RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM User manual

AA-3000 ZOOM
User’s manual
RigExpert®

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Table of contents
Introduction 5
Operating the AA -3000ZOOM 6
First time use 6
Main menu6
Multifunctional keys 7
Connecting to your antenna 7
SWR chart 8
Chart ZOOM 8
Data screen 9
Frequency and range entry 9
Return loss chart 9
R X chart 10
Smith chart 10
Memory operation 11
SWR meter SWR2Air 11
Display all parameters 12
MultiSWR mode 13
Multiband mode 13
HOLD functions 14
Frequency generator 14
My Bands 15
Applications 16
Antennas 16
Coaxial lines 17
Measurement of other elements 24
Annexes 27
Annex 1: Specifications 27
Annex 2: Precautions 28
Annex 3: Tools menu 29

Annex 4: Setup menu 34
Annex 5: TDR mode 35
Annex 6: Calibration 39
Annex 7: Dummy loads 41
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY 42

Thank you for purchasing a RigExpert AA-3000
ZOOM Antenna and Cable Analyzer! We did our
best to make it powerful yet easy to use.
The analyzer is designed for measuring SWR
(standing wave ratio), return loss, cable loss, as
well as other parameters of cable and antenna
systems in the range of 100 kHz to 3000 MHz. A
built-in ZOOM capability makes graphical
measurements especially An integrated Time
Domain Reflectometer mode can be used to
locate a fault within the feedline system. The
analyzer is equipped with a Bluetooth Low
Energy module for a wireless connection with
your laptop, tablet or smartphone.
The following tasks are easily accomplished by
using this analyzer:
• Rapid check-out of an antenna
• Tuning an antenna to resonance
• Comparing characteristics of an antenna
before and after specific event (rain, hurricane,
etc.)
• Making coaxial stubs or measuring their
parameters
• Cable testing and fault location, measuring
cable loss and characteristic impedance
• Measuring capacitance or inductance of
reactive loads
1. Antenna connector
2. Color display
3. Keypad
4. USB connector
5
Introduction
RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM

Operating the
AA-3000 ZOOM
You may use hot keys for the quick access to certain tasks. For instance, press
the (SWR chart) button to open the SWR chart screen immediately.
6
User’s manual
4
First time use
Main menu
Please insert three AA sized batteries
(alkaline, Ni-MH or LiPO accumulators)
into the battery compartment of the
analyzer, watching the polarity.
Press the (Power) key located at the bottom-right corner of the keypad to turn on
the analyzer. After displaying the initial message (showing a firmware version and a serial
number of the instrument), a Main menu appears on the screen.
The analyzer will be turned off automatically if not in use for too long.
The Main menu acts as a starting point
from where different tasks may be
launched.
Use (Cursor up) and (Cursor
down) keys to scroll through the menu,
then press (OK) to select an item.
For your convenience, a battery indicator
is shown at the top-left corner of the
screen. This indicator is replaced with a
USB icon when the analyzer is connected
to your computer.

Plug the cable to your analyzer’s antenna connector, and then tighten the rotating sleeve.
The rest of the connector, as well as the cable, should remain stationary.
7
RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
Multifunctional keys
Most keys on the analyzer’s keypad perform
several functions.
For instance, numbers (1) are used to enter
frequency and other numerical parameters.
Main functions (2) provide quick access to most
common tasks. Alternative functions (3) are
executed if the user holds the (Functional)
key. For the convenience, alternative functions
are marked with yellow.
F
You may press the (Help) key to open a help screen listing all active hot keys.
1
Connecting to your antenna
If you twist other parts of the connector when tightening or loosening, damage may
easily occur. Twisting is not allowed by design of the N-connector.

Use the arrow keys to increase or decrease the center frequency or the scanning range.
Watch the chart zooming in or out, or changing its position. Use the (Functional key)
and (Cursor up) or (Cursor down) key combination to zoom the vertical scale
Once your antenna is connected to the
analyzer, it is time to measure its charac-
teristics. Press the (SWR chart) key
to open the SWR chart screen, then press
(OK) to start a new measurement.
A few moments later, the result will be
displayed on the analyzer’s screen.
Press the + key combination to
run a continuous sweep.
8
User’s manual
4
SWR chart
Chart ZOOM
F
F
Do not forget to press the (OK) key for the new measurement to start.
Press (Functional key) and to quickly choose a radio amateur band.
0
F
A small triangle at the bottom of the chart corresponds to a point at which the
SWR reaches its minimum.

