Today I am reviewing the BSIDE P5 Vector Network Analyzer 10KHz-1.5GHz Antenna Analyzer. For those who are not familiar with these analyzers, this is one that measures S Parameters, Voltage, Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) and more.
Professionals use this for microwave engineering work, especially testing components such as circulators, splitters and couplers for S Parameters, testing filters for SDR. But the reason why I got this device was primarily for testing out my antennas used for GMRS and Ham Radio, from HT to base station antennas.
It’s interesting because functions used to take high end, expensive equipment. And here we are today and we can get these devices for under $100 and look at your SWR readings, and other trace marks such as the Smith Chart measurements.
So, people can find out if they received a good antenna or even build an antenna to see if it’s safe.
What I mean by safe is that your goal is to have an antenna of yours range in 1.0-1.5. Anything over 3.0 can definitely harm and destroy your radio, because the last thing you want is to transmit on a bad antenna and it reflect back to your device and destroy it. So, antennas should always be tested and the data you receive, you can test to see if it’s mounting location and more.
As for this device, it comes with a protective case (a lot of VNA’s never come with a case), you get a USB-C charging cable (as this device does come with a 3,000 mAh rechargeable li-on battery, so you get 8 hours of continuous operation), you get two 30cm SMA male to male RG174 RF cable, 1 SMA female to female connector and you get 1 SMA Short, Open and Load for calibration. And the device came with a 4G SD card.
The only thing I wish that it came with is a little stylus or even a pick. But if you have a stylus (may it be from an old video game console, tablet, etc., that can be used. You can also use your finger/finger nail).
Now I purchased this with a sale as it’s priced at $89 with a $20 off coupon which is great! The display is 3.98 iinch TFT Touch Screen and is a 320×480 touch display. I have a VNA from a popular maker but I wanted a bigger display, so it was one of the reasons why I wanted the BSIDE P5.
As for the green cover, it’s a green silicone cover that covers the device. If you wanted to, you can remove it but keeping this silicone cover makes it shockproof and drop resistant.
So, it was easy to use and runs similar to the other VNA’s, that each time you turn this device on, you must run a calibration which doesn’t take long.
You will primarily use Port 1 but you want to turn off the device, run calibrate and hit reset.
The first thing you put on port 1 is the LOAD SMA (this one looks like a big O inside) and hit load, then remove the LOAD and put screw the SHORT SMA (this one has the male pin sticking out) and hit short, then last part is put the LOAD SMA (this one has white inside the SMA, you can’t miss it) and then run ISOLN, THRU and DONE, remove the LOAD SMA and you can plug in your antenna. It’s important to note that you will get different readings if you have your antenna lying, I always hold the VNA with the antenna pointing up.
I go to Trace and turn off Trace 1, 2 and 3 (unless you feel you need it) and stick with the Trace 0. Go to stimulus and enter the frequency start (lowest frequency) and stop (highest frequency) of your antenna and you will see your antenna and if you see dips, you can easily see the marks and check the minimum and maximum. There is a toggle wheel on the side that allows you to rewind/forward to quickly move around from mark to mark. You can take a screenshot of your screen which saves on the 4GB SD card. And all of this is easy to do!
This network analyzer supports 10KHz-1.5GHz measurement frequency, The 50K-300MHz frequency range of direct output provides better than 70dB dynamic, The extended 300M-900MHz band provides better than 60dB of dynamics, and the 900M-1.5GHz band is better than 40dB of dynamic.
Overall, I will say that this is an awesome device. I do own the other well-known VNA but because it had a smaller screen, I wanted something larger (but also I can do comparisons to make sure none of my devices are giving wrong information) and having a bigger screen really does help.
Build quality is also very good, making this device a very solid competitor at a much cheaper cost. Again, this is a Vector Network Analyzer, not a Spectrum Analyzer but both have their uses and a VNA doesn’t have to worry about the many input singles. A VNA gets the job done, makes things easy and is much cheaper.
But of course, this device offers many more features. For me, it’s primarily for testing antennas.
But for the price for a near 4-inch screen makes the BSIDE P5 Vector Network Analyzer 10KHz-1.5GHz Antenna Analyzer worth owning! Recommended!
