Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

[factory]

Some time ago a repaired this rather trashed Racal 9839.


There was one problem I forgot to resolve with it, the main counter input (lower frequency range) lacked sensitivity, I've now had a look at the problem, using the 9735/7 manual as a reference as the input circuitry is similar.


Using the newly acquired Tek scopemeter, I went through the input circuit and the signal was getting through all the stages, albeit a bit lower than I expected.
It then occurred to me that I had forgotten to check the separate -6.8V supply rail, that is used for the main input circuit, well it was stuck at zero volts. Checking with the ohms range revealed the -6.8V rail was shorted to the ground, this could have been the tant C2 , or disc cap C4 (unlikely), or the Zener D8, nothing was burnt.


The tant fell to bits on removal, but wasn't the cause of the short, next I checked disc cap C4, again it was fine, this left the 6.8V Zener D8 and yes it was now a nice 1Ω resistor. 
The original was a Z5B 6.8, from a once common 400mW Zener range that BR used a lot, but now obsolete, my spares had a draw with some modern 500mW replacements, as well as some dodgy looking parts the same size that had been relabelled.


In went the new 500mW Zener and a replacement tant of slightly higher voltage (all I had), I cut some of the coating away on the original and yes it tested fine.



Now re-assembled & fully working at 60MHz, it ran out of steam at approx 83MHz.



You won't believe how long it took to get it to show the model number, bloody useless digital RF synthesizer signal gen. 


David

[tautech]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

99% the same although we're on the Mer Mmmm ATM.

[beanflying]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

Its your tastebuds you are killing so  HEATHEN 

[Vince]

Just as you can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats the most vulnerable within its demesne, you can tell a lot about the people of a country by the way they treat a bewildered foreigner in a shop or in a train station/at a bus stop.

Here here, my turn, wanna play too ! 

September 1998, I had just moved to the UK to go studying for my B.Eng in this little town by the name of Hatfield, I could barely speak, was real painful for everyone.  Took my car, trusty 4 speed Renault 19.... tried to leave the house I was staying at, to get to Uni. A challenge for me !    No fancy GPS system never mind a smartphone or any mobile phone at all for that matter.

Saw a guy on the kerb. Stopped. Asked "How do you do ? " as that was the only sentence I could remember that might fit the situation...
Guy replied " How do I do WHAT ?! ".
OK I thought, I didn't pick the sharpest tool in the box... too late, no choice you gotta do with what you have eh ?! 

I asked him directions, he kindly offered to hop in my car to show me the way. Super cool I thought, people are nice over here !
So we turned left, right, left, right.... after a while he asked me to stop, and he exited the car.

Turned out he didn't take me at all where I wanted to go... he simply used me as a free taxi, and just left with no help/direction whatsoever.

So the first impression was not that great !! 

[bd139]

Being Hatfield in the late 90s I’m surprised he didn’t leave you some extra holes 

[med6753]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

Ditto. 

[bd139]

Some time ago a repaired this rather trashed Racal 9839.


There was one problem I forgot to resolve with it, the main counter input (lower frequency range) lacked sensitivity, I've now had a look at the problem, using the 9735/7 manual as a reference as the input circuitry is similar.


Using the newly acquired Tek scopemeter, I went through the input circuit and the signal was getting through all the stages, albeit a bit lower than I expected.
It then occurred to me that I had forgotten to check the separate -6.8V supply rail, that is used for the main input circuit, well it was stuck at zero volts. Checking with the ohms range revealed the -6.8V rail was shorted to the ground, this could have been the tant C2 , or disc cap C4 (unlikely), or the Zener D8, nothing was burnt.


The tant fell to bits on removal, but wasn't the cause of the short, next I checked disc cap C4, again it was fine, this left the 6.8V Zener D8 and yes it was now a nice 1Ω resistor. 
The original was a Z5B 6.8, from a once common 400mW Zener range that BR used a lot, but now obsolete, my spares had a draw with some modern 500mW replacements, as well as some dodgy looking parts the same size that had been relabelled.


