Antenna building with a VNA
Neil, G1TZC, a Wythall Radio Club member, writes about his experience with a little Vector 
Network Analyser….
My local club runs monthly activities and this month there are activities on 80m to 30m and 20m to 10m.
As good as the 1/2 sized G5RV is it just doesn’t cover enough bands for this.
Recently I purchased a four inch screen version of the NanoVNA. I decided to pay a little more for a premium version.
I hadn’t realised when I made the purchase that part of the extra money went on the fact it has a much better antenna connector – the N type connector – mounted to the metal case.
My main advice is read the menu flow chart and take the time to download the online manual. The windows software is the right side of basic.
This has given a great chance to make a couple of antennas for the 12m and 30m. Using the analyser makes the whole process so easy. You can see some of the screen shots below.
I shall be purchasing some more pvc covered wire to add extra bands. I think this will become my portable “go to” antenna for holiday operating.
It has also allowed me to check my 3 element 2/70 beam and the two colinears. I’ve even found that one of the 2/70 colinears works ok on 23cm.
If you have a little bit of spare cash and you want a handy test tool this is great. It allows you to check that antenna from the end of the coax.
Check out Neil’s qrz.com (G1TZC) page for more of his blogs.