I am interested in getting an Antenna analyzer, but have a very limited budget. I saw a Chinese model on Ebay that was under $100 brand new, but after doing some research, it appears that this unit is, to put it mildly, less than stellar in reliability, or performance. I see very few used ones for sale and even then they are pretty pricey. I have even looked into home brew, but it's been an awfully long time since I've done any electronic circuitry work. I went over some of my old notes and books and was astonished at how much I have forgotten. Any suggestions?
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Antenna analyzer
- Thread starter Pman62
- Start date
I did a few times a few decades ago. I set the noise bridge knobs to 50 ohms R and zero ohms X and then tuned the antenna tuner for minimum noise in the receiver. It worked. There are better ways to do it today.
Over the last few years I have been gathering up old noise bridges and dip meters, and have even played with them when it comes to antennas. I wouldn't say I have actually tuned very many antennas with them as I prefer using field strength meters, and more recently spectrum analyzers when it comes to antenna tuning. I collect them more because they are part of the radio heritage.
That being said, I have demonstrated the use of both noise bridges and grid dip meters "tuning" antennas as a demonstration at various ham club meetings in the area, as well as more than one field day.
The DB
Somewhere I have an old Palomar NB, I got used. I never tuned an antenna. But, If I did - I'd probably still be trying to get a tune.
I did check a few, and it was pretty close, as best I could tell...so it worked so-so. Maybe that is why I got it cheap.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs....com/catalog/meters/RX100lrg.jpg&action=click
I did check a few, and it was pretty close, as best I could tell...so it worked so-so. Maybe that is why I got it cheap.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs....com/catalog/meters/RX100lrg.jpg&action=click
I guess I have a soft spot for old tech. Though vacuum tubes were very quickly disappearing when I was still fairly young, I remember them fondly. In high school, I took electronics shop (my HS was the only one in the city of Milwaukee that had electronics) and at the very beginning, we went over vacuum tube theory and operation and I caught on to that way faster and easier than bipolar transistors. Hell, I still have a portable vacuum tube tester stashed away in the basement.
That is he noise bridge I used to tune a 96 foot top loaded vertical on 80m and 160m. It worked well but this was before even MFJ had analyzers.
That must have been about the time Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves? LOL!!!
Actually it was in 1986 IIRC. We decommissioned an old AM transmitter site after relocating it. The chief engineer at the time and myself fired up my Icom IC-735 into the old antenna mast that was the original CFAB antenna. It was a 96 foot tall three inch high pressure steam pipe with four strands of number 6 solid copper wire running from the bottom to the top where there was a six foot diameter capacity hat. It was the original CFAB 1450 antenna installed in 1946. 100 watts on 80m and 160m and we had more Europeans calling than we could handle.
I broke down and spent 200 for a new in box rig expert AA35 zoom
had more Europeans calling than we could handle.
Don't suppose the 120 ground radials under it was a factor, maybe?
73
Don't suppose the 120 ground radials under it was a factor, maybe?
73
Well it sure wasn't the 100 watts. LOL. Even though most of the radials were less than 1/4 wavelength long it was pretty effective. We had a lot of fun shooting fish in a barrel that night.