Using nanoVNA for adjusting 868MHz antennas

End Devices (Nodes) Hardware
1

Hi all,
great to be here in this community! I have learned a lot in the last 2-3 months with ESP32- and STM32 based lora devices.

For adjusting/optimise buyed or self-built lora antennas for 868Mhz end nodes I was searching for a little and not expensive tool and have found the nanoVNA. This is a very tiny vector network analyzer which is specified to work up to 900MHz. It costs only around 50€.
Has someone of you tested antennas for 868MHz with it and could recommend it (or not)? I’m not very sure if the nanoVNA is sufficient because 868MHz is very close to it’s maximum frequency.

Btw, the next expensive interesting tool would be the AAI N1201SA (respectively it’s sucsessor N2201SS), which is more a antenna analyzer. It’s frequency range goes up to 2.7GHz.This device costs around 160,-€. Since Andreas Spiess has used it in his videos for adjusting 868MHz antennas I would take this, if the nanoVNA is not recommended.

Has someone experiences with this two measurement devices in connection with 868MHz?
Thank you very much in advance for your comments.

Regards,
Uwe

2 Likes
2
1 Like
3

Hello @uewel,

did you tried the nanovna for 868Mhz ? I have one and it doesn’t seem to work a these frequencies. I would like to know if is my fault or if the device is limited.
I’m also interested to know if the N2201SS worked for you ?
Best,