Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

@med, welcome back, I expect the lady cop was well pleased with your labours of love, not to mention the decking  Well done getting all of that done in the heat as well, I just don't like heat so I couldn't have done it.

It's good to be back. It was kinda a tough week but the lady is happy and that's what matters most.  I beat the heat by getting my tired ass out of bed at 0400 hours and by 0500 hours I was out there working. Until perhaps 1000 hours or a little later. That area is a direct morning and mid-day sun. So I would take a break and go back out later in the afternoon when it was shaded. But I still sweat like a pig and had to keep myself hydrated.   

[mnementh]

@mnem Thats a great score you got there buddy, plenty of bang per buck there for sure, only real problem with them is the real estate they occupy, on my tiny bench that's almost 50% of it gone straight off the bat. 

That's true... until you compare the space these two power supplies take to the usual assortment of noisy-ass SMPS supplies we've all accumulated and STILL need at least one good quiet linear anyways. Plus... a supply like this is literally silent; 100% passive-cooled AND if you get enough of them, they're hefty enough to use as a structural member for your next bench expansion. 

mnem
*tzzzzzt*

[mnementh]

...Needless to say, I'm dead chuffed to have them on my bench.

I guess it depends who's manning the eBay messages that day or they had massive margins on them. I've made them offers on some stuff a number of years ago and they refused despite being nowhere near the deal you got. You just never know. It's also good to see they were in such good condition. Most of the stuff I see from that vendor isn't in such good nick. Their rating system seems to be reasonably accurate, it seems, as many things I've seen were scored lower than your Lambdas.

Yeah, I think maybe I was the right guy at the right time with an offer for a motivated seller who saw a chance to get rid of TWO pregnant door-stops at once. 
Putting myself in their shoes as someone who SELLS this kind of stuff rather than using it... If I'd been tripping over these behemoths in my warehouse for a year and a half, I'd probably take any offer that was more than actual shipping cost hand & all.  

mnem
 

[bitseeker]

Yep, I concur!

[worsthorse]

My Tektronix 308 arrived in good condition; it looks rather newish. I got it for the price of the probe that came with it, including shipping. I bought the 308 and the 338 because I think they are cool; they certainly aren't terribly practical.   So now I have a 338 and a 308 and a complete set of probes, except for the P6406 word recognizer probe, which looks like this:



The ebay prices for these probes are insane, as seen in this offer:

eBay auction: #233187462556

600USD is almost four times what I paid for the 308, the 338, four probes, and clips all together.  So I offered them 60USD.   

[med6753]

My Tektronix 308 arrived in good condition; it looks rather newish. I got it for the price of the probe that came with it, including shipping. I bought the 308 and the 338 because I think they are cool; they certainly aren't terribly practical.   So now I have a 338 and a 308 and a complete set of probes, except for the P6406 word recognizer probe, which looks like this:



The ebay prices for these probes are insane, as seen in this offer:

eBay auction: #233187462556



600USD is almost four times what I paid for the 308, the 338, four probes, and clips all together.  So I offered them 60USD.   

Don't know why the P6406 is so expensive. The 2465DMS has 17 bit word recognizer feature which uses the P6407 probe. Quick check of Ebay shows less than $150 USD for that probe. 

[worsthorse]

My Tektronix 308 arrived in good condition; it looks rather newish. I got it for the price of the probe that came with it, including shipping. I bought the 308 and the 338 because I think they are cool; they certainly aren't terribly practical.   So now I have a 338 and a 308 and a complete set of probes, except for the P6406 word recognizer probe, which looks like this:



The ebay prices for these probes are insane, as seen in this offer:

eBay auction: #233187462556



600USD is almost four times what I paid for the 308, the 338, four probes, and clips all together.  So I offered them 60USD.   

Don't know why the P6406 is so expensive. The 2465DMS has 17 bit word recognizer feature which uses the P6407 probe. Quick check of Ebay shows less than $150 USD for that probe.

I don't either. The P6407 probes are easy to find for $40 or so.  Perhaps pricing is based on the I can't find one on ebay so it must be worth a fortune criteria?

[mnementh]

By that criteria even... *rustle-clatter-clicky-clickety-clickety* ...have value. 

Holy fucking asscrackers...   https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC0.A0.H0.XAOL+disc.TRS0&_nkw=AOL+disc&_sacat=0

mnem
 

[bd139]

Ok McMichael rally done. Not bad actually. I only bought a couple of ARRL books and a couple of crystal filters  and spent a bank breaking £6 on them but there was a lot of good stuff there. Examples:

1. Tek 561b, 475, 2213.
2. HP 8640b
3. Various HP spectrum analysers
4. Various heathkit items
5. Sony/tek AFG
6. Various TTi items
7. Few flukes suitably overpriced.

