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What resources are there to understand how to use a Professional (or Semi-Pro) VNA to test:
- Antenna cables & couplers
- Antennas
- Combiners


There's some YouTube stuff for the NanoVNA, but it doesn't really translate well to semi-pro devices like my Siglent that have tracking generators and so on.
Siglent has some videos, but nothing about testing cables and antennas.


Where can I learn?

Shure QLXD-G50 bodypack exc cond, sold as is—I can’t get it to sync with receiver, might need an update or reset $200.00 shipped.

Mike
[email protected]

Most Blu-Ray video will require all devices between the player and the display to be HDCP compliant (High Definition Copy Protection - ie- the downstream devices tell the upstream devices, 'Hi, I'm not a recording device, and I promise I'll block any of my output signals that I can't verify aren't recording devices'). Hollywood Movies? 1000%. ATEM switchers are NOT HDCP compliant. As such, the Blu-Ray player will BLOCK video output.

Same thing would happen if you were to try to play ANY HDCP content through an ATEM switcher off ANY device. I'm actually surprised that they were able to play it off a computer - was it a ripped disc, or did they download a ripped version and play that? The official Star Wars Blu-Ray should not have worked.  One thing I could think of is that it was a DVD. For a PC, whether HDCP is required on its output is dependent on what is being played. No HDCP? It'll go through the ATEM no problem. HDCP? Black screen.  For the Blu-Ray player, it may force HDCP full-time, irrelevant of content being played.  DVD's don't have HDCP, so it would play on the PC, but wouldn't on the Blu-Ray player.

How to get around this? Get an HDCP-compliant video switcher, and make sure your signal-chain from player to display is HDCP compliant.  Keep in mind that HDSDI CANNOT be HDCP compliant. However, some switchers (Roland, for example) have both HDMI and SDI outputs, with HDCP compliance available (and can be turned on/off). If you had used that, then the HDMI output would have had video (assuming all downstream devices are HDCP compliant), while the SDI output would not. This is because the Roland switcher can ask, and verify, if the connected HDMI devices are HDCP compliant. But it can't do that with the SDI devices. Since it doesn't know, it blocks output.

CATx based HDMI extenders are typically HDCP compliant.

Quoting this so Scott can't edit the history away. LOL

LOL, I go back and fix my typos no secret.


That should have been farther.  Farter I would be talking about myself.

The only time I would be drinking that early in the morning is after drinking all night.

I don't (can't) do that any more.

JR

There was one time that I was in California, The Packers were in the playoffs and it was a noon game in Wisconsin. That meant 10 AM in California. Which meant we found a brewery that was open at 9AM for the game. They thought it very strange that we ordered a beer that early in the morning, but it was a Packer playoff game. Duh.  Anyway, long story short, there ended up being a reporter there and the next day there was an article in the paper titled "Two Cheeseheads were sitting in a bar..."  Apparently we were a novelty in the area and by halftime were kind of entertaining.

Good quality stands usually hold position much better than cheaper alternatives, especially if kept in good order.

A bit of gaff tape will add significantly to the stability, but make sure you don't leave any residue on the stand as that will gum up the clutch mechanism and make things worse over time.

That is correct, the farter you get from the resonant frequency the more RF energy is reflected back to the source.

Quoting this so Scott can't edit the history away. LOL

If you don't stop drinking, you'll never have a hangover (but your liver will pay)

(Probably wrong, but that's a mentality I've run across. I don't drink, never started, don't plan to.)

I don't plan to stop drinking, but I do try to live sensibly.

 Every year I get a full blood panel and study the results for markers of liver damage or whatever. I credit my drinking and annual blood testing procedure with discovering low thyroid output that was symptomless. I now take regular medication to supplant my low thyroid output.

JR 

I would say that the same applies to pretty much any gear, given it's being operated within its design parameters.

I'd argue this a little bit.  Different mixers certainly can sound quite different.  For an example, the old crappy analog behringer mixers sounded horrid next to the Mackies that they cloned.  I've done blind A/B testing on them and with music programming could easily pick each one out.  The weird thing is when I put them on a bench with a scope, I couldn't tell the difference.  Yeah, the tools I was using were too limited to show what was happening, and I couldn't find where the actual differences were.  But it was an audible difference.

Amplifiers with different class types certainly will sound different. 

Digital mixers will be the same. The design of the systems will determine how they sound.  Is it enough that you can reliably pick which one you're listening to?  Maybe.  Enough that just talking through an SM58 and listening to yourself?  I doubt I'd be able to tell the difference, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.

In general (from my perspective), 3-way speakers have always sounded pretty good (full-range) by themselves.  Adding subs just didn't seem to add too much value.

Interesting; I don't think I've heard this perspective before.  It may have to do with the price points represented?

My experience (larger systems) - always subwoofers, regardless of the main speakers.  I've never heard any main speakers, other than maybe Danley SM-100F, that could get by without a true subwoofer, and even that was "..... depending on application."

From all the speakers I've heard, keeping in mind higher price points, 3 way always sounded better than 2 way.  2 way always has compromises somewhere, depending on the drivers used.  Good 3 way covers all the bases. 

Whether or not paying more for a 3-way DZR or NX is worth it?  Probably not, as there are enough other compromises to hit those price points that 2 vs 3 way isn't the limiting factor.  Plus they aren't coaxial mounted drivers, so there are inherent phase issues as you go off-axis vertically. 

The step up in quality from something like DZR12 or NX932 (or NX945) - isn't the 3-way version of that same class, but stepping up a class.  NX9xx for lower cost applications, and TT25A or TTL4A for the higher class. 

I remember AB'ing QSC HPR153 vs TT25A; the TT was so much nicer. 

I'd also definitely go with fewer, higher quality, subwoofers.  A/B the RCF 9004/9006, and Bassboss VS21/Makara.