Apologies I have been tied up with some really in-depth projects recently so its taken up a lot of my time hence ny absence from this place.
The Siglent 5000 model VNA is surprisingly good and given the features and easy of use and accuracy compared to some of the more lower order big brands ranges really deserves a proper demonstration and evaluation in your lab.
While this is not really aimed at the hobbist, its has such a deep of possibilities and feature sets that it needs to be taken seriously. I am very fortunate to straddle that work / home lab stance. My lab is nicely equipped with a range of quality instruments for various aspects of electronic design and production. While I am not a true RF daylight specialist, I use TDR for high-speed serial data signal integrity testing and board layouts. Also cable characterisations along with connector robustness and insertion loss measurements. They are far more capable RF engineers on here than myself, consider me a capable amateur in this department.
While not a true TEA person, I do have twenty + quality pieces in my lab plus a large selection of quality probes, various LINS' dual DC and AC, power analysers, three phase, single and DC, 6.5/7.5 and 8.5 digit DMM, various scopes to 8Ghz and RTA spectrum analysers rf probes etc.
The Siglent VNA 5000 has been a real nice addition to my test bench, maybe I use it twice a week now and it hooks up nicely to the large screen I have in here which is a nice feature to have. I do remember the old HP days and those lovely 4/5" CRT displays and the extra work out's when moving said boat anchors around the lab!
What I would say is that I am quite discerning when it comes to choosing test equipment, I am lucky to be able to assign budgets to various projects where normally it would involve a planning meeting to get a planning meeting organised to present the case for budget allocation in-front of a panel of bean counters! However we select equipment that really does the job correctly based on what is involved , reliability, quality of the instruments and can the guys use it easily without requiring a Ph.d in GUI deciphering
Images of said VNA in action with some spectrum analyser rough plots to demonstrate its futire potential.