Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[tggzzz]

It seems Mike Magee (founder of The Register and The Inquirer) has died, RIP. https://www.semiaccurate.com/2024/08/12 ... ssed-away/

That rather good obituary refers to one of many articles Magee wrote in his inimitable style, about to Queen Princess Fiorina.
http://web.archive.org/web/200503011206 ... icle=12364

[Zenith]

Bad news. I liked Mike Magee's pieces in The Register and The Enquirer. There was something irreverent about them, a bit like Private Eye before it descended into private jokes and coded language.

[tggzzz]

The nearest to The Inq is https://www.semiaccurate.com/ but to read below the fold you need to fork out money.

Private Eye is one of the few places serious (and trivial) scandals are documented. It has always had coded language, some of which has escaped into wider usage, e.g. "tired and emotional", "Ugandan relations" and the famous Arkell v. Pressdram response. [contd. reply 94]

[25 CPS]

I got a package delivery notification in my email earlier today showing a box with test equipment in it sitting on my front porch. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully it's still there when I get home from work.

Speaking of work, one of the guys here told me about an hour ago that they threw out an Hewlett Packard 3582A last week. Apparently I'm not the only person here upset and disappointed about how the surplus assets are being disposed. I don't know what else to say other than I hope the box on the porch is still there when I get home and I can enjoy the new piece of kit this evening.

[Cubdriver]

I got a package delivery notification in my email earlier today showing a box with test equipment in it sitting on my front porch. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully it's still there when I get home from work.

Speaking of work, one of the guys here told me about an hour ago that they threw out an Hewlett Packard 3582A last week. Apparently I'm not the only person here upset and disappointed about how the surplus assets are being disposed. I don't know what else to say other than I hope the box on the porch is still there when I get home and I can enjoy the new piece of kit this evening.

Oh, it really hurts to read that. WTF are people who do stuff like this thinking? (Yeah, I know, probably moronic corporate policy)

I sincerely hope your silence tonight is due to your being occupied playing with your new instrument (and not because you’ve had an aneurysm due to a porch pirate absconding with it)!

-Pat

[25 CPS]

I got a package delivery notification in my email earlier today showing a box with test equipment in it sitting on my front porch. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully it's still there when I get home from work.

Speaking of work, one of the guys here told me about an hour ago that they threw out an Hewlett Packard 3582A last week. Apparently I'm not the only person here upset and disappointed about how the surplus assets are being disposed. I don't know what else to say other than I hope the box on the porch is still there when I get home and I can enjoy the new piece of kit this evening.

Oh, it really hurts to read that. WTF are people who do stuff like this thinking? (Yeah, I know, probably moronic corporate policy)

I sincerely hope your silence tonight is due to your being occupied playing with your new instrument (and not because you’ve had an aneurysm due to a porch pirate absconding with it)!

-Pat

The silence, that was due to a bunch of errands after work, a long commute home, meeting up with a friend after looping by the house and grabbing the box off the porch, having a bite to eat and then crashing. Fatigue won in the battle between exhaustion and try out new equipment.



The box was still there when I got home and this is what was in it.

I had been thinking about ordering a QA103 on and off for a while now, back as far as one of the previous models going out production due to the pandemic era chip shortage that caused the QuantAsylum people to discontinue it and redesign the product.

There were two things that led to me deciding to go and buy one now. My 8903B's signal generator needs a bit of help. The low output has become low and noisy which I've worked around using the high other output no problem so far. I need to pull it out and check a couple of test points to confirm or disprove my theory that the relay in the output path is starting to go bad, and go from there. My concern is that if it is the relay that switches the outputs going, or other common point of failure, I could start the machine up and not have any output on the high as well and get stuck.

The second was the incident two/three weeks ago at work I posted about, where I suggested using an Audio Precision portable test set to diagnose a problem and the manager said he'd just thrown a bunch of them out. I had thoughts of buying one if they were to do another departmental garage sale but it looks more and more like that was a one time, one off event that isn't going to be repeated. Even if it is sometime down the road, those Audio Precisions are already gone now so it's too late for one of those, so I decided to buy the QA403. The way things unfolded yesterday when I had gotten the delivery notification complete with the picture of the QA403 sitting on the porch at home for several hours before that co-worker told about the HP 3582A being thrown out last week only validated the decision to buy the QA403 in my mind since it's clear that buying surplussed castoff equipment from work is not on the table.

[25 CPS]

The death of a radio station.

I came in from mowing the lawn and saw this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton ... -1.7294411

I had the test equipment laptop out ready to go for the QA403 but I grabbed the SDR instead and went back outside. It's totally the wrong antenna to be using for broadcast AM and the pictures aren't the greatest but they're the best I could do under the circumstances:









The carrier's been shut off and they're gone. The last two pictures are from a tour a couple of years ago. That on air light probably got switched off for the last time after today's morning show finished.

