Agilent 8753ES and other VNAs alike

[Mosaic]

Yes, most people will be better off just buying a basic kit like the one above.

I made my homebrew SMA cal kit using surplus SMA PCB end launchers. It isn't as good as a commercial cal kit but see below for the SMA load. You can see how accurate it is right up to 3GHz. I optimised the short and load using a dremel to get the reference plane for both of them right at the end of the end launcher. Over the years I did a lot of useful design work with this cal kit here at home and it cost me nothing unless you include the £0.01 for the resistors in the load. The connectors were free. Salvaged from a scrap PCB.

The homemade load below was measured using a fairly modern Agilent VNA and a 13.5GHz Agilent Ecal module.

Kinda interested in some DIY tips on this!

[Gandalf_Sr]

Well, I'm kind of resurfacing here and decided to cave in and buy a cal kit from Dr Kirkby in the UK; I only just paid for it so it will probably be a week or 2 before it arrives.

It comes with a USB with all teh cal parameters and a floppy disk.  I think, in the meantime, I may tackle the issue of a slightly gloomy screen, maybe I can convert the tubes to LEDs or just buy a new tube - we'll see.

[Bud]

I hope the cal kit will work for you, but please keep this arrogant individual away from this forum. Otherwise everyone is going to learn that the only correct way of doing things is his way, you will be lectured on required highest industrial standards he expects you to follow, even if all you do is DIY/amateur stuff. Any discussion topic of a device X will receive its "I do not have a device X but ..." comment followed by what he thinks of the device X even if he never owned it. You will be bombarded by liberal use of HP/Agilent equipment and accessories nomenclature that which seems to make him feel important. You will quickly learn his telephone number, address, company name and registration number and when you should and should not call him because his signature will be placed in each and every post because he wants to sell his stuff. Everywhere he showed up on discussion forums he caused heated exchanges because of the way to speak with people.

[Gandalf_Sr]

Well, I did the screen replacement, it's covered in this thread https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/8753-screen-upgrade-replacement/msg1127083/#msg1127083 Basically an LQ084V1DG21 display fits in the place of the LQ9D340 with some minor changes to the nylon back holder for the display, the difference is like night and day.
 
The Kirkby Cal kit hasn't arrived yet, I'm playing with the el-cheapo SMA Cal kit I already had.  Steep learning curve.

[Gandalf_Sr]

Trying to use the VNA Cal Kit Manager 2.1 from http://www.vnahelp.com/products.html

I have Keysight Connection Expert running on my PC and have it connected to an Agilent E5810A and I can see the HP8753E VNA, it shows a listing unde SICL Address of "gpib 15,16" but the GPIB setting in VNA  Cal Kit Manager don't seem to want to connect - I've tried many different GPIB Board Number values but, when I click Test GPIB, I get GPIB Error, error in ATGpibCardOpen: error 130 Unknown error value Board X VNA Address Y (where X and Y are the values I entered.

Any ideas?

[EDIT] I gave up on VNA Cal Kit Manager working on Windows 10, 64 bit, I believe it's incompatible.  I found an old PC that had Windows XP SP3, installed Agilent 10 Libraries Suite 15.0 LXI Class B, and then VNA Cal Kit Manager vn2.1 and it just worked.  My GPIB values were Board 8, Address 16.  I'm not sure that I need the Agilent Libraries Suite at all.

[hendorog]

FYI, these are the settings which work for my 8753C - on Windows 10-64bit with a USB 82357A GPIB adapter.

Keysight Connection Expert
Settings
Tick 'Enable Keysight GPIB Cards for 488 Programs'

Then setup VNA Cal kit manager with 488.2
GPIB board number 0
VNA GPIB address 16

[Gandalf_Sr]

hendorog,

Thanks, your suggestion made the connection between VNA Cal Kit Manager and my 8753E work from my Windows 10, 64-bit PC.  I had to use GPIB Board Number 1 and VNA GPIB Address 16, I also saw a Windows Firewall blocking warning (that I hadn't seen previously), which I allowed access for and then it worked.

[Teuobk]

Gandalf_Sr,

Have you received the Kirby SMA cal kit yet? If so, how did it compare to the "el cheapo" kit you got off of eBay?

I ask because I'm in a similar boat, with a new-to-me HP 8714ES and no calibration kit for it. I'm curious if it's worth spending the extra money on a slightly better cal kit versus a slightly cheaper option like, say, the one from SDR-kits or the one you got from eBay. Thoughts?