On 24/01/16 12:47, Stephen Thomas Cole wrote:
Rambo wrote:
Has tht worthy insrument noe died-the-death in the face of developments
such as N2PK and VNWA, and antennae analysers from the llikes of MFJ?
Yes..when one can get a Sark100 for less than £60
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-ANT-S...AOSwPhdVHCW ~
That is a good price. Is this bit of kit worth it though, Rich, or is it
knock off tat? You used one of these before?
Looking at the block diagram, in theory it should be a capable bit of
kit- it has all the right HW to do the job. Assuming they've married
this with appropriate SW, it should be fine. At worst you may need to do
some calibration, which shouldn't be too difficult.
As a general rule, the 'knock offs' (we used to say Chinese copies but
they are nearly all made in China these days ;-) ), tend to fall down
when it comes to the user interface and sometimes build quality.
It has a USB port which seems to be limited to configuration and SW
updates (assuming these are forthcoming). It is a pity it isn't also
able to support graph plotting etc.
Also, that model only goes to 60MHz, of course there may be one which
covers 2m and 70cm.
I have a miniPro VNA which plugs into a PC (MacOS, Linux and Windows)
via USB or Bluetooth. I'm not sure if the model I have is still made but
others are. It lacks a local display and is in a different price bracket
(I can't recall the price but in the £100s), however, it is plots a
range of graphs etc. and can be used in a variety of other ways.
The newer models are even more capable and more cost effective.
A GDO is worth having, especially if you've never used one. You can
knock one up quick easily. While it is more limited, you can do a lot
with it.
There is no shortage of designs for GDOs, the old valve based ones take
some beating in some ways. Of the solid state ones, the G3WPO design is
one of the best in my view.
I no longer use, or even have, a GDO, but I've had a number over the
years. Not because they aren't useful, I can simply do everything with
other kit.