Test Equipment Anonymous

https://translate.kagi.com/?from=en&to= ... m.+Discuss.

You'll need to tick the CloudFlare "I am human" box.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2026 4:36 pm https://translate.kagi.com/?from=en&to= ... m.+Discuss.

You'll need to tick the CloudFlare "I am human" box.

Wow, who posted that?

BTW....it took me right to the discussion, I didn't have to check any boxes.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2026 4:48 pm

tggzzz wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2026 4:36 pm https://translate.kagi.com/?from=en&to= ... m.+Discuss.

You'll need to tick the CloudFlare "I am human" box.

Wow, who posted that?

BTW....it took me right to the discussion, I didn't have to check any boxes.

The kagi English to Linkedin translation was noted in TheGuardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/ ... edin-speak
The specific discussion is mine

Inspired by the apocryphal "out of sight, out of mind" -> Russian -> "invisible idiot" and "the spirit is weak but the flesh is willing" -> Russian -> "watered down vodka but good food"....
https://translate.kagi.com/?from=linked ... 0%9F%91%87

The Signal Path today:

https://www.youtube.com/@ReBootRewindDoc

https://linktr.ee/rebootrewind



I dunno aboot you guys, but ReBoot was an important part of my youth, and there's a project trying to restore it and re-release it in its original glory. This involves resurrecting 30-year-old digital tape technology, and of course the kind of money that only a bunch of weirdos like Linus would have lying around for such things, so there's even a few kilobits of good Karma for LMG.

Cheers!

mnem
embrace the rabbit-hole.

My first wife is almost certainly highly proficient in LinkedIn-speak by now. Being good at maths and pretty, she cruised through an engineering degree without needing any innate engineering ability; so her natural progression was into management. It was only after a few years at the chalk face that I understood how pretty girls having no engineering ability could be awarded engineering degrees.

A girl I once knew was a competent engineer, but went back to school to get a maths degree. More power to her elbow! But what did she do with it? Did her ability at something that floors most of us benefit society and unblock problems? She became an accountant.

I'm not sure what my point is, but I expect LinkedIn-speak could conceal it even further.

Metrology time...

My best instrument is also one of the oldest: a JRL VDR106/7 KVD. There's incrementally more information about them at:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology ... msg6234951
Example: each one took 4 months to make, and they made 100/year.

Shame the photos and original are sub-optimal, even if the content isn't.

The adventures of a chemist distilling high-purity caesium.

I do enjoy dangerous and exacting chemistry, when someone else is doing it.

Zenith wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2026 10:31 pm I do enjoy dangerous and exacting chemistry, when someone else is doing it.

Besides that, the caesium in these vials is simply beautiful.

Fact or fiction ?

The Simple British Trick That Made Nazi Radio Towers Electrocute Their Own Crews Until Declassified
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4QvBOO2kFU

I watched about a minute. It sounds like the kind of AI slop, spun out of a vacuum, that Youtube is full of these days.

The comments are always worth reading. One is from a chap who worked on on that sort of gear for years, and he finds it completely unbelievable.

Open Source Radar:

https://hackaday.io/project/205190-open ... 20km-range

For radar projects, it is hard to beat Henrik Forstén's blog
https://hforsten.com/

Makes his own VNAs, geiger counters, and synthetic aperture radars, amongst other things

England only...

There are some places that are defined but which can't be found on any standard map; one such is "The Vale of Blackmoor", another is "Low Weald".

Here's a website that has a map of them all, plus much information about their distinguishing characteristics.
https://nationalcharacterareas.co.uk/bl ... ntext-map/

Apropos of that, a friend who is just starting out in hobby electronics has learned the hard way that you don't poke probes around with the power on. He said he smelt something...

I've always thought of getting a shock from 240V mains as something of a rite of passage. Something I've never managed to do is use a DMM to measure the resistance of the mains. There's a reason why probe sets come with those little push on shrouds, that are often thrown away or end up at the back of a drawer.

Zenith wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2026 4:10 pm I've always thought of getting a shock from 240V mains as something of a rite of passage. Something I've never managed to do is use a DMM to measure the resistance of the mains. There's a reason why probe sets come with those little push on shrouds, that are often thrown away or end up at the back of a drawer.

120V, yes. 208V, yes. 240V, no.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2026 7:41 pm 120V, yes. 208V, yes. 240V, no.

We haven't even gotten started:-)



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 construction where they live, are reminded that phase to phase voltage divided by the square root of 3 equals the phase to neutral voltage ) has bitten me at times. Not a nice experience and best avoided.

NZ mains is not for sissies
235VAC single phase....unpleasant and life threatening if across the heart.
415VAC between phases......if you're lucky you only get a zap between a phase and ground = 235VAC just to check you're still awake.

tautech wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2026 10:54 am NZ mains is not for sissies
235VAC single phase....unpleasant and life threatening if across the heart.
415VAC between phases......if you're lucky you only get a zap between a phase and ground = 235VAC just to check you're still awake.

When I looked into this a few years back, I recall there was an IEE study which said there was no case of electrocution involving less than an estimated 30mA across the heart. Frequency was significant and 50 to 60 Hz was particularly dangerous, more so than DC.

There were recorded cases of fatalities with 36V AC mains used on US farms. Skin resistance is important and someone working with hands that were wet and possibly with cuts, and with wet feet, would be particularly vulnerable.

If you have feet in contact with a dry carpet and touch a conductor at 240AC, it will be unpleasant. I assume there's a high resistance path to earth through you, but capacitance plays a part.

Some people think those neon mains indicator screwdrivers are very dangerous. They have a resistor which could be a floor sweeping, and any condensation could make them lethal. I've never heard of anyone being killed by one, and in this safety conscious age surely they'd quickly be removed from sale.

As a kid making a sound-to-light disco thingy, I had a 240V shock between hands. Luckily it was a very light touch and my biceps contracting instantly broke contact. Taught me not to be complacent about mains!

I've had a 240V shock between hands that I only noticed because a fingertip was slightly vibrating. Benefits of it being a high resistance contact. Ditto 300-500V on the connector for a geiger tube timer/counter (Griffin and George school equipment, no less).

Long ago a boss told the story of getting a shock from a CRT when using a screwdriver with an insulated shaft. Then he noticed there was a fine film of transparent oil on the shaft.

Then there's the old anecdote about emergency responders warning people that if they have a high energy/voltage shock they will attempt to keep them alive until their relatives have visited.

Shocks are dangerous. Shortly before I retired a new policy was adopted at work whereby anyone suffering a shock would be immediately taken to the medical centre, despite any/all protestations of being alright. Apparently, a shock can cause the release of chemicals into the blood stream that can kill up to 24 hours later, but prompt treatment can prevent this.

According to a Tektronix book I read years ago, 9V was sufficient to kill patients on the operating table...

It is the current that kills, not the voltage.