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Re: [TowerTalk] NanoVNA port impedances Re: Test Fixture for Common Mode

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] NanoVNA port impedances Re: Test Fixture for Common Mode Chokes
From: Brian Beezley <k6sti@att.net>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2026 08:31:27 -0800
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Jim Lux wrote:

"At HF frequencies, I’d be surprised of the Z is far off. (But I can measure it… I have two NanoVNAs - I’ll do that later today)"

Jim, I'd be interested in what you measure. Port 1 for N6LF's NanoVNA-H4 rev. 4.3 was about 57 ohms at HF, about 14% high. Another user reported a similar value. Port 2 was about 50.6 ohms, not far off. In addition to the resistive deviations, the equivalent parallel capacitance was 1.9 pF for port 1 and 1.4 pF for port 2. The capacitive reactance might affect some measurements. Then there is the LF roll-off due to coupling capacitors in both ports (not present in some earlier revisions). N6LF used an HP 908A 50 ohm load as the cal standard. The circuit has changed slightly with each hardware revision. I believe it's past 4.3 now. I don't know whether these results apply to the current offering.

I don't know the details of the Enhanced Response feature that partially compensates for port impedances when making a two-port series measurement. What I recall is that there wasn't enough code space for a full compensation! If your VNA has this feature, there's probably little reason to worry about port impedance.

Brian
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