Over the course of the last 24 hours, a Twitter conversation that I was part of morphed from a discussion of testing snap-on ferrite chokes to DIY antenna analyzers. Antenna analyzers are, of course, the instrument that one uses to make the necessary measurements.
We got around to DIY antenna analyzers when several of us suggested that a Rig Expert antenna analyzer would do this job nicely, and one of the participants balked at the expense. Then, someone suggest building your own.
Two years ago, I blogged about this. At the time, I could only find one kit and one DIY antenna analyzer project and wondered why there weren’t more DIY antenna analyzers. Now, however, there are several options for DIYers:
K6BEZ Antenna Analyzer. This is the grand-daddy of DIY antenna analyzers. It combines a microcontroller—either an Arduino or a PIC microcontroller—with an inexpensive direct digital synthesis (DDS) module using an AD9850 chip and a bridge circuit to measure the SWR. You can make one of these for around $50.
K6BEZ/HamRadio 360/Workbench Antenna Analyzer. The HamRadio360 podcast guys featured the K6BEZ design on their podcast. They even designed a printed circuit board for the the project. As you might expect, it sold out really fast. All of the documentation, including the PCB design files, are available, though, on the Workbench Podcast website.
DIY No Frills AD9850/Arduino Antenna Analyzer. This project appeared on Hackaday. It also uses an Arduino and an AD9850 DDS module. The Hackaday post claims that it can be built for less than $40.
‘Tenna Dipper. Finally, I’ll mention this this little device. It’s not really an antenna analyzer, in that it uses a set of fixed frequencies, but it is really cheap and you can do quite a bit with it. For most guys, this may be all you need.
I’m quite happy to see that there are now quite a few options for DIY antenna analyzers. If you have had any experience with any of these designs, or know of others, please let us know by commenting below.
Paul KK4PTV says
Tremendously enjoyed this post. I thought you might be interested in one that I built myself:
http://kv4qb.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-coup-le-of-antenna-analyzers-fall-2014.html
Charles W8HAX says
I started building the QRPGuys antenna analyzer, but they don’t sell a kit for it, just the PCB. I was hoping to have it done a few months ago but still don’t have all the parts for it because multiple round-trip orders from China are not exactly an expedient way to get an antenna analyzer in your hands.
I feel like a DIY antenna analyzer kit would sell very well.
Dan KB6NU says
I agree. HamRadio360 sold a board for the K6BEZ antenna analyzer that was very popular and sold out quickly. I keep thinking about doing something like this, but it’s a lot of work.