So today I became the proud father of one of the reportedly crème de la menthe brand of antenna analysers.
The almighty Rigexpert.
Anyway. The fella from GLS cheerfully handed a parcel that arrived from Slovenia in under 48 hours. A quick fumble of the box revealed the magnificent A55 Zoom in all it’s urine soaked suntanned yelloweyorange casing.
Like a SNES that’s been on 60 Capstan full strength a day, and smells like that wooden trunk everyone has in their garage that has an impossibly small keyhole and a wet bottom.
It’s a magnificent machine. Supple, svelte, unassuming yet always ready to deliver the most vital of antennerycoaxialified goodness to you at a moments notice.
Fantasticola!
I have a mediocre concern though. When you open the battery lid, is the rubber seal thing supposed to fall out and you put it back in when putting the lid back on?
Any tips or hints for a first timer coming from a NanoVNA H4 that I’m keeping just for 2 and 70, hence the purchase of a non-BT 55 Zoom?
I though you had bought something decent like a Rhode & Schwartz ZNH not some low end consumer tat! As soon as you see a word involving “expert” and an SO-239 then you feel a big disturbance in the force.
Oh jaysus no, not one of those 10 grand things no.
It was certainly a lot more than a NanoVNA and still what I’d consider expensive. Didn’t go for the Stick version as it, imho, lacks stuff like MultiSWR and Air2SWR which I will certainly use.
Hi Andy,
The version that runs to 1.3 GHz has a type N connector. And a price that is related to. Fmax.
I’m pleased mine came without a trace of urine. That’s not a box I would tick. I hope to have the xyl out of hock by Christmas.
After years of twiddling multiple knobs and looking up graphs, having a result on screen at the push of a button is worth being without the xyl for a bit.
The NanoVNA is great and excellent value. But Christ on a bike it’s a faff. 2m and 70cm it will do the job for now for my requirements.
The urine reference was to the A55 colour scheme. It looks like the ceiling in a pub just after the smoking ban.
Looking forward to testing this out soon. Especially the AirSWR feature. Hopefully it’s useful. I think the MultiSWR will be good for random wire antennas?
Thanks for the tip. I was going through the menus and reading the manual pretending I understand everything and noticed the three different colour schemes.
I tried them out and did wonder why it had them as I like the standard orange and black. Makes sense now though how it will be useful on brighter days.
I wouldn’t mind a little waterproof case for my NanoVNA, that would be useful. Is the RE Stick much smaller/lighter than the normal RE handsets?
You might have a dodgy unit. When used with the exact same fixture, mine keeps the calibrations perfectly (nanovna h4 version).
I can understand that. I got the H4 version, I find the screen a bit more comfortable (TFT 4" 320x480). However, the A55 presented here is 20x10cm (!!) and 310g, with an even smaller and poorer screen (TFT 3.2" 320x240), not very SOTA friendly either. But the UI is very different I agree.
I’d have considered the RE Stick range a bit more if it was 100% for SOTA, but most of what I do is a mix of SOTA, POTA and BOTA (Beaches) and everything else is mobile/field radio too so the larger unit made more sense.
The A55 has more features too, the aforementioned AirSWR and MultiSWR for example. I avoided the Bluetooth A55 as apparently it doesn’t work, or doesn’t work very well.
I did not know what they were so I went to check them out. MultiSWR is pretty much a basic function of nanoVNA, setup a few markers on your SWR curve and that’s it. AirSWR is a nice feature though, especially when you have to climb on trees or high structures to adjust wires
The rubber gasket pops out of mine when performing a battery change as well. Also the label fell of the back of the unit long ago. Using the thing is a breeze though, compared to a NanoVNA it’s much less fussy. I just use mine when I’m testing new antenna ideas.