Use cursor keys to navigate, or the to keys to enter values, press the (OK)
key to apply. Hold key for band selection, use navigation keys for choosing
bandplan, amateur regional bandplan and custom bandplans are available (if they were
defined), use keys to apply band settings.
RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
Data screen
Frequency
and range entry
Return loss chart
F
The data screen is available in all chart
modes. Press the (Data) key to display
various parameters of a load at cursor.
0
9
To enter the center frequency or the sweep
range, press the (Frequency, Range)
key.
0
The return loss (RL) chart, which is very similar to the SWR chart, is activated by pressing
the (Functional key) and (RL chart) key combination in the Main menu.
F4
0 9

The (Smith chart) key opens a
screen where the reflection coefficient is
plotted on the Smith chart.
For a list of hot keys, press the
(Help) key, as usual.
Press the (R,X chart) key in the
Main menu to access the R,X chart
mode.
Positive values of reactance (X)
correspond to inductive load, while
negative values correspond to capacitive
load.
The chart will display Rand Xfor series
or parallel models of a load. Press
(Functional key) and to switch
between these models.
User’s manual
R,X chart
Smith chart
10
1
1
2
5
F
The marker at the bottom of the screen shows a resonant
frequency closest to the center of the scan.
A small marker is used to indicate the center frequency.

SWR2Air allows to manifest measured values by speaker or radio(air), using the same
measured antenna. Measuring is coded in Morse code, values in range 1.0-4.9 come
as two digit word without dot, values 5.0 and above are represented as long dash.
Portable, FM -able radio is typically used to pick up radio channel. Change transmit
frequency by pressing + , other SWR2Air related parameters you can find
in Setup menu. Use and to switch between meter and trend view.
This mode allows to measure SWR at
one frequency. Mode provides analog
meter or historical trend view and has
SWR2Air possibility. Change frequency
with , buttons. Press
y to start or stop the measurement,
+ starts measurement with SWR2Air
function.
RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
Memory operation
SWR meter, SWR2Air.
11
F
F
F
3
3
Device has 250 unified slots for storing
your records. Record operations are
linked to relevant data screens - SWR,
RX, RL, Smith charts mark their records
with ‘Z’ slot identificator, TDR chart
marks with ‘T’ identificator.
6 9 9
F
Use , , or and respectively for Load, Save or Edit Name
operations in relevant data screens.

User’s manual
12
To display various parameters of a load
on a single screen, press the (All)
key.
8
Display all parameters
Do not be confused by negative values of L or C. This can be useful for
experienced users.
This screen displays values for series as well as parallel models
of impedance of a load.
• In the parallel model, impedance is
expressed as resistance and
reactance connected in parallel:
• In the series model, impedance is
expressed as resistance and reactance
connected in series:

Use (Up) and (Down) cursor keys to select a frequency to be set or changed,
then press the (Frequency) key to enter a new value. Do not forget to press
the (OK) key to start the measurement.
RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
13
3
Use buttons to choose group,
press and select the band for
curve. Use the button to start and
stop measuring.
3
Press the (Functional key) and
(Multi) key combination to see the SWR
at up to five different frequencies. This
mode may be useful for tuning multi-
band antennas.
F3
MultiSWR mode
Multiband mode
In Tools menu you can find another useful mode for tuning multiband antennas.
Mode provides up to 3 overlapped charts of selected bands. In-band values are
shown as curve, minimal SWR of band and frequency at this point provided by
text. Measuring is done in continous “in loop” manner, providing conviently
“alive” picture.

User’s manual
14
Using + keys allows you to make current curve as reference curve (you can
use even RECORD curve). Reference curve will be retained until next arbitrary user
action. Using + enables HOLD last operation. New measurement will be
shown with previous curve. Text mark “ref” or “last” indicates current mode of HOLD
functionality.
F
F
1
6
You can provide on RF connector of
analizer square-shaped (or close to it,
depends on exact frequency) unmodu-
lated signal. It will be persistent and
stable, unlike in any measuring mode.
All device’s range is accesible with
resolution of 1 Hz. Use button for
enabling and dissabling signal at
output. “Square wave” icon indicates
active output.
HOLD functions
Frequency generator
RL and Smith charts. You can keep some
measuring result on screen next to fresh
measuring result. There are two ways of
using HOLD.

RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
15
My Bands
For advanced usage of analizer it is
sometimes benefitial to have custom,
more flexible bands instead of rigid
amateur regional bands. This functionali-
ty gives you possibility to manage 10
custom bandplans, which one can
contain up to 100 user defined bands. By
default, bandplans are named as Plan
A-J, with bands named A00-A99 (for
Plan A), every band has range as 0,
making band in such way unconfigured/-
dissabled. Bandplans that have 0 config-
ured bands considered unconfigured.
Unconfigured bandplans and bands are
removed from access list (Frequency
entry, Multiband).
Configured bands will appear in access list accordingly to their default number (exactly
as they ordered there), regardless of their given name or central frequency. Considering
that, we can recommend to place most frequently used bands at start of list, you can
also leave “gaps”, having in mind, to insert later some bands with expected place.
Please, explore built-in help for other details and keys functionality.

