Test Equipment Anonymous

I've seen very high value (100A plus) fuses filled with sand (or something). I assumed it was there for quenching. When it blows you want it to stop conducting, not to continue as an arc. Diazed fuses (Siemens invention from the early 1900s) as used in Sweden and Germany (Among many other places!) ...

For example, Mr. Weigl offers 2 470µF / 200V / 105°C electrolytic capacitors from Samxon. Checked Mouser and found some capacitors from Nichicon / Rubycon / Chemicon which I'll order a replacement for the Samxon. I have 4 unused 470µF 200V caps ( Nichicon LGR2D471MELA35 ) with 10mm pin spacing, bou...

And a test run. Dinner should be ready soon. Important Safety Note: I'm going to put this here in case this post turns up in an internet search for anyone who might not realize that North American stoves can have a nasty safety hazard. Shut the power off at the breaker panel or fuse box before doin...

Air force museums, yes. Only been to the Swedish one, which is good. This good: https://vvv.besserwisser.org/Public/Bilder/Tp85/caravelle-8660A.jpeg (from the inside of the Sud Aviation Caravelle SIGINT aircraft that's been repopulated with gear by old operating crews restoring it and is open for to...

8592L update: Power supply servicing has, for the time being, concluded. The main filter caps all had under 0,1Ω ESR and were spot on in value. No use swapping them. The RIFAs have been exchanged for new ones. Still marked RIFA but of course made by Kemet. The coming week I'll try to get to the plum...

These are excellent sources and resources.

Still, tape is only interesting as a historical medium, and all possible effort should be directed towards transferring their content to ones and zeros and storing those on hard drives.

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 8:16 am Some time back I also snagged their later, much simpler sand filled cousins - the 220A and 221A.

Those are SO cute! Thanks for posting.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2025 7:52 pm I got lucky the other day.

Follow-up: Yes, it arrived, it is pristine, just as advertised, and it sounds impeccable. Happy.

Very nice.



My slightly newer sibling says hello.

The only mod I had to do to it was to remove the substandard mains input, and replace it with a modern one:

I believe the connectors if not the supply voltages and the pinning (most certainly not!) are the same as for the TM500 series modular instruments. For those, a so-called JAMMA extender cable reportedly can be used, once a bridge in the PCB joining a couple of adjacent pins has been removed. I've go...

I got lucky the other day. I've had a search for "Audix" in the "Microphones" section of the local auction site for ages. Few, if any hits, compared to the Sennheiser and Shure searches I also have. Then, an OM5 showed up at a sensible starting bid. But, did not sell; no bids at ...

Did some digging in the garage this morning. More or less literally. Apparently I've now got two complete Duossal equipped Type 25 Trangias, and Al pots for them too, and another duossal big pot for Type 25. Must have wished for one extra :shock: . Anyway, they're repacked and checked out as complet...

Apparently reel to reel has had a comeback in recent years, especially with some prominent artistes and a section of audiophiles. Are they still made? No, but tape is being made again, I believe. There was a crisis when BASF and Ampex both had quit, IIRC, but there was a resurgence and manufacturin...

I remember that scene from Pup Fiction being used as a standalone music video for the Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon song and I did some digging and it's a Teac X2000. Why the dislike for magnetic tape though? For me, it's Pro Tools and 16mm film because I'm fed up with taking on more and more work so...

Any idea what tape machine that is? An obsolete one! My guess would be upper consumer level deck from Technics or perhaps Akai. If I never have to work with tape again, I am a happy person. OTOH, my record player: https://vvv.besserwisser.org/Public/Bilder/tea/very-satisfying.mov The Mono/Stereo bu...

8592L update: ... I think I've found all four manuals required, user, calibration, assembly service manual, and CLIP package. None of these contain the power supply. Of course. That's an unpleasant surprise. If it wasn't a spectrum analyser and did have a Boeschert (sp?) PSU, it wouldn't surprise m...

8592L update: The power supply, an OEM SMPS thing, has been extracted from the chassis, and taken apart. Well built; nice to get to pieces and will not be a problem going together again. They really boobytrapped this one though, three RIFA PME40 0,1microFarad thingies and a Schaffner inlet filter. O...

Reference oscillator is OK. This is one bent out of shape machine. https://vvv.besserwisser.org/Public/Bilder/tea/8592-5245L.jpeg Also checked the CAL output using my TinySA; it is spot on. Found this thread that says it could be diodes in an early mixer, if it is, as I suspect, a case of DC injecti...

New arrival. One slightly sick 8592L SA. It's deaf, Jim. That little peak is supposed to be -20dBm and 300MHz, not -60dBm and 301,4MHz...

I'm going to pre around a bit more and see what I can do.

There's my thread at The Other Plaice, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/fluke-8125a-military-dmm-teardown/ The other place can fuck right off! I've made it impossible for me to recover my account again now. I noticed that. I perhaps should do the same; The owner's gone off the rails, especial...

The next project. A Tek 5110 which I should be picking up from the seller this coming Saturday. It will be my first 5000 series scope and it will get my usual clean/re-cap/restoration. But not until I complete the 7B92 repair which has been on hold due to no time to work on it. I should have the ti...

Quick update on the ultrasonic cleaner, it did arrive all safe and sound along with enough jewellery cleaner concentrate to make upto about 20 litres but apart a quick unbox to check unwrap to check that is arrived in an undamaged state, which it did, nothing else has been done with it yet due to M...

One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then. While snow may not be much of a thing in Florida I'm pretty sure that mud is. Everglades and all that. Don't forget the first part of "mud and snow rated tyres". So there's a fa...

At least Walton County Sheriff dude's truck is engine on and heat running. The cold plus the standby loads on my truck plus not being driven for several days while I've been under the weather completely killed my car battery. One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess wou...

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:03 am

mansaxel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:23 am There's a railway station 1km away.

Is that railway open?

No idea, but on Street View, there's still tracks and they look recently used.