanting users to have a fantastic product that is well supported.



W5DXP Rating: 2019-09-29
A VNA (and antenna analyzer) for less than $50 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This device is a two-port vector network analyzer the size of a pack of cigarettes. Functioning up to 900 MHz and costing less than $50, it tends to obsolete most antenna analyzers. It has a graphic display, built-in rechargeable battery, and USB port for connection to a PC. It is an open architecture device with dozens of suppliers, some in the US but also available directly from many Chinese sources. It is an amazing device for the price.