[Cerebus]

It seems Mike Magee (founder of The Register and The Inquirer) has died, RIP. https://www.semiaccurate.com/2024/08/12 ... ssed-away/

That rather good obituary refers to one of many articles Magee wrote in his inimitable style, about to Queen Princess Fiorina.
http://web.archive.org/web/200503011206 ... icle=12364

Like everybody else who knew him I have several "Mike Magee drinking stories". If you ever want to hear them you will have to buy me a drink, well several drinks actually, in one of the remaining drinking holes that the stories took place in; I'm sure that Mike would not have it any other way. One of them even took place in "The Clink", the place that gives us one of the slang terms for prison, and not normally a drinking establishment but PC Mag had hired it for the night for the magazine's 1st birthday party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clink

[mnementh]

If I ever make it to your side of the pond... and I promise I'll pay for the good stuff.

mnem
Well... at least until the 4th or 5th round where all alcohol becomes interchangeable. Never let it be said Cerebus didn't teach me something useful.

[bd139]

It seems Mike Magee (founder of The Register and The Inquirer) has died, RIP. https://www.semiaccurate.com/2024/08/12 ... ssed-away/

That rather good obituary refers to one of many articles Magee wrote in his inimitable style, about to Queen Princess Fiorina.
http://web.archive.org/web/200503011206 ... icle=12364

Like everybody else who knew him I have several "Mike Magee drinking stories". If you ever want to hear them you will have to buy me a drink, well several drinks actually, in one of the remaining drinking holes that the stories took place in; I'm sure that Mike would not have it any other way. One of them even took place in "The Clink", the place that gives us one of the slang terms for prison, and not normally a drinking establishment but PC Mag had hired it for the night for the magazine's 1st birthday party.

You're on

[MED6753]

Things that go bump in the night. Last night I hear this loud crash coming from the lab. What did the cat get into now? Go into the lab and find my custom made probe rack on the floor in a twisted mess. And several pieces broken off the probe rack. So today repaired the rack and untangled all the cables. Once the glue dries I'll put it all back in place.

For once Harley the cat was not guilty. He was enjoying a midnight snack in the kitchen. He was just as surprised as I was. Turns out one of the hangers had come loose.

[MED6753]

Put back together and neat and tidy. So OK, I'm anal. We all have our faults.

[25 CPS]

Things that go bump in the night. Last night I hear this loud crash coming from the lab. What did the cat get into now? Go into the lab and find my custom made probe rack on the floor in a twisted mess. And several pieces broken off the probe rack. So today repaired the rack and untangled all the cables. Once the glue dries I'll put it all back in place.

For once Harley the cat was not guilty. He was enjoying a midnight snack in the kitchen. He was just as surprised as I was. Turns out one of the hangers had come loose.

I wonder how many times cats have gotten the blame for things they've had no involvement with?

I know mine got blamed for a number of things that I later found out he wasn't responsible for. He never got into the test equipment but kitchenwares on the other hand...

[MED6753]

I wonder how many times cats have gotten the blame for things they've had no involvement with?

I know mine got blamed for a number of things that I later found out he wasn't responsible for. He never got into the test equipment but kitchenwares on the other hand...

I cannot leave TE disassembled on the bench because my cat is to blame for stolen screws/parts/etc that disappear forever. Anything new he has to investigate.

[Cubdriver]

I wonder how many times cats have gotten the blame for things they've had no involvement with?

I know mine got blamed for a number of things that I later found out he wasn't responsible for. He never got into the test equipment but kitchenwares on the other hand...

I cannot leave TE disassembled on the bench because my cat is to blame for stolen screws/parts/etc that disappear forever. Anything new he has to investigate.

They are 'helpful' like that…

-Pat

[Specmaster]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clink

I used to have an office just the other side of the river, in Queen Street but never found the time to visit the Clink, shame.

[25 CPS]

I was browsing the Keysight website trying to find some information about replacement scope probes for the U1602A. One of mine's defective and I do want to replace it, but I was having trouble finding information. The last time I looked on Newark's website, all the probes they offered for portable scopes were either discontinued (U1601, U1602) or out of stock (the current U1610 and U1620 scopes) and I saw the pending discontinuation notice for them. That prompted some further browsing since they discontinued the insulation testers and IR cameras a couple of years ago which has me wondering if they're slowly exiting the handheld instrument business altogether.

