Test Equipment Anonymous

This is a true and faithful account of my involvement with tggzzz's acquisiitions at W-s-M. Here, we have a micro-payment service for cellulars that even the old hams and their widows have learnt to use. I never carry cash except when I need to go to the punk club that does all in cash. "Swish...

The current trend in the post-S.A.W music factory is indeed to approach a 0dB crest factor. One has to be more eclectic in ones search of music rather than just condemn society based on the lowest common denominator. As a natural consequence of being an Einstürzende Neubauten fan, I these days liste...

With hi-fi they were talking about tangible things, such as performance measurements, until around the mid 80s. After then, I agree with tggzzz, it became like reading reviews of wine. "This amplifier has a firm but not strident bass, some loss of control in the mid-range, the treble is fright...

I used to keep a six D cell Maglite by the bed, but the batteries failed, swelled, and couldn't be got out... When it comes to lies, its seems torches are even more creative than 1970s amplifiers with their music power, peak power, and Sinclair watts. But I have to admit that my little 3W LED torch...

vk6zgo wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2026 5:43 am
"Professional" video equipment generally meant "Not up to Broadcast standards" when I was in TV Broadcasting!

Sony monitors with "P" in the type name were cheap.

Those with "B" were not.

And another; this is Alberto Giacomettis vision of a cat. There is something to it. The sass. From Fondation Maeght just west of Nice in the hills above Côte d'Azur.

A somewhat different pic this time; this is a pic of a pic of a cat; from the Cat Museum in Amsterdam.

ps whooooops! wasn't the dragon originally from pittsburgh? have not heard from that young fella' in a while. I spent 17 months in Pittsburgh. From 8 weeks to 18 months old. Don't remember it! I spent a week in Pittsburgh, at a meeting . I kind of liked it. Then I drove all of US 22 to Newark and f...

Thank you for that. A knowledgeable government would have worked out that broadcasting is cheaper overall. And might even have argued for a quality criterion. As for lobbying, everybody has been persuaded that digital is superior, so that they just parrot that, yet all data starts analogue, whether...

Basically, it's utter shite, and the sooner it fucks off and dies, the better. A succinct and accurate summing up. Yes. I have been working at an organisation that did for far too long advocate DAB. It was an interesting idea, sort of a lookalike to DVB-T in that it is a channel mux package where a...

Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted? Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/why-have-papers-one-history-s-most-famous-physicists-been-retracted The behaviour of Springer becom...

(I will carefully avoid mentioning what is inside the record player itself as input connectors to the RIAA stage :twisted: ) Welcome to SDI at 1080p50: I thought I might hear from you. Heh. I left broadcast just as SDI was coming in. Interesting to hear that fibre is the present solution. Why compe...

New arrival, Panasonic VP-8191A. Works, looks to be in good physical shape and will do a signal to spec. Thought it would do stereo modulation, but no. That was just me in delirious acquisitions mode. Now researching stereo MPX modulation generators. NJM 2035 plus quite few extra components will do ...

The worrying thing is that there are lots of snake oil audio cables. Fancy mains cables, fancy loudspeaker cables, fancy interconnect cables with phono plugs (not XLRs) at each end. But guess what? The world still uses unbalanced cables from turntables to RIAA stage. The cartridge is a balanced tra...

Decided I ought to dig out the relevant equipment, and do the measurement one last time. What is the equipment, what is the measurement, and why one last time? :) IMG_0295a.JPG You've left the name of the instrument in the picture and I had no idea it was produced with the Agilent name on it, that ...

LOL - As much as I like the concept of a fused mains plug, I still prefer my 'dangerous' NEMA 5-15Ps - they're less likely to damage things in shipment, and don't do their imitation of caltrops when they fall on the floor. As bad as it is finding cat barf with my bare foot while enroute to the bath...

This makes me want to go ahead and finish building the re-encapsulement of the Philips variable transformer I've got. It's gotten so far that it is in a 6HE Schroff Baugruppenträger (which is German for card cage) and will get a front plate from Schroff, and then have various meters and switches add...

120V, yes. 208V, yes. 240V, no. We haven't even gotten started:-) https://vvv.besserwisser.org/Public/Bilder/tea/propervoltage.jpeg I've managed to avoid 400V, but the 230 phase to neutral voltage (Those who suffer from a certain mr Edison having had entirely too much say in low voltage grid constr...

Oh, and on steel tape machines; specifically Marconi-Stille ones, this BBC technical history site has a rather nice description of them in BBC use.

I imagine if I re-read the whole sub-thread carefully, I might be able to catch up on exactly what is/isn't being referred to. "For more information please reread" (The reference awaits spotting) That has to be Scarfolk although as with most Scarfolk stuff I always get the feeling that I'...

Perhaps mansaxel could wave a micrometer at some of that "tape" some time. I've never used one, but I understand that you can fit a "knife" blade to a bandsaw. At 60 ips, one of those tape machines was a bandsaw. 0,08mm thick by 3mm wide, 2700 meters per spool which gave 30 minu...

The size of the reels is amazing. :shock: At 15 kilos per reel, the weight is equally amazing. Quite the workout to handle. Also, at 60ips speed, long tapes were needed. The tape was made in country; one of the steel rolling mills in Sweden made a large batch that was then used for the duration of ...

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. I did a little walkabout in the museum corridor at work, a...

tggzzz wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2026 11:04 am
I imagine if I re-read the whole sub-thread carefully, I might be able to catch up on exactly what is/isn't being referred to.

"For more information please reread"

(The reference awaits spotting)

Still some 16mm black/white news footage to do, of course. Really? Why "of course"? Historical? Yes, they prioritized the VT stock because tape's less stable than 16mm what with having to bake tapes and all. And 16mm now gets scanned on a request basis, when we do historical review progra...