LiteVNA-64 VNA 50KHz-6.3GHz Portable Vector Network Analyzer With 4" Display

Very good

If I could give the LiteVNA-64 more than 5 stars, I would. Let me explain… I was having trouble getting my NanoVNA 6.3 GHz analyzer to provide good S11 and S21 above about 4 GHz after calibration. It would have dips in S21 from 4 to 6.3 GHz when using the thru line depending on how tight the connectors were mated, and S11 Smith chart plots outside the unit circle when using a 2cm open line for cal verification. So I bought this less-expensive LiteVNA-64 to see how it would perform. I was just hoping it would work at least as well as the NanoVNA. Fortunately, the unit I received included SMA cables (for thru-cal and DUT interconnects) and SOL standards that appear very well made and to work well to 10 GHz and above. (It turns out that the NanoVNA was actually OK, once I used the high-quality cables supplied with the LiteVNA64 - not sure what cables came with my NanoVNA unit, but the ones I tried didn't work). So now, with a good cal, the NanoVNA and LiteVNA are about the same in performance. BUT, the NanoVNA would not allow me to go above its rated 6.3 GHz. The LiteVNA64 I received does! And the results are amazingly good when pushing moderately above its rated frequency - especially for the price. Through its rated 6.3 GHz range, I found S21 is flat to well under 1dB after cal, and S11 on a Smith chart hugs the outer circle as it should during a cal-verification on the 2cm open-line through 6.3 GHz. Then I calibrated through 12 GHz and found S21 and S11 to be usable thru 8 or maybe even 10 GHz! It’s more noisy, but gives reasonable results within a couple/few dB through at least 7 or 8 GHz. Further experiments suggest the unit is using a fundamental frequency square-wave oscillator to 6.3, and the third harmonic above 6.3 GHz. It seems to employ techniques similar to original HP gear to operate with a harmonic-rich source, but only respond to the harmonic desired. Anyway – no guarantees, but personally I am more than happy with the performance of the unit I received. Besides this over-range performance, it also has a feature-rich menu set and I have not had any significant issues with the battery life, or the lack of a metal case (other than noticing holding the unit will affect S11 readings when I use it above 6.3 GHz). Kudos to the designers and Zeenko for making this unit available at a competitive price. I’m going to think of mine as a 9 GHz unit for my purposes 😊

Controllable over USB, but only in binary mode. The nanoVNA can be scripted by REPL or controlled in binary mode. This means a nanoVNA should be able to have settings changed by a script, but the liteVNA enters USB mode and does what a script tells it to, but then the settings revert. Useful for scripting a test and capturing the data, but there's no ability to change settings persistently in binary mode. Eg, I would have liked to script setting up specific antenna test configurations. Unclear why the liteVNA removed that. Regardless, great unit for the price.

I'm using this for WiFi and Drone VTX antenna testing and tuning. This VNA needs to be capable of running at 5.8GHz for it to be useful for that application. So far, my testing has proven this little unit to be valid there, which is awesome. Antennas that I knew were working showed up as expected in the plot. Antennas that I had that were suspect showed bad characteristics in the plot. Pictures are of some quality cloverleaf antennas I made, plotted with this device and the freeware app. One thing I will say bad, and this is really only about the art in general, is that everything is incredibly sensitive. Merely re-torquing the SMA connector changes the tuning up/down by an entire channel. An SMA torque wrench would be much better than just my fingers.

This VNA is fairly user friendly, at least in my opinion from my experience with VNAs. The unit does appear to operate up to 6.3GHz as advertised (well at least with a thru device, S21 is flat across its functional band). Thus far, I used it to characterize several antenna, very handy for that need.

I watched a ton of reviews for these. There is a more robust version out there that apparently has a dedicated high frequency oscillator. But this one works fine for hobby grade tinkering.