(Sale) R&S VNAs (Yes, they are still too expensive for hobbyists and students.) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ballsystemlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 04:53:16 pm
content: On account of their 75th anniversary, R&S are offering 25% off their VNA lineup.This still places them well out of the range of hobbyists and students, but for those of you who need one, here's the URL:https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/campaigns/icr/75th-anniversary-sale-for-vna_258357.html?sap-outbound-id=F7DCB57CD0A3B1C12F40DC935592AB23098B2D0F

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 09:39:50 pm
content: The lowest savings dollar amount by itself is still above my budget.

author: Hydron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2025, 11:17:28 pm
content: Also bear in mind that R&S are now doing a Keysight and giving the middle finger to anyone without a registered company, not that it likely matters in this case with these prices.

author: ballsystemlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 03:11:31 am
content: Quote from: Hydron on October 07, 2025, 11:17:28 pmI'm sorry to hear this.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 03:33:25 am
content: I think prices will fall because I am not seeing the 'service' that they expect for the money with this equipment, for large companies. More like aggregation. It no longer seems like a solid option to 'blow the budget' on a 'safe bet' when the issues keep occurring. I have seen hardware/stand alone bugs for KS equipment and the software issues are extreme. Latest find (of 2 weeks) is a 7.5 digit meter ~ 1 year old ~ beeping and flashing numbers in continuity mode when there is nothing connected to the meter (yes back panel is free too). That to me is a really weird bug and makes me question quite alot of money. The people involved in purchasing are just not very excited about the price/quality relationship. And its stored in a environmentally regulated room with monitoring.that 7.5 digit 'pure voltmeter' somewhere on this forum is looking alot more appealing then the "dmm" that randomly beeps in continuity. Maybe it just does one thing correctly instead of being a swiss army tool for a clown show.

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 03:55:42 am
content: I dunno. R&S & Keysight are both doing annual sales in the Billions of dollars. Keysight saw a small sales drop in 2024, but they still did nearly $5B in revenue. They don't care.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 03:57:34 am
content: people start to care when it malfunctions or is out of service because of software issues. This is how people see it (others)1) this lab does not maintain their toolsor2) this lab buys shit tools that malfunctionboth 1&2 are bad for your reputation.That is what people see when there is a business problem because of equipment. I think the market is just slow to respond.It just comes down to a rather stern bottom line, especially when you get more away from pure engineers, and people that start to see your lab impartially without any love for electronics etc (unavoidable in business)and there is something interesting happening in the industry, that is that high price automation is taking over. Test equipment is kind of like an 'eyes' for this beast. So when you have to make business decisions that effect alot of stuff from a central node that effects everything, it gets scrutinized for issues.

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 04:09:53 am
content: For small businesses that makes sense. Larger businesses will just throw anything faulty out and buy another one. Especially if it's part of an automation system.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 04:14:55 am
content: I don't think its as 'willing' and carefree as you describe. People are always looking to reduce the 'fuck it ' money that is being spent . I see it cause tension. And the people that constantly approve insane budgets to keep stuff barely working are like targets

author: KungFuJosh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2025, 03:43:58 pm
content: I wouldn't call it carefree. I call it people not wanting to invest time or money in either repairing products, or changing automation setups.But you also have to consider the failure rate is very small compared to production levels. So it's not as big of a problem as it might seem to us on the lower end of the financial food chain.

author: Leo Bodnar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2025, 12:20:56 pm
content: We had nothing but excellent service support fromR&S. When our £50k kit blew its PSU we had it temprarily replaced by a £150k unit and fixed within a week. I wish it took them longer to repair it. It might be a country specific, I don't know for sure.We had looked at and evaluted quite a few of their higher end scopes and in the end did not buy any. They were still good sport about it.Leo

author: Hydron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2025, 02:39:33 pm
content: A few years back I got quoted something like £2.5k to repair a RTB2004 that was *just* out of warranty. That was firstly more than I paid for it new, and secondly was high partly because it had the 300MHz SOFTWARE option/license enabled - in what world should the presence/absence of a software licence change the hardware repair cost??I might have been able to get something from the R&S reps who were active on the forum at the time and quite helpful, but it ended up not being worth the hassle as I could easily fix it myself (faulty PGA in the front end - this is a known issue with the IC that's ultimately TI's fault).That BS repair price gouging and the recent removal of access to firmware and manuals (unless you have a company that's in the right databases) left a major sour taste. I'm looking at buying a fast scope for work (think price of a nice car) and this sort of shit does have an influence on what is chosen.

author: virtualparticles
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 01:42:28 pm
content: This is new from Copper Mountain Technologies. This is the most affordable metrology grade VNA one can buy at the moment.https://coppermountaintech.com/vna/vtr0102-2-port-1-5-ghz-vector-network-analyzer/