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Reviews For: AUTEK RESEARCH VA1-RF1-RF5 RF ANALYST

Category: Antenna Analyzers

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Review Summary For : AUTEK RESEARCH VA1-RF1-RF5 RF ANALYST
Reviews: 109MSRP: 129.95
Description:
The pocket-sized RF1 is designed to check and adjust antennas,
Product is not in production
More Info: https://web.archive.org/web/20130523062036/http://autekresearch.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001093.2
K6QE Rating: 2004-08-02
VA-1 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just recieved the VA-1 and my first impression was, My God, this is a piece of junk! It is flimsy looking, in a plastic molded case and the pots don't even line up. However, that didn't bother me too much until I compared it with my SWR meter of my Icom 756 PROII and a Bird WATT meter. It is no wonder they don't publish any specification to accuracy....There is none. On several antennas on various ham bands the lowest SWR I could get was about 1.36 to 1. What was very disconcerting is the SWR would change values from 1.36 to 1.47!!! At the lowest values as indicated on the VA-1 both my PROII SWR meter and Bird WATT meter showed zero relfected power.

Well, guys why go any further? This piece of equipment is like the cheap crystal radios kids would buy back in the old days from Kearny, Nebraska.

As a final, I put the piece of crap in a vice and squashed it playing like it was the brains of the jerks that invented this thing!!!

Jim Gilliam, K6QE
AD5X Rating: 2004-03-23
Good for its price & size Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had an RF-1 for many years (4-5). Never had a problem with it. I wish the tuning wasn't so sensitive, and an analog display would make it easier to find an SWR null. But hard to beat for the price.

Phil - AD5X
N2XE Rating: 2004-03-23
I like it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It never ceases to amaze me how many Hams are lazy, whining babies who want their gear for free...

For $130, the RF-1 is great. Is it Hewlett-Packard quality? No. But then again it's only one hundredth the cost. I couldn't build one myself for less so I give it a big thumbs up!

I would suggest any potential buyers read the manual to get a good idea of what to expect.

Yes, the case is... well... plastic. And yes, the switches are... well... flimsy. And yes, it can get turned on inadvertently but it only costs $130. It does function as advertised and I think it functions well. The size and weight is perfect for packing this thing along in the field.

I give it a 5 for utility vs. price. I was expecting low cost fit and finish and that's what I got so no surprise there.
KC4GMY Rating: 2004-03-16
Cheap made analyzer - very disappointed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the RF-1. The unit is cheap made. The buttons sometimes don't function, the knobs have worked their way loose, and the display blinks. Sometimes the far left digit disappears.

Also, the fine tuning know has a very narrow range.

Avoid this device like the plague. Go ahead and spend the extra dollars to buy an AEA Analyst and you will be far happier in the long run.
K3GM Rating: 2004-03-04
Must have tool........ Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've used mine to tune verticals, dipoles and mobile antennas all with great success. If have one complaint, it concerns the "Tune" knob. The adjustment is too coarse and will jump around during adjustment. I'd gladly pay the difference if they would install precision pots. Despite that problem, the little box makes antenna work a breeze. It's not an HP Network Analyzer but for two hundred bucks, what do you expect?
WF7I Rating: 2004-02-25
Boy I feel dumb Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I wish I'd read these reviews before I bought one. Just like so many of you, mine worked about a dozen times, then sat on a bench doing nothing for 1 year, and now won't work!! I opened it up but couldn't see anything obvious. I'll have to play with it some more now that I've read the rest of your experiences.

I would've bought an MFJ unit but I've been burned by their shoddy stuff too many times as well. Who makes a reliable, quality unit??
KB0QIL Rating: 2004-02-08
This is a very good buy Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I echo most of the comments. This works great! It is accurate, repeatable, stable, and provides all the relavent information to tune an antenna. I reach for mine frequently whenever there is an antenna question.

It is not a full hearted 5 however, the construction is spotty and the tuning is a bit too sensitive. If there were a 4.6 that would be my rating. I do use it to tune a loop antenna with a band with of about 10kc. It is consisent and works there.

