On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 06:47 PM, Andy wrote:
I'm not exactly seeing overwhelming evidence that I should upgrade to a
1500Mhz firmware.
I'd probably be better off with an old GDO and a field strength meter up there
;-)
As Rune mentioned above, 1500 MHz is not the main goal for newer firmware. The main goal is to fix errors, bugs, make more stable and more precise measurements, add new features (such as TDR and Group Delay track, which is missing from old firmware).
For example, old firmware have terrible spikes at 300, 600 and 900 MHz, also it returns unstable measurements and errors, sometimes it freezes and don't respond, it don't allows to enter exact frequency and may show wrong frequency (not these which is actually used).
In addition, old firmware don't allows to check Crystal filters, because it has limitation for minimum frequency span.
If you are ok with firmware which has a lot of bugs and errors and don't needs to measure filters, don't needs TDR and Group Delay track, you can stay with old firmware :)
Regarding to 1500 MHz range, new firmware is just allows to use it, but you can setup 50 kHz - 900 MHz range and it will works the same as old firmware. With exception, that a new firmware will have less bugs and errors. The new firmware just allows to use extended range, but if you don't want to use it, you can just don't use it. Just setup 50k - 900 M and it will works the same as old firmware.
For example NanoVNA-Q:
allows to use frequencies from 10 kHz. It works well from 10 kHz. For example, I tested ultrasonic transducers which working on 24 kHz. You can see in attachment. And as you can see I can check resonant frequency (24100 Hz) and even sound wave propagation delay between TX and RX ultrasonic transducers. Note, this is frequency range 20 kHz - 30 kHz :)
It will be just impossible with old firmware
