Austin QRP Club VIA Finally Built

I had seen the specifications for this Austin QRP Club Vector Impedance Analyser kit when it was first announced. It covered 1 to 150MHz or 8kHz to 1.17MHz (good for LF) and offered a range of different format results display on it's TFT Display; no need for a computer to drive this one!  I bought the kit from K5BCQ's web page about a year ago and recently decided it was time to build it. The microprocessor board is prebuilt, the TFT display is prebuilt, the only board which needed building is the RF board which also connects the other two boards together. The RF board took about 2 hours to build

The recommended enclosure was obtained; not cheap at around 20 pounds, but makes for a neat unit. I used an SMA connector for the antenna port.

Not surprisingly the software had been updated since I bought the kit, but it didnt take long to do the upgrade following the instructions provided.

Initially the unit was powered by six Eneloop AA cells mounted in the supplied battery holders connected via the regulator board supplied with the kit providing regulated 5V

The flash screen came up immediately and following the instructions in the manual a 2 MHz to 30 MHz open/short/load calibration was done. My Alpha-delta DXCC antenna was connected and the VSWR, Return Loss and even a smith chart plot were obtained

VSWR Plot

Return Loss

Smith Chart

It is possible to export the data to a computer and process it in any way you want. 

 Another useful display is the Alphanumeric display which shows the parameters as numbers. One use of this is to measure capacitors and inductors at RF Frequencies 

Alpha Display

Very impressed with the unit, especially as it cost under 100 pounds. Cannot wait until the transmission measurement add on becomes available