I nearly bought a lambda power supply but unfortunately someone had buggered around inside it. Also nearly bought the 561b as it’s mostly solid state but decided I’ve got enough projects on. I probably would have bought the 8640b for £125 but I purposely only took £60 with me so I don’t buy anything like that 

Will be going next year again.

Tip: always hit a stand when the ham is gone leaving his XYL to decide pricing.

Off up a hill now... SOTA time

[med6753]

The 561B is indeed all solid state as opposed to the 561/561A which are mostly vacuum tube. But most of the standard vertical and horizontal plug-ins are tube. (And some rare ones to make it interesting).

[Specmaster]

How the hell do you know which is the ham?

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[bd139]

This is great. S0 noise on all bands.

[BU508A]

How the hell do you know which is the ham?

That's easy.

Ham:


Not ham:


SCNR 

Mounty

[Specmaster]

How the hell do you know which is the ham?

That's easy.

Ham:


Not ham:


SCNR 

Mounty

[emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[med6753]

Put a shirt on him and he'll look just like the hobos I saw at the last hamfest. 
 

[med6753]

This is great. S0 noise on all bands.

It would help if you connected an antenna. 

[bd139]

It’s difficult to tell the difference between ham and gammon here 

This is great. S0 noise on all bands.

It would help if you connected an antenna. 

LMAO I actually thought something was broken but tuned it up, flat 1.1 SWR and made an SSB contact to a special event station here. Then to someone in France. Gave up after that as there was some interference from horse flies. 

Attached operating position photo. Bliss. Apart from the fucking flies. And yes those are gallows

[BU508A]

Attached operating position photo. Bliss. Apart from the fucking flies. And yes those are gallows

Ever considered something like this?





If so, please send pix at all costs. 

[med6753]

Attached operating position photo. Bliss. Apart from the fucking flies. And yes those are gallows

[Specmaster]

LMAO I actually thought something was broken but tuned it up, flat 1.1 SWR and made an SSB contact to a special event station here. Then to someone in France. Gave up after that as there was some interference from horse flies. 

Attached operating position photo. Bliss. Apart from the fucking flies. And yes those are gallows

Where is this place, is it Cobham / Leatherhead way?

[med6753]

Apparently you were on an all night bender. You decide to drive. Dumb. You crash car. Brilliant. Police arrive. You decide to flee into the woods. This is getting even better. Police don't chase you. They set up a perimeter and send in the K9. The K9 finds your sorry ass. The K9 latches onto your sorry ass and won't let go. Police find you and release the dog. So now you're under arrest and the EMT's have to come an patch the dog bite on your sorry ass before taking you to jail. Now wasn't that bender worth it? 

[bd139]

I’m tempted by the bee keeper suit. Photos if I do it 

LMAO I actually thought something was broken but tuned it up, flat 1.1 SWR and made an SSB contact to a special event station here. Then to someone in France. Gave up after that as there was some interference from horse flies. 

Attached operating position photo. Bliss. Apart from the fucking flies. And yes those are gallows

Where is this place, is it Cobham / Leatherhead way?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walbury_Hill

Actually i started at the trig point there but the thing was on private land and covered with sheep, sheep shit and even bigger horse flies and I could hear someone shooting things. So I decided to amble off a mile or so away to the next highest point on public path

[Specmaster]

Oh, further west than Reading as well, still can't help but think that is like hard work just to get to play around with a radio and nothing worth listening to on it when you get it working, I mean its not even stereo or good music when you find a signal, I'd rather tune in to Med's all night-bender getting his arse chewed upon by a police K9 

[bd139]

Oh, further west than Reading as well, still can't help but think that is like hard work just to get to play around with a radio and nothing worth listening to on it when you get it working, I mean its not even stereo or good music when you find a signal, I'd rather tune in to Med's all night-bender getting his arse chewed upon by a police K9 

Hahaha. It’s hard work for sure but keeps you alive. What’s life without a challenge?

[Specmaster]

Oh, further west than Reading as well, still can't help but think that is like hard work just to get to play around with a radio and nothing worth listening to on it when you get it working, I mean its not even stereo or good music when you find a signal, I'd rather tune in to Med's all night-bender getting his arse chewed upon by a police K9 

Hahaha. It’s hard work for sure but keeps you alive. What’s life without a challenge?

A cruise?