In went the new 500mW Zener and a replacement tant of slightly higher voltage (all I had), I cut some of the coating away on the original and yes it tested fine.



Now re-assembled & fully working at 60MHz, it ran out of steam at approx 83MHz.



David

Nice job as always and good write up. Much appreciated.

I actually removed Racal from my eBay script for some reason. I am going to add it back now 


Between the odd one liner having a shitty day here. Was booked on holiday for a few days, primed for some TE fun and a couple of days out. Alas bad news: had to say final goodbye today to another family member on the ex wife’s side who unfortunately has multiple organ failure. Lived into her 90s so did ok. It happens to all of us one day. Differences aside in situations like that - it’s all hands on deck so no TE for a couple of days. Taking the kids on a road trip tomorrow away from it all.

[Cerebus]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

I used to too. I gradually upped my game by buying roast beans at the supermarket and grinding them as needed in small batches. I have since moved to buying coffee once a month that is only roast after I've ordered it and grinding those beans immediately before making coffee. The difference is significant enough that I wouldn't take any backward step unless forced to.

A supply chain hiccup recently meant that I needed to buy roast beans from the supermarket and the difference was immediately evident. Over three years or so I've moved from drinking good quality instant to freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee and only spend about £4 a month more but the difference in taste is huge.

[Cerebus]

Being Hatfield in the late 90s I’m surprised he didn’t leave you some extra holes 

And he's French. I mean, if there's a national pastime it's taking the piss out of the French. And it cuts both ways, no true Frenchman would pass on an opportunity to mock Les Rosbifs. 

[bd139]

I just buy mine ready ground. 

Awaits flames

I used to too. I gradually upped my game by buying roast beans at the supermarket and grinding them as needed in small batches. I have since moved to buying coffee once a month that is only roast after I've ordered it and grinding those beans immediately before making coffee. The difference is significant enough that I wouldn't take any backward step unless forced to.

A supply chain hiccup recently meant that I needed to buy roast beans from the supermarket and the difference was immediately evident. Over three years or so I've moved from drinking good quality instant to freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee and only spend about £4 a month more but the difference in taste is huge.

I really can’t be arsed. Plus it’s another “thing” that’s required to grind it that needs maintenance and time spent on it. If they come up with instant coffee that doesn’t taste like cat sweat then I’ll drink that instead 

Realistically costs me about £4 a month as well with no grinding. That is until the kids decide that they want to drag me in Costa at some point for some random coffee with all sorts of excrement added at which point there goes £20 

Being Hatfield in the late 90s I’m surprised he didn’t leave you some extra holes 

And he's French. I mean, if there's a national pastime it's taking the piss out of the French. And it cuts both ways, no true Frenchman would pass on an opportunity to mock Les Rosbifs. 

Oui!

[Neper]

If a Frenchman from Boulogne tells another one not to take him for an idiot, he goes: "Faut quand-même pas me prendre pour un Anglais !"

[tggzzz]

Alas bad news: had to say final goodbye today to another family member on the ex wife’s side who unfortunately has multiple organ failure.

It is that time of our lives. I'm in the midst of preparing a funeral in a couple of weeks. Cause of death was "fragility and old age".

My suit is being used for too few "hatch 'em" and "match 'em" gatherings, but too many "dispatch 'em" gatherings.

[Specmaster]

Now I'm going to really piss you all off, I buy instant in a jar if I fancy a coffee, mostly I drink tea because quite simply it is the most economical for me as the rest of the family are tea drinkers. Personally, I love coffee, always used to drink coffee before I got married but all that changed when money got really tight so tea it became.

