[EN] ARINST Portable 2-port VNA 8800MHz - Full Review

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Warning to Brazilians: do not choose regular shipping on Aliexpress. You will have to cancel the purchase. The seller only sends to Brazil via DHL. You have to ask him in private messages.
VNA 8800MHz:
www.aliexpress...
Calibration Kit:
www.aliexpress...

[@LiraLab]

Some text that appear on the video were thought to appear earlier. I made some mistake in the editing and got the text out of sync. My bad!

[@camworkstv]

Edit new version and upload again.

[@LiraLab]

@@camworkstv Yes, that's one option! For now, I'll just let it as it is. The text were only one sentence or maybe two. Currently not worth it the effort to re-upload.

[@arashghasemi]

How many pieces did you buy for calibration? 3 or 5 ? The 3 pieces are like sixty dollars and five pieces are two hundred something! Which one do you recommend?? Thanks

[@LiraLab]

@@arashghasemi That's unfortunate. Right now they increased the price on the 9GHz five pieces. I bought them for around 60 USD at the time of this video. You can search for another vendor on aliexpress to get it cheaper.

[@arashghasemi]

@@LiraLab thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately I haven't found another vendor to buy 5 pieces 9ghz yet... your videos are really great 👍 thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@w2aew]

The RSA306B can actually go to 6.2GHz, so you could've seen the 2nd harmonic of 3GHz...

[@LiraLab]

Oops! That's true, thanks! I was looking through the camera and I don't know why I had the wrong 6GHz limit on my head for the RSA306B : )

[@cezar.menezes]

Congratulations, Arthur, on doing a great product review! It would also be interesting if you could conduct a comparative analysis between the ARINST VNA and the NanoVNA-F V2 up to 3 GHz range.

[@LiraLab]

Thank you Cezar! I have the Nanovna V2 up to 3GHz. I'm taking note of your suggestion. Yes, I can make a comparison video between them 😉

[@tokotoko777]

Thank you for the helpful video. Is there a function of "Port Extension"?

[@LiraLab]

Hi there. No, but you can input an electrical delay value on the Scan configuration.

[@milosm.jovicic5323]

Hi Arthur. Thanks for this video. I just want to ask you if you had a chance to measure any DUT with different "low cost" VNAs and compare to some brands such as HP (Agilent->KeySight) or Rodhe&Schwartz or Anritsu?

[@LiraLab]

Hi Milos. Firstly, you have to keep in mind that VNA measurements rely heavily on the calibration. So if you have a bad calibration kit, even a keysight bench VNA won`t work well. For the same calibration kit, namely ZN-Z135, I have validated both the NanoVNA v2 and the ARINST against a R&S ZNL6 bench VNA. The differences to the bench VNAs are the dynamic range, sweep speed, number of points, user interface and other functions (deembed, TDR, full two-port, etc). The NanoVNA v2 is the worst of the three regarding dynamic range. The two main reasons that made me buy the ARINST was the bandwidth and dynamic range (check the aliexpress link on the description), which are better than any NanoVNA.

[@milosm.jovicic5323]

Hi Arthur, thanks for the answer. I agree with the abovementioned regarding calibration, and that is what I meant by comparing VNAs (same calibration on all the devices). This is very good info that only dynamic range and sweep speed are different, because this is not crucial to me right now. I have spoken to the guy who do the design of Arinst VNAs, and he told me (but one year ago) that 12GHz VNA should come soon. So far it did not, so I am like to buy this one right now (range is still quite good!!!). I found your video and discussion with you very useful, thanks for that!

[@LiraLab]

@@milosm.jovicic5323 Thank you! Beware of the cables for frequencies higher than 2-3GHz. I made a follow-up video showing that the cables I used in this video here were not suited for the measurements. In the follow-up video I showed that this VNA works on its own terminals (no cables), but later on I bought Huber Suhner 12GHz cables and it worked just fine.

[@karelkovalik577]

what about the reflected power measurement for the wifi antenna at 4.4 ghz, there is +5 dB ??? !!!

[@LiraLab]

I did a follow up video on that! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYPWmWiqeLx9qpI

[@MrDehicka]

Not sure what is it for. It does not have a screen, so not for field use. LiteVNA is $90 with the screen and battery. For lab use i would prefer used brand name with much better dynamic range. Also the test signal is square wave, not sine, so it will not be useful for a lot of active DUTs.

[@LiraLab]

From what I've been using this, the main feature is the 8.8GHz bandwidth. The sweep is quite fast and you can control the rbw. I also like this software more than the nanovna. But I agree that the litevna is amazing too!

[@9a4qv]

At the end of the video measuring the Wi-Fi antenna there is a positive S1,1. Is that related to a non calibrated VNA or some other issue?

[@LiraLab]

Very well observed Adam. I repeated the measurement and the positive S11 reduced to close to the 0 dB line, but remained positive. Thus, I believe that it is due to my calibration kit limitations, since I bought it from Aliexpress. I have access to a Rohde & Schwarz 6 GHz calibration kit, so I will repeat the test using this R&S kit and I'm going to upload a follow-up video to discuss.

[@LiraLab]

Adam, I found out what it was. My cables were damaged. I removed the cable using my own cal kit from Aliexpress and S11 was all negative in the dB scale. So, there you have it. I will make a follow-up video anyway to discuss and clarify this.

[@LiraLab]

Hey Adam, I just posted a follow-up video talking about this kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYPWmWiqeLx9qpI

[@fiztop]

Well done! I like the review, thanks.

[@LiraLab]

Thank you Mr. Topalov!

[@vk5fe943]

Essas coisas estão rompendo uma barreira atrás da outra, acabei de ver um nanoVNA indo a 6 GHz com 110 dB de gama dinâmica.

[@LiraLab]

Verdade amigo! Vou upar hoje o vídeo da desmontagem desse para ver por dentro.

[@claudioi2ndt313]

hi! where did you buy the SOL-T kit?

[@LiraLab]

Hello! I've added the link for the cal kit on the description : ) It was also on Aliexpress

[@AP-nb7in]

Thanks a lot Arthur for this presentation. Question : this ARINST seems to display a very stable Smith chart, especially when you tested the powered DUT. That's quite surprising compared to nanoVNA or LiteVNA that display very noisy Smith charts on powered device (in this video, @ 14min : kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2fMgId7ipuNsNE ) Altogh it's more pricey than a nanoVNA, its accary seems to be much much better ; better price/perf vs nonaVNA I think. What's your comment about that ? Thanks

[@LiraLab]

Hello A P! I also have a NanoVNA and it works just fine for active devices too, such as amplifiers. You can trust its performance after a good calibration. The ARINST is superior in frequency range only.

[@LucasCosta10]

Opa amigo, você chegou a pagar imposto quando foi feita a entrega? Tô pensando em comprar o LibreVNA, mas estou meio preocupado com o imposto.

[@LiraLab]

Paguei total de 2224 reais pq o Rio Grande do Sul cobra ICMS. Se for de outro estado, pode ser que seja bem menos, em torno de 1600-1700.

[@ClaudioGabrielCastillo-uq4hj]

Guys don't complain anymore... here in Argentina import taxes they are %50 of each product

[@TheChipburner]

Good review

[@LiraLab]

Thank you!

[@TheDanilodamata]

hi, the book on te table, tank's fron Brazil

[@LiraLab]

Kkkkkkkk mt bom!