Measuring balun common mode impedance – #3

A correspondent having read my series Measuring balun common mode impedance – #1 related difficulties with his Rigexpert AA-230Zoom.

The articles showed some techniques for measuring common mode impedance of a current balun.

The following examples are of a test choke wound on a BN43-202 binocular core, and the results are quite similar to what might be expected of a broadband HF current balun. The measurements were made with a Rigexpert AA-600.

Above, the measurement result using RigExpert's newest software Antscope2.

Yes, the graph is pretty much useless, it is grossly off scale and there appears no means of adjusting the vertical scale.

Above is a measurement of the same choke again using the AA-600 but displayed on a back level version (v4.2.57) of the old Antscope software. A much more useful graph, but the old Antscope software may not work with the newer models of analyser.

Above is an Excel graph created from a CSV export of the scan done with Antscope2, a much more useful graph but hardly a productivity tool when after every scan you need to export the data and paste it into the prepared spreadsheet, adjusting cell ranges, axis limits etc to suit the new scan.

Another option is to find a third party tool to plot the data.

A popular tool is ZPLOTS, but as I write, it does not support the csv export from Antscope2.

I do not have an AA-230Zoom, it does initially look an interesting instrument with wide ADC and N connector, but it seems it may not work with the older (retired?) Antscope PC client software, and Antscope2 is severely crippled.