As I'm waiting to get into the fray of "Round 3," I am starting to think on my current equipment, its state of calibration, best methodologies I should employ, if I should get a case of single malt or vino spumante for the celebrations. A lot of things to think about, so many decisions to make.
One thing I could use some input on is the best utilization for newly calibrated equipment. My reference meter is currently a freshly adjusted, and confirmed/verified calibrated Fluke 8502A. This was stickered (Z540, so with measurements, which have been invaluable for "objective" reference points in my environment) a few week ago, and I've been running it almost constantly since then. I have not really been concerned with its possible drift from the "characterized" values by calibration, as it's such an old piece of equipment I assume most drift has already occurred. Besides, most these were used in systems applications, running under automation and GPIB-controlled, and so designed for 24/7 operation.
Also, I've been busy checking and transfer-adjusting a couple of Digital Precision 8200s, a Fluke 8505A having been repaired and now adjusted, etc. So there wasn't very much downtime through this.
So what are experienced metrology hobbyists (and professionals for that matter) doing? Are instruments going off for extended periods at a time? Overnight? Staying on all the time?... I'd hate to run this too hard and have it drift a bunch right before getting the US CAL CLUB reference to examine here.