Subj : Some measurement tools
To   : All
From : Richard Menedetter
Date : Mon Jan 04 2021 01:33 pm

Hi All!

I bought some amateur radio measurement tools, and thought you might be 
interested.

A NanoVNA v2
A really, really cool Vector Network Analyzer from 50 kHz to 3 GHz.
(attention there is a v1 that can reach only 900 MHz and is slightly worse)
It has 2 SMA jacks. 1 for output and measurement of reflected power, and the 
other for input.
So you connect an antenna to port 0 and measure SWR for example.
Or you connect a filter between the 2 ports and measure its characteristic.
The NanoVNA has a tochscreen and batteries and costs around 50 USD.
It can also be used with a PC program, so that you see the diagrams on the big 
monitor.
https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html

A TinySA
A Tiny Spectrum Analyzer.
It is a bit of a toy, but a very interesting one.
Very similar to the NanoVNA as it comes with its own touch screen and battery.
Costs arounf 45 USD.
https://www.tinysa.org/wiki/

A "USB LTDZ 35-4400M"
That is really a toy.
A small USB PCB that needs a PC program.
A spectrum analyzer and tracking generator for 35 MHz to 4.4 GHz
It is not very sensitive. (USD 30)

A "jumbospot MMDVM hotspot"
Actually I have the big version with 2 radios. (only really needed for DMR I 
think)
But the above single radio version with shell costs 25 USD on Aliexpress.
You need a Raspberry Pi (Zero) to use it.
It adds a radio and small display and can act as a DMR/D-Star/Yease Fusion/NXDN 
hotspot and a POCSAG pager sender.
You can install pi-star on the RPi and add the radio onto the GPIO ports.
During lock down I had some time to play with it again, and it works just 
GREAT!
https://www.pistar.uk/

CU, Ricsi

.... Time may be a great healer, but it's also a lousy beautician.
--- GoldED+/LNX
 * Origin: A want is a need with priority. (2:310/31)

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