Seeing you go on about coffee, beans, grinders, machines, percolators etc, makes me smile, in the same way as people go on about wines, to me its meaningless. I hear people go on for ages about what wine to have based on what they are eating, means diddly squat to me, I hate red wines, prefer whites or rose, these are all just various forms of drinks to me, like food, give me good quality plain food, and I'm happy, all of these fancy posh names that you see on menus in restaurants leave me cold and worried about what I'm about to order, so I always ask for basic guide to what it is really. So there you are, thats me, nothing fancy about, I'm just a normal everyday guy, a bit common but one with good manners and sense.

I can feel the heat coming my way now, so OK I'll get my coat and my asbestos suit on shall I  

[Specmaster]

Alas bad news: had to say final goodbye today to another family member on the ex wife’s side who unfortunately has multiple organ failure.

It is that time of our lives. I'm in the midst of preparing a funeral in a couple of weeks. Cause of death was "fragility and old age".

My suit is being used for too few "hatch 'em" and "match 'em" gatherings, but too many "dispatch 'em" gatherings.

Sorry to hear that news, but you're right, as we get older ourselves, those kinds of gatherings become more frequent  I doubt I can get into my suits now, jogging trousers and tee shirts are my cloths now 

[factory]

Some time ago a repaired this rather trashed Racal 9839.


---snip---

Now re-assembled & fully working at 60MHz, it ran out of steam at approx 83MHz.



David

Nice job as always and good write up. Much appreciated.

I actually removed Racal from my eBay script for some reason. I am going to add it back now 

There was a very reasonable condition Racal 9839 with a full set of working number readout bulbs, all feet & handle intact, offered on evilbay a few weeks ago, it didn't sell at £75 and hasn't been relisted, maybe if they had stuck the switch down to "check" mode it would have gone.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133835597812

David

[Vince]

Being Hatfield in the late 90s I’m surprised he didn’t leave you some extra holes 

From memory he was rather short and skinny. I am 6'6" wide frame. Had he tried anything of the sort that you suggest, he would have lost his life.
Despite his obvious lack of smarts, I am sure he none the less figured it out by himself intuitively, and decided it was not worth it, that simply getting a free ride was not that bad...

To be honest I remember the town as peaceful... probably because I don't drink and am not the outgoing kind of guy, so maybe I just simply was never exposed to night life, bad parts of town, and pub fights... maybe.  After the lectures at uni I would just go home to eat something, then back to uni all evening/night to use their computers at the library, 'cause they had internet access, unlimited, super fast, freely available... they had a few satellite dishes on the roof I remember. Think I could get 1 or 2MB/s, orders of magnitude faster than why I had at home in France, 28800 baud Olitec modem, then later my dad had ISDN installed, and concatenated two ISDN cards to double the speed. So IIRC we had 2x64kbps, 128kps, woohoo ! Still, was not super fast, so that broadband and unlimited/free connection at uni was truly out of this world, I got addicted and spend all my time on it.

Anyway, didn't know Hatfield had a reputation ! 

At week-end room mates would go to Saint-Albans as IIRC all the cool pubs and fun was down there. Me, I would stay in my room or at uni/ library again...

Going out for me was mostly limited to paying a visit to the auto parts store to buy parts to fix my old Renault, and learning car mechanics along the way. Hobby got started this way.

The only notable thing that happened at Hatfield, while I was there... I remember, was a massive railway accident. Can't remember if the train derailed or if it was involved in a frontal collision or something...

Hey it's 2021, there must be trace of it on the interweb !  Hell yes, even a dedicated article about it on Wikipedia ! 
Apparently train derailed due to metal fatigue, 4 dead 70 injured..

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


Memories.....

[bd139]

Now I'm going to really piss you all off, I buy instant in a jar if I fancy a coffee, mostly I drink tea because quite simply it is the most economical for me as the rest of the family are tea drinkers. Personally, I love coffee, always used to drink coffee before I got married but all that changed when money got really tight so tea it became.

