Test Equipment Anonymous

Anyone bought wafer switches lately? Had a look at some today for work (I've plenty of stock for personal use) and was shocked at the prices. £30-50 per wafer and £50-60 for the mechanism :shock: That's 5 to 10 times what the were last time I looked. Seriously considering a board full of DPCO relays...

Anyone in the UK want a R&S CRTU / CMU 200? 0.1-2700 MHz sig gen with AM FM DSB SSB mod, 10-2700 MHz Spectrum analiser and uW to 50 W power meter. £500. Can't post it but I'll be at Dunstable Downs on the 18th...

Robert.

I assume you are not in a rush. I'm off on holiday for a fortnight on Thursday. I'll contemplate it. It would really have to be picked up and seen working. I have the impression you live around Cambridge, or at least roughly in the East Anglia area. Yes just off the end of the M11. I'll be at Dunst...

£800

The 2955 is OK but once you have used a HP 8920A/B or one of the R&S units you won't want to go back to it.
The only problem with the CRTU and basic CMU 200 is the lack of analog audio demodulation and SINAD measurement.
I have a cheap 8920A if you are interested.....

I went to the local radio rally yesterday. Really just a carboot sale for the local repeater group. I was selling. Mostly big stuff with low value like a scope mobile and instrument mobile. As I on my own there wasn't much opportunity to look around and buy. I did however pick up one item of TE. A R...

Apprenticeships: These are still offered by my employer and have been for over 100 years. The current chief engineer is an ex apprentice and has been with the company for 40 years.... Scaffold towers. Renting these also means that they have an up to date inspection tag which removes another administ...

The granualar material in high rupture current fuses isn't so much for arc quenching (stopping conduction) as energy absortion to stop the fuse physically exploding. It presents a large surface area to the hot expanding gases cooling them and reducing internal pressures.

It was actually a well thought out con. Freezer level temperature does affect the crystaline structure of some alloys. For example in aviation after annealling rivets they work harden at room temperature. This can be slowed by keeping them in a freezer. The treated fuse that blew quickly was obvious...

tggzzz wrote: ↑Tue Apr 01, 2025 8:46 pm

Robert wrote: ↑Tue Apr 01, 2025 8:09 pm And the date is.....

March 31st
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevb ... msg5866735

Not in OZ. They are first for the new year too...

The eevblog video posted yesterday ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYtdpbFWuA ) about fuse characteristics being permanently changed by exposure to low temperature was interesting. He was showing fuses in the context of current shunt overcurrent protection in multimeters. Dave didn't mention any...

OK lets get this back on test equipment. I bumped into a retired work colleague in a supermarket car park last week and he asked me if I would try to repair an instrument for him. Later that day he turned up with a 1980's Roland Juno 60 synthesizer. That is a musical keyboard not a a RF signal gener...

RG-58, a crimp BNC and a BNC to N adaptor at 10GHz?
Your test set-up is not optimal

FRARS used to be my local rally but I haven't attended for many years. To far to go.

I'll be at Dunstable Downs (again). It's come around quickly. Haven't decided if I'm going to sell or not. Good place for transfers though if anyone wants heavy stuff. I've got VNAs (HP 8753B & 8754s) Collins 618T, maybe a 8920A, R&S PSM, Odetics GPSDO etc.

Robert.

I've also seen some plastics react badly to even normally "safe" solvents. One notable one was the insulation on some expensive screw loxkin high pin count DIN connectors. Solvent was "plastic safe" non-CFC spray cleaner. We ere using that on sensitive plastics like ABS and polys...

I've a Fluke VT04 on ebay UK at the moment. Item no. 267185881457 Lower resolution but merged with visual image. great for fault finding. Only selling it because I picked up a Flir E6 for silly money. If anyone in the UK makes an offer over £100 and puts "for TEA" in the message I'll proba...

Hands up anyone in the Trumpdom who is waiting for PCB's or parts from the far east......

I was going to college in Bristol in '82. First week of January saw me flying in on a Dan-Air aka Dan Dare HS748 (G-ARAY, the second prototype) into Lulsgate. The pilot must have been on a promise because unlike all the other aircraft he wasn't going to divert to Cardiff. On the third go-around I sp...

Fancy pickup trucks had a surge in popularity in the UK starting several years ago. However I can say with certanty that it will have died off this year. It's all about income tax. Pickups were never that popular in the UK due to the weather. Farmers would have the option on Landrovers and some util...

Yeah I think the 8060A was aimed more at electronics guys, the rubber baby buggy bumper brigade are more a sparky thing. @Robert, identifying the connector on this seems the sort of thing you excel at: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHZahEGn_8&lc=UgxrhKRMEO2H3zxcjyF4AaABAg.ADIDWCryxW...

On the Fluke 80xx handhelds with side "key" switches I've never had or heard any complaints.
For a manual ranging meter a button per range is great. You can go straight to the range you want.
The side keys allow single handed selection of function and range. Unless you have tiny hands...

Yeah I think the 8060A was aimed more at electronics guys, the rubber baby buggy bumper brigade are more a sparky thing. @Robert, identifying the connector on this seems the sort of thing you excel at: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHZahEGn_8&lc=UgxrhKRMEO2H3zxcjyF4AaABAg.ADIDWCryxW...

For moment I thought you were in LA.
Glad you are not.

New arrival, the - hp - 8640B! It's been on the wish list basically since I was bit with the TEA bug. And now I own one. A colleague, who already owns one, tipped me off on one that was offered at a low -- for Sweden -- starting price of about 150USD. And it was very local, and pickup only, the lat...