Test Equipment Anonymous

I shall look out for Dunstable Downs and Mendips; you are correct about the RSGB list.

My calendar says we're approaching the time of UK radio rallies. But it seems the first is the Newbury one on 5th July. Are there any others within about 60 miles of Newbury before then that I haven't spotted? After all, there might be a something or another there that I dearly need...

I will admit that I haven't been in the habit of jumping on the Bantam's brake. Perhaps I should get into the habit, especially as there isn't room to fit a handle to the Bantam. But until I spot a 127 tooth gear at a sensible price, the Bantam is limited to Imperial threads. The Hobbymat has enough...

That Harrison is very similar to my Bantam except for the screwcutting gearbox. The Bantam has a big three-phase plug on it that goes to a fixed inverter (same with BCA3 mill). Yes, happy with the torque/power argument. The Hobbymat usually runs at its maximum speed of 2000 rpm because it mostly doe...

We are going a bit off TEA but yes, go for a VFD. I went for the slower 6 pole motor because generally you get less power loss using the VFD to increase speed than reducing it. And it's even smoother. I knew the reduced torque ripple would make difference to the vibration but was shocked very surpr...

Properly looked after not just a glossy paint job. Yes, there are a lot of those around these days. To anyone wondering about a second-hand lathe, look for it to come with accessories (especially quick change tool post and lots of holders), but without fresh paint. The other kind of lathe that turn...

An ER 35 will not fit between the legs of the U link. Ah! Finally, a justification for ER25 over ER32. I dithered for ages before finally choosing ER32 as my collets. Then ER40 appeared, so I bought a face plate chuck for the Bantam and the collet sizes above ER32 sizes. Then I made an ER11 face pl...

Perzackly. And a 3/8" collet would have been even better. (Because of that, I have a few Imperial ER32 sizes as well). I frequently use an ER32 chuck to firmly grip delicate stuff without damaging it. I remember colour coded U-links. We used them on RGB bays, but a more sensible way to distribu...

Wow! I'd never seen an early quadruplex machine before. Silly, I know, but it had never occurred to me that it would use valves. Now I understand why there was a separate bay for the rest of the electronics.

I can see I will be looking out for MUSA patch panels and their U-links.

You lucky thing. Looks like a very nice piece of kit, if rather large. My E4420B (2GHz) generator is a little bit smaller, being only 3U high, but makes up for it by being very deep.

It's different here. Neither of my HPAK low voltage dual supplies has an earth terminal. Nor do my Keithley 2400. My TTi supplies do have earth terminals, and anything I made myself does.

I suspect you meant to type "with" an earth terminal. Thank you for clarifying the doubt, I had decided you probably didn't mean the front panel controls...

My first wife is almost certainly highly proficient in LinkedIn-speak by now. Being good at maths and pretty, she cruised through an engineering degree without needing any innate engineering ability; so her natural progression was into management. It was only after a few years at the chalk face that...

I see that EEVBlog post speculates about current limiting being done in software rather than hardware. I've wondered the same, particularly in light of my PSU having OVP and OCP in firmware. And I see your earlier quote suggests that the overcurrent and overvoltage typically takes 0.5s to act; that...

I didn't know videotapes were also afflicted with sticky tape syndrome. In 1978 there was an (internal) BBC Christmas tape "White Powder Christmas" and next year was "Good King Memorex" both commemorating a tape problem.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Sun Mar 29, 2026 6:00 pm Still some 16mm black/white news footage to do, of course.

Really? Why "of course"? Historical?

MUSA jackfields occasionally turn up at radio rallies, along with Betacam machines.

The description in the first document certainly fits a MUSA connector, although it's not definitive. The IRE document initially seemed to be at odds because it talks about 1" diameter copper pipe transmission lines (pp855). However, Figure 17 (pp863) has some leads that look suspiciously as if ...

I have heard that phase array story too. I was told the origin of the MUSA shortly after I joined the BBC. I worked in Communications Department at the time and we dealt with all the London exchanges (including Museum A), so I wonder about the phased array story. The name ties in with the Post Offic...

Twenty five years ago I had MUSAs coming out of my ears, but I didn't know then what I know now, so I didn't bother keeping any. (Unlike crimp BNCs. MUSAs are reusable.) I believe the central pin is solid silver, so the scrappies like them, hence their poor survival rate. The integrity of the electr...

Which referred to the problem of passing the signal through a vision mixer (for example) and reinserting the burst incorrectly. NTSC televisions needed a user-tweakable hue control. Conversely, with PAL (Pale And Lurid) phase errors didn't disturb the hue but gently reduced saturation, so they didn'...

That reel in its box is heavy. I saw a mains extension lead wound on a 2" reel one day at Television Centre and empty 2" reels were also screwed to walls for hanging leads on. I liked both ideas, so I have a couple of (sawn-in-half) 2" reels on the lab walls for mains leads and two 2&...

Not as far as I thought, then. You must have a museum; I can't imagine your dubbing suite uses the Marconi-Stille (after all, it doesn't have time code). I expect the quadruplex machine is used to transfer historical stuff and is probably a rentable facility for people with old material. Keeping tha...

That's a very splendid hammock for a handsome cat. But I think I'd need big bolts in an external wall if I put one of those up because Heidi is a bit portly.

Good grief! I haven't seen a quadruplex machine for a very long time. But I think you may be a bit more than a motorcycle ride away?