Seeing you go on about coffee, beans, grinders, machines, percolators etc, makes me smile, in the same way as people go on about wines, to me its meaningless. I hear people go on for ages about what wine to have based on what they are eating, means diddly squat to me, I hate red wines, prefer whites or rose, these are all just various forms of drinks to me, like food, give me good quality plain food, and I'm happy, all of these fancy posh names that you see on menus in restaurants leave me cold and worried about what I'm about to order, so I always ask for basic guide to what it is really. So there you are, thats me, nothing fancy about, I'm just a normal everyday guy, a bit common but one with good manners and sense.

I can feel the heat coming my way now, so OK I'll get my coat and my asbestos suit on shall I  

Oh now you’ve gone and done it 

Tea in front of Americans, insulting coffee and wine and probably most European cuisine in one go.

I applaud this action   

[bd139]

Alas bad news: had to say final goodbye today to another family member on the ex wife’s side who unfortunately has multiple organ failure.

It is that time of our lives. I'm in the midst of preparing a funeral in a couple of weeks. Cause of death was "fragility and old age".

My suit is being used for too few "hatch 'em" and "match 'em" gatherings, but too many "dispatch 'em" gatherings.

Sorry to hear that news, but you're right, as we get older ourselves, those kinds of gatherings become more frequent  I doubt I can get into my suits now, jogging trousers and tee shirts are my cloths now 

Indeed.

I don’t actually own a suit on principle so that solves that problem i think 🤔

[bd139]

Alas bad news: had to say final goodbye today to another family member on the ex wife’s side who unfortunately has multiple organ failure.

It is that time of our lives. I'm in the midst of preparing a funeral in a couple of weeks. Cause of death was "fragility and old age".

My suit is being used for too few "hatch 'em" and "match 'em" gatherings, but too many "dispatch 'em" gatherings.

My condolences of course.

I think we’re truly blessed if we get to make old age. I knew a couple of people who didn’t and hope one will.

[Vince]

If a Frenchman from Boulogne tells another one not to take him for an idiot, he goes: "Faut quand-même pas me prendre pour un Anglais !"

 

Well OK maybe up there they make fun of the Brits, because they must be seeing them everywhere all day long, but aside from "hot spots" in the north... we rarely come across a Britt, think I stumbled upon one, once only.. 15 years ago at a super market, was asking me direction, got lucky he picked the only French chap in a radius of 10 miles that actually does speak a bit of English. I wonder how he guessed... does it show ? Did my 3 year stay in England change me so much that people can tell just by looking at me ?! 

Anyway.. nobody here makes fun of the Brits, we don't see them often enough for it to be even a subject !

However we do speak often of the French guys from Paris ! Every body in the country hates them. They are just unbearable, you can spot them from a mile away and after 3 seconds usually the only thought that crosses your mind is  :" FUCK ME I will kill that SOB !!! "   
That's how much we like them.

But Britts, no, no particular feelings... just amusement, feeling of curiosity, surprise... because we don't come across foreigners very often in every day normal  life, unless you live in a place that attracts them of course. But for the average French guy, not a subject I think !

[bd139]

Being Hatfield in the late 90s I’m surprised he didn’t leave you some extra holes 

From memory he was rather short and skinny. I am 6'6" wide frame. Had he tried anything of the sort that you suggest, he would have lost his life.
Despite his obvious lack of smarts, I am sure he none the less figured it out by himself intuitively, and decided it was not worth it, that simply getting a free ride was not that bad...

To be honest I remember the town as peaceful... probably because I don't drink and am not the outgoing kind of guy, so maybe I just simply was never exposed to night life, bad parts of town, and pub fights... maybe.  After the lectures at uni I would just go home to eat something, then back to uni all evening/night to use their computers at the library, 'cause they had internet access, unlimited, super fast, freely available... they had a few satellite dishes on the roof I remember. Think I could get 1 or 2MB/s, orders of magnitude faster than why I had at home in France, 28800 baud Olitec modem, then later my dad had ISDN installed, and concatenated two ISDN cards to double the speed. So IIRC we had 2x64kbps, 128kps, woohoo ! Still, was not super fast, so that broadband and unlimited/free connection at uni was truly out of this world, I got addicted and spend all my time on it.

