=  NOW 40 WPM  =  

WHEN I STARTED THE OSL FUNCTION FROM MY PHONE, THE FIRST CALIBRATION
PROCESS SEEMED TO CONTINUE FAR TOO LONG.  I TERMINATED IT AFTER WAITING 10
MINUTES.  FINALLY, I DID HAVE TWO CASES WHERE THE STICK 230 COMPLETELY
FROZE UP ON ME.  THE ONLY WAY I COULD RESOLVE THIS WAS TO REMOVE THE
LITHIUM BATTERY THIS REQUIRED REMOVING TWO SCREWS AND THEN RE INSERTING IT.
RIGEXPERT INDICATES THAT THIS HAS BEEN FIXED IN FIRMWARE VERSION 1R4 AND
THE STICK 230 NO LONGER FREEZES.  CONCLU

IMPEDANCE, RETURN LOSS, SMITH CHART, AND TDR TIME DOMAIN REFLECTROMETER
PLOTS.  TABLE 2 SUMMARIZES THE STICK 230S SPECIFIED PERFORMANCE AND
FEATURES.  STICK 230 TESTING  I BEGAN MY TESTS BY CHECKING THE STICK 230
OUTPUT AGAINST WWV AT 10 MHZ.  THE FREQUENCY WAS WITHIN 20 HZ OF WWV, AND I
DID NOT DETECT ANY NOTICEABLE FREQUENCY DRIFT OVER A 5 MINUTE TEST PERIOD.
I ALSO FOUND THE FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY OUTPUT LEVEL TO BE 8R5 DBM OVER THE
FULL FREQUENCY RANGE.  WHEN USED AS A SIGNAL SOURCE, KEEP IN MIND THAT THE
OUTPUT WAVEFORM IS ALMOST A PERFECT SQUARE WAVE, AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE 50
MHZ FUNDAMENTAL SPECTRUM OUTPUT OF FIGURE 4.  THIS RELATIVE SPECTRUM IS
CONSTANT OVER THE FULL FREQUENCY RANGE OF THE INSTRUMENT.  THE ODD HARMONIC
AMPLITUDES ALMOST EXACTLY FOLLOW A 2/N, THE EQUATION FOR THE AMPLITUDE OF
ODD HARMONICS OF A PERFECT SQUARE WAVE.  NEXT, I RECORDED THE OPEN CIRCUIT
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE AS MEASURED BY THE STICK 230.  THIS GIVES AN INDICATION OF
THE IMPEDANCE MAGNITUDE YOU CAN ACCURATELY MEASURE AS A FUNCTION OF
FREQUENCY.  THE RESULTS, TABULATED IN TABLE 3, INDICATE THAT ACCURACY WILL
DROP OFF AS YOU GO HIGHER IN FREQUENCY, ESPECIALLY FOR HIGHER IMPEDANCE
LOADS.  FOR THE ALL IMPORTANT SWR TESTING, I CHECKED THE STICK 230 AGAINST
A PRECISION 50 LOAD, AND THEN SHORTED MICROWAVE ATTENUATORS OF 5 DB 1R92 1
SWR, 3 DB 3R01 1 SWR, 2 DB 4R42 1 SWR, AND 1 DB 8R7 1 SWR.  BECAUSE THE

PADS ARE NOT PERFECT, I ALSO MEASURED THEM ON MY ARRAY SOLUTIONS VNAUHF FOR
COMPARISON, AS SHOWN IN TABLE 4.  AS YOU CAN SEE, THE STICK 230 SWR
READINGS COMPARE QUITE FAVORABLY TO THE VNAUHF READINGS.  FOR MY FINAL
TESTS, I USED COMPLEX LOADS WITH AN SWR OF APPROXIMATELY 2 1 AT 50, 146,
AND 222 MHZ.  TABLE 5 DISPLAYS THE STICK 230 VERSUS THE VNAUHF
MEASUREMENTS.  AS YOU CAN SEE, THE STICK 230 PROVIDES ALMOST IDENTICAL SWR
MEASUREMENTS TO THE VNAUHF.  THE SERIES R AND C MEASUREMENTS COMPARED
FAVORABLY TO THE VNAUHF AS WELL.  USING THE STICK 230 I FOUND IT
INTERESTING THAT THE STICK 230 SCREEN IS NOT BLANK WHEN OFF.  IT DISPLAYS
ANTENNA ANALYZER 230 MHZ, THE SERIAL NUMBER, AND THE FIRMWARE VERSION.
PRIOR TO USING THE STICK 230, CHECK THE RIGEXPERT WEBSITE FOR FIRMWARE
UPDATES.  IF A NEWER VERSION OF FIRMWARE IS AVAILABLE, THE RIGEXPERT
FIRMWARE UPDATE TOOL WILL DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE NEW FIRMWARE FOR YOU
WITH MINIMAL EFFORT.  I FOUND THAT THE STICK 230 OPERATION IS NOT AS
INTUITIVE AS OTHER RIGEXPERT ANALYZERS BECAUSE FEW KEYS ARE AVAILABLE.
AFTER USING IT FOR A WHILE, IT DOES BECOME EASIER TO USE.  HOWEVER, IF YOU

=  END OF 40 WPM TEXT  =  QST DE W1AW  <
