I just got my nanoVNA H4, and have begin using it... How wonderful to
have a tool like this...

Updated the firmware, and ran it on my 80-10 meter antenna setup...
Can't wait to take one of my CM filters I built and check that out...

Anyway, I just had to say something...

--
73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist, RFI
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

Totally.  I just got my V2P4 a week ago and have been getting familiarized with operating it and some of its capabilities.   It is amazing, especially at the price.

Same here. I used it to trim my 2-Meter mobile antenna, along with some
help from this group. I can now get into a repeater 50 miles away where I
could not before, and it seems like my rig is producing less heat out the
back. A valuable device and a very helpful group! Thank you.

-- Rachel K5ZN

On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 11:34 AM Dave Cole <dave@nk7z.net> wrote:

> I just got my nanoVNA H4, and have begin using it... How wonderful to
> have a tool like this...
>
> Updated the firmware, and ran it on my 80-10 meter antenna setup...
> Can't wait to take one of my CM filters I built and check that out...
>
> Anyway, I just had to say something...
>
> --
> 73, and thanks,
> Dave (NK7Z)
> https://www.nk7z.net
> ARRL Volunteer Examiner
> ARRL Technical Specialist, RFI
> ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources
>
>
>
>
>
>

Ok, got one last week and this 82 year old brain is wondering what to do with it - it sure has been getting lots of PR lately. Living in an apartment and having only a small balcony to put up an antenna will be a challenge. Want to get on 40 meters and will attempt to use a loaded dipole - couple base loaded mobile whips butted together.  Most likely will have to tune the thing for each turn of the dial on the rig.  Maybe could ask here about "how to"? Thank you, Tommy

I find this makes the most compact antenna analyzer I can find. And is
significantly cheaper than my other antenna analyzers. If it only worked
as an antenna analyzer, that justified the purchase for me.

But it can do so much more.

Get the test board:

-
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B082MHWTT9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

so you can play with other options.

The connectors to the board are a little funky, but if you play with them
they begin to work as designed.

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 8:02 AM Tommy N5CTC via groups.io <tson35=
iCloud.com@groups.io> wrote:

> Ok, got one last week and this 82 year old brain is wondering what to do
> with it - it sure has been getting lots of PR lately. Living in an
> apartment and having only a small balcony to put up an antenna will be a
> challenge. Want to get on 40 meters and will attempt to use a loaded dipole
> - couple base loaded mobile whips butted together. Most likely will have
> to tune the thing for each turn of the dial on the rig. Maybe could ask
> here about "how to"? Thank you, Tommy
>
>
>

--

73,
AB1PH
Don Rolph

calibrate the device ... say sweep from 6 to 8 mhz for coarse tune

zoom in ... make a sweep from say 6.9 to 7.3 megs

now you should see where the resonance of your (short loaded) dipole is

the finetune it to your needs

the impedance would not be 50 ohms (guessing lower) so some matching
will be needed anyway

any tree close to balcony where you could shoot a wire in??

dg9bfc sigi



Am 05.05.2021 um 11:43 schrieb Tommy N5CTC via groups.io:

> Ok, got one last week and this 82 year old brain is wondering what to
> do with it - it sure has been getting lots of PR lately. Living in an
> apartment and having only a small balcony to put up an antenna will be
> a challenge. Want to get on 40 meters and will attempt to use a loaded
> dipole - couple base loaded mobile whips butted together.  Most likely
> will have to tune the thing for each turn of the dial on the rig.
>  Maybe could ask here about "how to"? Thank you, Tommy
>

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 12:02 PM, Tommy N5CTC wrote:

>
> Ok, got one last week and this 82 year old brain is wondering what to do
> with it - it sure has been getting lots of PR lately. Living in an
> apartment and having only a small balcony to put up an antenna will be a
> challenge. Want to get on 40 meters and will attempt to use a loaded
> dipole - couple base loaded mobile whips butted together.  Most likely
> will have to tune the thing for each turn of the dial on the rig.  Maybe
> could ask here about "how to"? Thank you, Tommy

Ha!  Trying to figure out how to work it will be good for those old brain cells...maybe even recruit some out of dormancy.  This forum is a good place to look for and ask for information specific to operating this device.  A better place to ask things like which antennas to use and how to make make them work is best done in other forums. QRZ.com forums are a good active place.

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php

The way I look at it, this device is like other tools, it doesn't really "do anything" itself but rather gets other things to do something, or do it better. You need to have applications for it.  You want to get that antenna working in 40m?  This can help you do that, not just trimming a dipole to length, but figuring out what's needed if you're building a circuit to match the impedance of some antenna to your 50 ohm TX (resonance does not mean 50 ohms, and SWR of 1:1 doesn't mean you're good).  If you're building a receiver or transceiver and want to evaluate some filters or design and built some filters, this device will help you do that.  It also does things like measure the length of coax (given the velocity factor) or measure the velocity factor (given the length).  It can find the distance to significant damage along a length of feed line. It'll do many more things, but you still need to have good knowledge about those things you want accomplish.

I to need help too. Stuffed if I can get it work either.

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 07:38 AM, Siegfried Jackstien wrote:

>
> "any tree close to balcony where you could shoot a wire in??"

>
> Believe me this is a good thought. Bought a slingshot and some clay balls
> to practice sending a wire.  Being 155' straight down to the natural
> ground will provide for quite a long wire if shot out to a tree limb
> across the street in the park.  Most likely have to consider the wire as
> being lost after using it because probably will not be able to retrieve
> it. The trees most able to be used are in an inaccessible place on the
> side of a fenced off steep slope. However wire bought in quantity would be
> less expensive per throw.  In the meantime, having fun practicing
> "shooting".  Wondering how long is not to much?

So how do I check my SWR? It tells me I have a good SWR , yet I know my SWR is bad.

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 07:49 AM, Lou W7HV wrote:

>
> "Trying to figure out how to work it will be good for those old brain
> cells...maybe even recruit some out of dormancy."

You nailed it, exactly why I decided to take up ham radio again after an absence of over 55years - finally have all the time in the year to play radio. Do think this new little transceiver must be magic - no way it compares size wise to all the vacuum tube things from back then.

Yet another hour wasted and still cant get it working, just tells me I have a good swr yet I know Its not. 2 days wasted, seems like garbage to me so Its going back.

On 5/5/21 7:39 AM, Ashley French wrote:
> Yet another hour wasted and still cant get it working, just tells me I
> have a good swr yet I know Its not. 2 days wasted, seems like garbage
> to me so Its going back.
> _._,_._,_
A good check is to hook up a couple loads in parallel (with a T) to get
a 25 ohm load and see if it shows up as you'd expect (VSWR = 2)

I got mine about a week ago and also had to wake up some brain cells.
Read the manual - available on the website, watched a few YouTube videos and also purchased the RF demo board. It's starting to come together - And the demo board is giving me a known information of what I'm seeing on the screen.  Be sure to look up the manual for the demo board as well.

One caveat I read yesterday, be sure to ground your antenna before connecting to the nanovna - a static discharge will likely kill the nano.

To get started using this device to measure antenna SWR, check out this 18 minute vid.  It starts from scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJYeFpiqY8c

On 5/5/21 8:39 AM, Glenn Dollar wrote:
> I got mine about a week ago and also had to wake up some brain cells.
> Read the manual - available on the website, watched a few YouTube
> videos and also purchased the RF demo board. It's starting to come
> together - And the demo board is giving me a known information of what
> I'm seeing on the screen.  Be sure to look up the manual for the demo
> board as well.
>
> One caveat I read yesterday, be sure to ground your antenna before
> connecting to the nanovna - a static discharge will likely kill the nano.
> _._,_._,_

What's really interesting is if you have some sort of bandpass filter
laying around. (like one of those 10.7 MHz IF filters) and a couple
different lengths of coax, and some Ts and loads (so you can make a 25
ohm load)..

For "fooling around" I like BNC - so a transition from SMA to BNC.

What's also fun is to wind a coil of a dozen or so turns on a pencil,
and look at the self resonances as you stretch and shrink the coil.

If you can find a ferrite rod from a loopstick type antenna (or even a
piece of iron wire) you can shove it into the coil.

What's most valuable is that you see the changes in real time. Sure you
*could* do a traditional LCR meter and plot your data by hand on a Smith
chart or something, but watching it change in real time is cool.

Another fun experiment is to build a couple dipoles (don't even have to
be perfectly tuned) for, say, 850 MHz (so they're small) - and you can
look at S21 between them as you move them closer and farther, have
multipath ( a cookie sheet makes a nice reflector) and polarization effects.

Here are a few more good videos.  Some assume you have more experience with the device so move more quickly.  The nanoVNA is a very capable measuring device, but it only makes measurements.  You need to know what and why you're measuring something, and then how to use those measurements to achieve your purpose.  The first video below explains in fairly basic terms how the nanoVNA works and what it measures.  Start with some of the other videos to get you measuring what you want to measure.  Then if curious, check out that first video on how it works. There are many more videos out there.  Personally, I don't like videos preferring text and pictures but can't deny these are very helpful.  The on-line text manuals, such as they are, are fairly high level aimed at those more knowledgeable about the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGKWBpgN8PU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJYeFpiqY8c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6dqx9udcg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F17mN5uuzGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU71rGUKlBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4grkMuql4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thbTC8-JtA

Thank you for supplying those URLs.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist, RFI
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 5/5/21 9:18 AM, Lou W7HV via groups.io wrote:

> Here are a few more good videos.  Some assume you have more experience
> with the device so move more quickly.  The nanoVNA is a very capable
> measuring device, but it only makes measurements.  You need to know what
> and why you're measuring something, and then how to use those
> measurements to achieve your purpose.  The first video below explains in
> fairly basic terms how the nanoVNA works and what it measures.  Start
> with some of the other videos to get you measuring what you want to
> measure.  Then if curious, check out that first video on how it works.
> There are many more videos out there.  Personally, I don't like videos
> preferring text and pictures but can't deny these are very helpful.  The
> on-line text manuals, such as they are, are fairly high level aimed at
> those more knowledgeable about the subject.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGKWBpgN8PU
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJYeFpiqY8c
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6dqx9udcg
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F17mN5uuzGY
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU71rGUKlBI
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4grkMuql4
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thbTC8-JtA
>

its not garbage ... but you have to learn how to use it

what do you want to measure? did you calibrate it before use?

screenshot?

how shall we help you without you giving us some details??

greetz sigi dg9bfc

Am 05.05.2021 um 14:39 schrieb Ashley French:

> Yet another hour wasted and still cant get it working, just tells me I
> have a good swr yet I know Its not. 2 days wasted, seems like garbage
> to me so Its going back.
>

That link isn't working for me.  It just brings me to the group home page.  Clicking on the files link on the home page just brings me back to the home page.  Problem with the site, group settings, or on my end???

The problem is on your end: You need to be subscribed to the group in order to access files. The group in question is different from this one. When you are in the group’s homepage, just subscribe, wait until your subscription is active and then try again.

Karl Heinz - K5KHK

Hah.  That worked.  I didn't realize it was a different group!   TNX