Anyway, didn't know Hatfield had a reputation ! 

At week-end room mates would go to Saint-Albans as IIRC all the cool pubs and fun was down there. Me, I would stay in my room or at uni/ library again...

Going out for me was mostly limited to paying a visit to the auto parts store to buy parts to fix my old Renault, and learning car mechanics along the way. Hobby got started this way.

The only notable thing that happened at Hatfield, while I was there... I remember, was a massive railway accident. Can't remember if the train derailed or if it was involved in a frontal collision or something...

Hey it's 2021, there must be trace of it on the interweb !  Hell yes, even a dedicated article about it on Wikipedia ! 
Apparently train derailed due to metal fatigue, 4 dead 70 injured..

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


Memories.....

Hatfield was a big industrial town that housed British Aerospace. Which shut down in 1993. Everyone in the town worked there so the whole place went into a poverty stricken nightmare for about 20 years. The outcome of this was some particularly nasty bits. You may have just been lucky.

At the time I lived to the East somewhat in Bishop’s Stortford and worked in Harlow. Going further west up the A414 was a big no 

St Albans is very nice. They also had the best computer shop in the UK for a number of years. Now closed of course.

The Hatfield rain crash was a nasty one for sure. Moving a couple of years on I’d bailed out of the EE sector and moved to a Barnet. There was another major crash on that line at Potters Bar which fucked up my commute into London for weeks. I moved to Leytonstone almost immediately and guess what? Well there was another bloody crash on the central line at Chancery Lane which shut everything for weeks.

Grr. Moved west side after that. Has been ok since then! 

[bd139]

Some time ago a repaired this rather trashed Racal 9839.


---snip---

Now re-assembled & fully working at 60MHz, it ran out of steam at approx 83MHz.



David

Nice job as always and good write up. Much appreciated.

I actually removed Racal from my eBay script for some reason. I am going to add it back now 

There was a very reasonable condition Racal 9839 with a full set of working number readout bulbs, all feet & handle intact, offered on evilbay a few weeks ago, it didn't sell at £75 and hasn't been relisted, maybe if they had stuck the switch down to "check" mode it would have gone.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133835597812

David

Oh damn. Missed that one. Might message the seller. Will think about if i need another counter first as I have a jackpot grade one now (the 5334b)

[Cerebus]

Now I'm going to really piss you all off, I buy instant in a jar if I fancy a coffee, mostly I drink tea because quite simply it is the most economical for me as the rest of the family are tea drinkers. Personally, I love coffee, always used to drink coffee before I got married but all that changed when money got really tight so tea it became.

Seeing you go on about coffee, beans, grinders, machines, percolators etc, makes me smile, in the same way as people go on about wines, to me its meaningless. I hear people go on for ages about what wine to have based on what they are eating, means diddly squat to me, I hate red wines, prefer whites or rose, these are all just various forms of drinks to me, like food, give me good quality plain food, and I'm happy, all of these fancy posh names that you see on menus in restaurants leave me cold and worried about what I'm about to order, so I always ask for basic guide to what it is really. So there you are, thats me, nothing fancy about, I'm just a normal everyday guy, a bit common but one with good manners and sense.

I can feel the heat coming my way now, so OK I'll get my coat and my asbestos suit on shall I  

Oh now you’ve gone and done it 

Tea in front of Americans, insulting coffee and wine and probably most European cuisine in one go.

I applaud this action   

Yeah, but we'll cut him some slack because we know he's from Essex. If he was from somewhere relatively sophisticated like Peckham it might be different. 

[xrunner]

However we do speak often of the French guys from Paris ! Every body in the country hates them. They are just unbearable, you can spot them from a mile away and after 3 seconds usually the only thought that crosses your mind is  :" FUCK ME I will kill that SOB !!! "   
That's how much we like them.

OK I gots to know. Why are they hated? Sorry I don't get out much.