I am confused over the ratings given these devices by others; they appear to be eiter love it or hate it. That speaks to manufacturing rather then engineering. I hope someone from Autek reads this. I hate to see companies fail due to managable problems.
W7DDM Rating: 2004-01-23
Poor workmanship but accurate Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I must confess that I should have taken the advice of so many reviews before me. But I read the review by w8wwv at http://www.seed-solutions.com/gregordy/Amateur%20Radio/Experimentation/EvalAnalyzers.htm and decided because of the size, price & performance; maybe I would be one of the lucky ones. I wasn't. For the first few hours of operation it worked great. I measured coxial loads, antennas, resistors, inductors and transmission lines and got excellent results. I repeated some of the work by w8wwv and again got similar results. Unfortunately, the RF-1 then stopped working. I opened it up and was appalled by the workmanship. None of the components were vertical. There must of been a dozen 'fixes'. There were cold solder joints and components barely making contact. The underlying problem to my RF-1 dying was the way the series, axial leaded capacitor is soldered to the UHF connector. It is a 'flying' connection. And since the center conductor of the UHF connector was turning as I used it, this connection eventually broke. Autek also places a small piece of paper between the UHF connector and the PCB to prevent shorting. Of course, as the center conductor rotates, my paper ripped. And guess what, it shorted to the PCB. What great engineering!

I replaced the UHF connector with a BNC connector and its working again. Unfortunately, because of the difference in size, I had to goop it up to fill the gap. I guess I'll use it until the LCD dies or something else fails. Right now it's working pretty well again.

If Autek had done just one more PCB run, used a different box, and had someone who could solder build the things, this would be a nice analyzer.
W9FWS Rating: 2003-12-14
A Waste of money... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If you need sign of "j" buy AEA. The Autek VA-1 is unreliable, and the money I wasted buying it would have gone a long way toward an AEA. I made 3 field day SWR readings with it 3 years ago (no energized TX's) and then, just after it was out of warranty, tried it again... no display. So I sent it back to Autek paying about $50 and when it returned, just out of the box, no display. So I called them and was told to loosen the screws on the case, because the case halves had to be loose for the connection between the two boards to work.
The LCD still is nearly illegible and useless in daylight.
K8SWD Rating: 2003-11-02
OK--but needs improvement! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had my RF-1 for about a week. I bought this unit simply because it was smaller and lighter than my trusty MFF-259. I thought I would carry the RF-1 with me for portable use with my FT-817 for to assist with tuning up my MP-1 and Buddipole antennas.

Upon opening the box, I was initially impressed. I hooked it up in the shack and checked some antennas. Touchy knobs! But the unit was pretty accurate. I used it on my MP1 antenna yesterday later in the morning while out deer hunting. I found it more difficult to tune the antenna then simply using the SWR meter on the FT817. Even when I found a match on the RF-1--I still had to tweak the antenna after hooking up the FT817.

Last night I was going to put a piece of clear tape over the screen lens to gaurd against scratches. The lens pushed into the unit! So I took it apart. The case looks like it was drilled out by a little kid. The holes were ragged and not in an even line. They are covered on the outside of the plastic box with a sticker label. This is like bondo on a dented car! Also, the circuit board should be held in place with 4 screws. It had two. However, one mounting post has been removed or broken off during the drilling process. On screw was omitted. The glue job on the safety plastic lens was shoddy. I was able to fix this with a bit of model glue and I added a bit of heavy foam rubber around this to take up the gab between the LCD display and the safety plastic window so hopefully it does not get pushed in again.

The choice of swithes are poor. Something a bit more firmer should have been used, especially for the off/on power switch! This unit can be easily activated and your battery can be depleted. I read some have cut it down. I may replace with a toggle. It should come with one for this much money. The alternative is to remove the battery. The battery cover is hard to remove--so this is a hassle.

Overall, I am somewhat dissatisfied. At least MFJ has a metal case! And MFJ as a bit better hole drilling set up! The electronic performance of this unit is adequate for my needs and it will be better on a tower than hauling up the heavier MFJ unit, but still, a lot more quality could have been added for $150.00 in my opinion.