Test Equipment Anonymous

Remember postal orders? Oh yes! But they only worked in the UK. To buy stuff from the USA you needed an International Money Order, and about 6 weeks for shipping by sea. Bought an early digital clock IC, MM5314, and six "large" 7 segment displays (i.e. 0.5" high), and made the first ...

Ii met Birkett once. He had a stall at a radio rally in Worcester. I bought some germanium diodes from him. That must have been around 2001. It would have been a long haul to his shop in Lincoln. Target Electronics was a hobbyist electronics shop which was eclipsed by Maplin, which was more accessi...

I don't think there are any electronic junk shops left. i used to go to Centre Electronics in Birmingham, which closed abut 20 years ago. I believe Birketts in Lincoln is still there, run by his daughter. My 1740 came from there. https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/silent-keys/2022/05/18/john-birkett-g...

Wow! That power supply is (as the seller honestly declares) "in bad shape". Whatever happened to it to cause that? Parachute failed to open? Anecdotally the Israeli equivalent is "run over by a tank" :) There used to be an electronic junk shop at Southampton that went by the nam...

Of the haul from there I've investigated so far, one 1740A seems to work but has knobs which are falling to bits, and the other doesn't produce a trace and I suspect has an EHT problem but is cosmetically good. You know, I've never really liked HP scopes. It's an itch I've now partially scratched. ...

Even so, their stuff was in better condition than this https://www.ebay.com/itm/366708551569 :o :shock: :o :shock: They're on some seriously good stuff if they think someone's going to pay ANYTHING for that. WTF, was it used as a chock for an M1 Abrams? -Pat I don't recall seeing anything offered f...

Even so, their stuff was in better condition than this https://www.ebay.com/itm/366708551569

Which pile did your stuff come from? Does something vaguely right, kaput, untested?

EC8010, Zenith and I were chatting about fA circuits and electrometers. I mentioned I had 1Tohm resitors (not IT resistors as described in the auction listing), and EC thinks it is worth posting pictures here. I expect he'll post some useful observations. This is the first time I've opened them. I h...

Robert wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2026 3:50 pm Nope, I was later. It was in a bin of grey plastic boxes that were described as APC7 articulated arms for VNAs. Always a risk buying active probes as they are so easily damaged.

Oh bugger. I specifically remember not looking in any of those boxes. Oh well.

I would have taken the 1145, but you got there first

Back in the 50s, 60s, 70s there was a lot of progress and a lot of "better than nothing" stuff around. It was worth looking at reviews to understand what was new and better and why. From the 80s onwards many of the analogue technologies had plateaued out, with only minor improvements. (CD ...

EC8010 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 02, 2026 4:47 pm Not quite the same as gaining approval for range and depth* in test gear, but I think I have secured planning permission for new loudspeakers.

Reminds me, I ought to flog my Rogers Studio 1. No use to me anymore

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Fri Oct 02, 2026 5:24 pm

MED6753 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 9:29 pm Gee Pat, you need....ahem....more space.

Yes, I do!!

More space => spend more money. Full house => can't buy until something has been sold, which saves money.

Robert wrote: ↑Fri Oct 02, 2026 6:13 pm

Zenith wrote: ↑Fri Oct 02, 2026 9:47 am [<BIG SNIP>

The recent estate sale EC8010 and tggzzz visited had over 200 items of TE, with many big old HP units from the 70s and 80s.

Was that near Southampton? may have been the same one...

Yes, Crowdhill.

Blondie sez my lab is a hoard. Mike, show her this picture of my living room, taken literally a few minutes ago. I bet she'll change her tune. Lack of a SWMBO can be a mixed blessing - my floor joists certainly don't like it! Picture sent to daughter, in the vain hope it will stop her whining.

Are HP YIG oscillators valuable as spare parts? The 8620s I (and Zenith, remotely) picked up on Tuesday probably contain one or more.

I wonder what the frequency range is, and whether any men in black suits would appear if he used it for a long time? Didn't realise the ordinary plasma globes emit mostly UV. Another of his videos shows laser pointers with 27mW output; they were subsequently recalled by Amazon. https://www.gov.uk/pr...

Pull back on the stick and the houses get smaller. Keep pulling back on the stick and the houses get bigger again. And, if you get it just right, it becomes very quiet, the horizon moves rapidly upward and then the houses whirl around once every 3s or so. If you don't stop the whirl and then dive h...

I wonder what the revisions were, and what caused them :twisted: The book I liked most was "Stick and Rudder", from 1944. It points out that, contrary to imagination, the elevators don't control elevation and the engines don't control speed. In reality, and it is obvious once you understan...

The safety aspects of FLARM are a little subtle. Only gliders use it, and it is incompatible with other traffic using ADSB. It is undoubtedly very good on ridges where you are likely to have other glider(s) at the same height and going in the opposite direction. At a closing speed of 120kt, a 1m2 wh...

I believe with powered aircraft there are licences with instrument ratings. They are taught to rely on the instruments even when instinct tells them not to. There are instances of people flying upside down and not realising it. There and again they are probably flying in conditions no sane glider p...

I also remember a case affecting a friend (who Zenith has met). A glider crashed spectacularly, and my friend had recently inspected it and stated it was airworthy. That worried my friend, unsurprisingly. It turned out the pilot had deliberately crashed it to commit suicide. I'd chatted with him on...

We have become risk-averse (in order to avoid the cost of accidents), yet have failed to consider that attitude's inevitable consequence. We should consider allowing people who feel they're ready to go to do so before they're screaming inside yet near-comatose on a hospital bed drugged up with morp...

On a more sympathetic note, I've always felt that a weakness of the state pension is that you don't get a tax-free lump sum. But I would add the caveat that it could only be used to buy something like a > 150hp motorcycle or hang glider that had to be used regularly. Such a feature would save the T...