From what I found clicking around their website, it looks like Keysight is about to drop the portable scope line entirely along with the handheld clamp meters and a good chunk of the handheld multimeters:

Discontinued:

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/products ... copes.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... -ip54.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... digit.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... splay.html

Still current:

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... -ip67.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... digit.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... splay.html

https://www.keysight.com/ca/en/product/ ... digit.html

Some of the choices of some of the discontinuations and retained products strike me as a bit strange. The whole U1272/3/3AX line got discontinued but they kept both the U125x and U128x lines of multimeters. I was under the impression that the U1282A was the replacement for the U1252/3 but they've kept both, at least for now. I was definitely surprised to see the basic tier U1231/2/3 multimeters get kept as well. I thought for sure, if Keysight was going to trim their handheld DMM offerings, they'd get rid of the bottom rung units since there's not much point in competing at the bottom end on price with the proliferation of cheap DMMs out there.





Keysight's product page for the U1115A remote logging display is right when they say there's no replacement for that. That's a great little unit. Such a shame that it's discontinued along with two of the other meters I've got connected to it in the second picture there. It's a shame, the handheld instruments could be integrated so nicely into a great portable, rugged test set.

[25 CPS]

Here's the background for context:

The commercial radio landscape's changing quite a bit here. Before CHML 900 was shut down which I mentioned a few posts back, Bell Canada, which is really the old phone company despite attempting to be a diversified conglomerate, unloaded a bunch of their AM radio stations across the country including a few in my corner of southwest Ontario. Bell went on a big expensive shopping spree when they decided they wanted to become a media company and overpaid for a lot of the radio stations they picked up, gutted them, and now having decided they can't bleed them for much more money, sold them off. The upside of this, CKOC 1150 changed hands and is now back to playing music, mostly 70s and 80s with some 60s and some early 1990s music thrown in so it's like the waning days of AM top 40 radio here which lasted into the early 90s due to the way the government content regulations were until then, but with a more varied mix of music.

When I heard about that, I put it on in the car on my way to and from the train station and was enjoying it. A music station on AM is going to be a tough one to make commercially viable so I wish them luck because that's not going to be easy but since there's an AM station in the area playing music I like, it got me thinking about doing a radio restoration.



This Scott 330C has a three position wide/normal/narrow bandwidth selection that would be interesting to hear an AM music station through. I'm thinking about pulling it off the shelf and doing a restoration and alignment on it. Does this sound like a good fall project?

[AVGresponding]

The Keyshite product line thing might be to do with their manufacturing partner relationships; a fair bit of their stuff, especially the handhelds, seem to be made by others on their behalf.

That radio looks cool, and it's nice to see AM/FM stations still alive, in these days of trashy DAB

[MED6753]

This Scott 330C has a three position wide/normal/narrow bandwidth selection that would be interesting to hear an AM music station through. I'm thinking about pulling it off the shelf and doing a restoration and alignment on it. Does this sound like a good fall project?

Excellent Fall project. But before any attempt at power up change all the consumer grade electrolytics as well as the wax paper tubular capacitors. If the tubulars are sort of black plastic they are known as "black beauties" and they will be ugly too.

[Zenith]

Some of the choices of some of the discontinuations and retained products strike me as a bit strange. The whole U1272/3/3AX line got discontinued but they kept both the U125x and U128x lines of multimeters. I was under the impression that the U1282A was the replacement for the U1252/3 but they've kept both, at least for now. I was definitely surprised to see the basic tier U1231/2/3 multimeters get kept as well. I thought for sure, if Keysight was going to trim their handheld DMM offerings, they'd get rid of the bottom rung units since there's not much point in competing at the bottom end on price with the proliferation of cheap DMMs out there.

It may be to do with these being the recommended test gear written into government/military/telecomms company maintenance documents. Bodies like that are very slow moving and can take a couple of years to evaluate and approve a new DVM, and update the manual and have all approvals ticked off. It also costs them a fortune. They'd rather continue to buy what's been approved, even if it costs several times what a top end alternative would. So huge margins for producing it, and they may even have stopped making it and have a stockpile.

Also internal company politics, not necessarily related to commercial sense, can shape these decisions.

[Zenith]

Excellent Fall project. But before any attempt at power up change all the consumer grade electrolytics as well as the wax paper tubular capacitors. If the tubulars are sort of black plastic they are known as "black beauties" and they will be ugly too.

Seconded. Waxed paper capacitors are very nasty things and are well known for having very slight leakage which can raise the grid of a valve above its proper bias voltage and wreck it. Black Beauties are notorious for failing and doing serious and expensive damage, such as taking out the mechanical filters in Collins gear.

[25 CPS]

This Scott 330C has a three position wide/normal/narrow bandwidth selection that would be interesting to hear an AM music station through. I'm thinking about pulling it off the shelf and doing a restoration and alignment on it. Does this sound like a good fall project?