Applications
User’s manual
16
Antennas
Checking the antenna
It is a good idea to check an antenna before connecting it to the receiving or transmit-
ting equipment. The SWR chart mode is good for this purpose. Also you can use Multé
tool located in Tools. Multé will check your rig against all HAM bands defined in your
region and rate all bands where SWR lower than 3.0 in range of 1...5 stars. Select band
for detailed evaluation and press to run SWR chart for this band.
The picture on the left shows the result
for one band real antenna.
The next screen shot shows result for 50
Ohm calibrated load, making in such way
ideal all-band antenna (in mathematical
terms only).

RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
17
Adjusting the antenna
When the measurement diagnoses that the antenna is off the desired frequency, the
analyzer can help in adjusting it. Physical dimensions of a simple antenna (such as a
dipole) can be adjusted knowing the actual resonant frequency and the desired one.
Other types of antennas may contain more than one element to adjust (including coils,
filters, etc.), so this method will not work. Instead, you may use the SWR mode, the All
parameters mode or the Smith chart mode to continuously see the results while adjust-
ing various parameters of the antenna.
For multi-band antennas, use the MultiSWR mode. You can easily see how changing
one of the adjustment elements (trimming capacitor, coil, or physical length of an
aerial) affects SWR at up to five different frequencies.
Coaxial lines
Open- and short-circuited cables
The pictures on the right show R and X
charts for a piece of cable with open- and
short-circuited far end. A resonant
frequency is a point at which X
(reactance) equals to zero:
• In the open-circuited case, resonant
frequencies correspond to (left to right)
1/4, 3/4, 5/4, etc. of the wavelength in this
cable;
• For the short-circuited cable, these
points are located at 1/2, 1, 3/2, etc. of
the wavelength.

User’s manual
18
Cable length measurement
Resonant frequencies of a cable depend on its length as well as on the velocity factor.
A velocity factor is a parameter which characterizes the slowdown of the speed of the
wave in the cable compared to vacuum. The speed of wave (or light) in vacuum is
known as the electromagnetic constant: c=299,792,458 meters (or 983,571,056 feet)
per second.
Each type of cable has different velocity factor: for instance, for RG-58 it is 0.66. Notice
that this parameter may vary depending on the manufacturing process and materials
the cable is made of.
To measure the physical length of a cable,
1. Locate a resonant frequency by using the R,X chart.
2. Knowing the electromagnetic constant
and the velocity factor of the particular
type of cable, find the speed of electro-
magnetic wave in this cable.
Example:
The 1/4-wave resonant frequency of a
piece of open-circuited RG-58 cable is
4370 kHz.
299,792,458 * 0.66 =
197,863,022 meters per second
- or -
983,571,056 * 0.66 =
649,156,897 feet per second

RigExpert AA-3000 ZOOM
19
Velocity factor measurement
3. Calculate the physical length of the
cable by dividing the above speed by
the resonant frequency (in Hz) and
multiplying the result by the number
which corresponds to the location of
this resonant frequency (1/4, 1/2, 3/4,
1, 5/4, etc.)
197,863,022 /4,370,000 x (1/4) =
11.32 meters
- or -
649,156,897/4,370,000 x (1/4) =
37.14 feet
1. Locate a resonant frequency as
described above.
Example:
5 meters (16.4 feet) of open-circuited
cable. Resonant frequency is 9400 kHz
at the 1/4-wave point.
2. Calculate the speed of electromag-
netic wave in this cable. Divide the
length by 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, etc. (depending
on the location of the resonant frequen-
cy), then multiply by the resonant
frequency (in Hz).
5 / (1/4) x 9,400,000 =
188,000,000 meters per second
- or -
16.4 / (1/4) x 9,400,000 =
616,640,000 feet per second
3. Finally, find the velocity factor. Just
divide the above speed by the electro-
magnetic constant.
188,000,000 /299,792,458 = 0.63
- or -
616,640,000 /983,571,056 = 0.63

User’s manual
20
Cable fault location
To locate the position of a probable fault in a cable, just use the same method as when
measuring its length. Watch the behavior of the reactive component (X) near the zero
frequency:
• If the value of X is moving from –∞to 0, the cable is open-circuited:
• If the value of X is moving from 0 to +â€ћ, the cable is short-circuited: