It might be possible to find a donation, too, and of course that
wouldn't have to be new (but might be). My specific recommendations
would be biased so I'm going to avoid giving them. However, I think
you should make a wish-list of features, first, and perhaps your
students could help you come up with those. It would even be a chance
to engage them in a little research. I'd say you should have an
instrument that's easy to learn and use, and that introduces the
students to a good range of the capabilities of a good VNA. It would
be good if it introduces them to the importance of calibration, and
just _what_ should be calibrated on a VNA. It would be good if it can
make s-parameter measurements. The concept of having the ability to
make calibrated measurements at the end of a (possibly fairly long)
transmission line is very useful. In actual use, I'd look for ways to
illustrate that they (all of them) have limitations: there are
tradeoffs in the design of a VNA, made with an eye to the intended
application(s).

I know that HP published some nice application notes about VNA
applications and calibration and accuracy limits. Likely Rohde &
Schwarz and Anritsu and others have similar ap notes. If you have
trouble finding HP ones, I may be able to help, but they're likely on
the Agilent web (somewhere). Also look for articles in the HP
Journal...again, I can help if you can't find anything.

Cheers,
Tom

Bob Liesenfeld wrote in message ...
Hi gang,
I know there are several professional engineering types on the list,
so I thought I'd post this here. I teach at a technical college and it
is budget time. My boss asked me for a "wish list" and a vector network
analyzer came to mind. What I had in mind would be something we could
use to characterize small signal BJT and JFET circuits at say 3-30MHz.
VHF and UHF would be nice, but not required. I'd be looking for
something that could provide real and imaginary values, so as to be able
to develop s parameters for various circuits.
In order to qualify for consideration, the unit would have to be new,
and non-kit. I know HP and others make things like this. Any
recommendations?
BTW, I know something like this is going to run in the kilo or tens of
kilo buck range. Hey, it's their money and they asked.

Thanks for the input.

Bob WB0POQ