Excellent Fall project. But before any attempt at power up change all the consumer grade electrolytics as well as the wax paper tubular capacitors. If the tubulars are sort of black plastic they are known as "black beauties" and they will be ugly too.

I did a partial restoration on it a long time ago. Two house moves ago, actually, and it's honestly due for re-restoration given that tuner is the first piece of tube RF gear I'd worked on.

Fall is beginning to look crowded. I know I've got some shiftwork coming up and I don't really do much when I'm on midnights, and I got a message yesterday asking if I'd come out and play indoor football plus I'm in the early stages of planning my annual fall driving trip to visit friends in Pennsylvania, so this might end up becoming more of a winter project. I did say yes to the football after thinking about it over yesterday and today because I enjoy it and at my age, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to play so I want to get that in while I can.

I'm in the workshop playing around with the QA403 again while I wait for the friend with the Yorkville powered speaker to come bring it over so we can take a look at that, and I'm looking over at the little HP 5216A nixie tube counter that I picked up a while ago that I'd love to get fixed up. I think those are the two at the top of my list right now which is always subject to change based on what comes up on my end, what has to go on the bench etc. I have no shortage of my own projects to do here, that's for sure. I definitely understand what this one relative of mine means when she says how she's so busy in retirement that she has no idea how she had time to work.

[Cubdriver]

Some of the choices of some of the discontinuations and retained products strike me as a bit strange. The whole U1272/3/3AX line got discontinued but they kept both the U125x and U128x lines of multimeters. I was under the impression that the U1282A was the replacement for the U1252/3 but they've kept both, at least for now. I was definitely surprised to see the basic tier U1231/2/3 multimeters get kept as well. I thought for sure, if Keysight was going to trim their handheld DMM offerings, they'd get rid of the bottom rung units since there's not much point in competing at the bottom end on price with the proliferation of cheap DMMs out there.

It may be to do with these being the recommended test gear written into government/military/telecomms company maintenance documents. Bodies like that are very slow moving and can take a couple of years to evaluate and approve a new DVM, and update the manual and have all approvals ticked off. It also costs them a fortune. They'd rather continue to buy what's been approved, even if it costs several times what a top end alternative would. So huge margins for producing it, and they may even have stopped making it and have a stockpile.

Also internal company politics, not necessarily related to commercial sense, can shape these decisions.

Definitely. I know the HP 5245L remained in the catalogs for several years after its ‘replacement' had been introduced; I suspect there were likely hundreds if not thousands in service with many of the aerospace companies, and as Zenith stated, it’s considerably cheaper to pay double or more for another of the old ones than to go through the time and expense of qualifying an alternate as a replacement. If memory serves, the 5340A also spent some time in early 90s catalogs as a 'call for price' product, as in yeah, we’ll make one for you. How much $$ do you have, and how badly do you want it! Bend over!!

-Pat

[25 CPS]

Some of the choices of some of the discontinuations and retained products strike me as a bit strange. The whole U1272/3/3AX line got discontinued but they kept both the U125x and U128x lines of multimeters. I was under the impression that the U1282A was the replacement for the U1252/3 but they've kept both, at least for now. I was definitely surprised to see the basic tier U1231/2/3 multimeters get kept as well. I thought for sure, if Keysight was going to trim their handheld DMM offerings, they'd get rid of the bottom rung units since there's not much point in competing at the bottom end on price with the proliferation of cheap DMMs out there.

It may be to do with these being the recommended test gear written into government/military/telecomms company maintenance documents. Bodies like that are very slow moving and can take a couple of years to evaluate and approve a new DVM, and update the manual and have all approvals ticked off. It also costs them a fortune. They'd rather continue to buy what's been approved, even if it costs several times what a top end alternative would. So huge margins for producing it, and they may even have stopped making it and have a stockpile.

Also internal company politics, not necessarily related to commercial sense, can shape these decisions.

Definitely. I know the HP 5245L remained in the catalogs for several years after its ‘replacement' had been introduced; I suspect there were likely hundreds if not thousands in service with many of the aerospace companies, and as Zenith stated, it’s considerably cheaper to pay double or more for another of the old ones than to go through the time and expense of qualifying an alternate as a replacement. If memory serves, the 5340A also spent some time in early 90s catalogs as a 'call for price' product, as in yeah, we’ll make one for you. How much $$ do you have, and how badly do you want it! Bend over!!

-Pat

I've seen two versions of that counter, the classic one with the nixie tube display and a later version with an LED readout. I'm kind of curious when Hewlett Packard redesigned the display section of the machine. I'm also curious in general, when did the manufacture of equipment with nixie tube displays end - who made them, what they were and when the last new gear with nixies was built.