Met with the club members of Stockton Delta Amateur Radio Club (SDARC) this evening at a classroom in the Bear Creek Community Church. The club elected (or re-elected, rather) the club board for 2018, and discussed upcoming club events.
Then W6SXA Mark gave a presentation and demo of the Rigexpert AA-600 antenna analyzer. He reviewed other types of analyzers with their pros and cons, and settled upon the one he got, the AA-600.
This is a sensitive piece of equipment that can scan from 0.1 to 600 MHz (all the favorite ham bands) and even interface with your computer to produce very accurate SWR, reactance, capacitance, return loss, and TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer) graphs, among other functions.
Mark then demonstrated the tuning of a 440MHz antenna he constructed, as well as a 2m wire vertical he made for demo at Elmer University.
A good antenna analyzer helps greatly with getting the most out of your antenna setup, significantly reducing the time required to adjust an antenna. It’s one of those tools where once you try it, you wonder how you did anything before you used it. While the AA-600 is pricey (at around ~$600), Mark assures us that it is well worth it and he doesn’t regret the price he paid one bit.