I could see the usefulness of this in initial
design/installation/adjustment of the physical components, but once your
antennas are static what would be the point, except to monitor if
something is starting to go amiss?
Dennis NJ6G
On 7/1/2021 10:09, Al Lorona wrote:
The recent thread on small and inexpensive vector network analyzers made me
wonder if and when someone will make either a manual or automatic antenna tuner
with something like one of those VNAs used as a front panel display. With the
VNA in Smith Chart format, how cool would it be to tune the tuner and watch the
antenna impedance move toward the center of the Smith Chart? The calibration
coefficients of the VNA could be set at the factory and stored in EEPROM since
they wouldn't change much over the life of the tuner other than some
temperature and aging effects (but even the cal vs. temperature could be
pre-measured at the factory).
To my knowledge all commercially available tuners simply display the measured
SWR as a single number; providing a Smith Chart (or rectangular graph if you
wish) swept over frequency would be a quantum leap in the information presented
to the user.
Maybe if and when Elecraft decides to design the next generation of the KAT500,
or maybe this has already been done and I don't know it?
Al W6LX/4
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[email protected]
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [email protected]
