List your test equipment "scores" here!

[BU508A]

Agilent 53230A frequency counter - needed a quick repair to one of the internal supplies, working great now though.

Very nice.     

Where did you get this nice RG 400U coax cable from?

Thanks,

BU508A

[TheSteve]

Agilent 53230A frequency counter - needed a quick repair to one of the internal supplies, working great now though.

Very nice.     

Where did you get this nice RG 400U coax cable from?

Thanks,

BU508A

A friend decommissioned an analog mobile phone site a while back(it had been sitting powered off for years) and brought me all of the BNC patch cables that were used at the site. There was over 30 pounds in cable. I am set with very nice BNC patch cables for life.

[HighVoltage]

Agilent 53230A frequency counter - needed a quick repair to one of the internal supplies, working great now though.

Congratulations!
Nice one, I have the same instrument.
Did you just calibrate it to your 10 MHz reference or how did you end up with such accurate reading?

[VK5RC]

Agilent 53230A frequency counter - needed a quick repair to one of the internal supplies, working great now though.

Very nice.     

Where did you get this nice RG 400U coax cable from?

Thanks,

BU508A

A friend decommissioned an analog mobile phone site a while back(it had been sitting powered off for years) and brought me all of the BNC patch cables that were used at the site. There was over 30 pounds in cable. I am set with very nice BNC patch cables for life.

Re 53230 "Issues"
I had Channel A go intermittent on my 53230 - I presumed due to a PCB crack, the front BNC is PCB mounted and I think the BNC isn't a tight fit into the chassis - allowing a bit of PCB flexing - keysight have very kindly placed a couple of unoccupied pads very close by - a small short fixes the problem. It can be done without even taking the PCB out of the chassis.

[kirill_ka]

Got  HP3478A for $8 from ebay. Early model (looks like 1984). It had broken transformer to pcb connections, non working front-rear input switch and broken keypad connector. Battery is dated 1994, calibration memory is still retained. All ranges seem to work ok, however I didn't have time to check everything. At least DCV is spot on.

[alm]

That is a great deal. Sounds like it would not be particularly difficult to fix. You could just short the front/rear switch to the front terminals with little loss of functionality. It is not uncommon for the contacts of that switch to be corroded because many units will never have that switch operated after installation.

[TheSteve]

Agilent 53230A frequency counter - needed a quick repair to one of the internal supplies, working great now though.

Congratulations!
Nice one, I have the same instrument.
Did you just calibrate it to your 10 MHz reference or how did you end up with such accurate reading?

The external reference was being used. As received the internal reference error was 17 milliHz. This unit has the ocxo option which is a Vectron C4550A2-0231.

[kirill_ka]

You could just short the front/rear switch to the front terminals with little loss of functionality.

Yes, I already did that. Despite contacts looked clean, it doesn't connect neither front nor rear.

[HighVoltage]

The external reference was being used. As received the internal reference error was 17 milliHz. This unit has the ocxo option which is a Vectron C4550A2-0231.

Oh, that explains an accuracy of 15 digits.
Looks really nice !

I am achieving 12 digit accuracy on a rubidium reference with my GPS reference as an external input.

[GreyWoolfe]

That's 3 oscilloscopes now.  Still not a member of TEA as I only have 2 function generators, 2 bench meters, 2 hand held meters, an LCR meter and 3 power supplies.  Nothing is remotely high end or expensive so I guess I have a way to go to be even a TEA wannabe plus too poor to even try to catch up.

Oh, you're doin' a good job there. Beware, it'll sneak up on you.

That's what I am afraid of 

Its not about how expensive your test equipment is, its about collecting as much equipment as possible so that you have just the right piece of equipment for the job at hand.

So cheap equipment is at an advantage since it means you can buy more of it, also the best deals are on slightly broken equipment so you also get the fun of fixing the old boatanchor while at the same time justifying the other piece of gear you bought last month.

So welcome to the TEA club

Happy to be here, I think!

[Johnny10]

5340 for 100 bucks!

That's a good deal!!!

Marked as only 250mhz 

[alm]

And the funny thing is that it does not even go that low, the lower limit is 10 Hz .

[nanofrog]

That's what I am afraid of 

It's bound to happen at some point...   

Amazingly I've kept mine limited up to this point based on what I've seen in the Show your Lab thread, but that hasn't stopped me from acquiring 4x decent meters (+ a Harbor Freight DT830 clone or two), and 2x oscilloscopes (DS1054Z, unlocked of course  , and a Tek 2445B) in terms of duplicate equipment. So far at any rate.... 

Plenty of other crap of course, but other than test leads, it's not duplicated. So far...  That said however, just give me enough time. 

[neo]

5340 for 100 bucks!

That's a good deal!!!

Marked as only 250mhz 

And the funny thing is that it does not even go that low, the lower limit is 10 Hz .

What are either of you referencing? The seller of the 5340 i bought listed as 1hHz to 1MHz  which is of course inaccurate and why i said he probably  didn't know what he was selling.

[tautech]

5340 for 100 bucks!

That's a good deal!!!

Marked as only 250mhz 

And the funny thing is that it does not even go that low, the lower limit is 10 Hz .

What are either of you referencing? The seller of the 5340 i bought listed as 1hz to 1mhz which is of course innacurate and why i said he probably  didn't know what he was selling.

Please use unit signifiers correctly. Hertz is correctly abbreviated as Hz and mHz is milli Hertz. Megahertz is MHz !

[neo]

5340 for 100 bucks!

That's a good deal!!!

Marked as only 250mhz 

And the funny thing is that it does not even go that low, the lower limit is 10 Hz .

What are either of you referencing? The seller of the 5340 i bought listed as 1hz to 1mhz which is of course innacurate and why i said he probably  didn't know what he was selling.

Please use unit signifiers correctly. Hertz is correctly abbreviated as Hz and mHz is milli Hertz. Megahertz is MHz !

Sorry i sometimes get the abbreviations confused.

[GreyWoolfe]

That's what I am afraid of 

It's bound to happen at some point...    :-DDhttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/bangheadonwall.gif

Amazingly I've kept mine limited up to this point based on what I've seen in the Show your Lab thread, but that hasn't stopped me from acquiring 4x decent meters (+ a Harbor Freight DT830 clone or two), and 2x oscilloscopes (DS1054Z, unlocked of course  , and a Tek 2445B) in terms of duplicate equipment. So far at any rate.... 

Plenty of other crap of course, but other than test leads, it's not duplicated. So far...  That said however, just give me enough time. 

I do have a couple of the HF meters which I didn't count.  One in my toolbag in my company van just in case I need to check some DC voltages and resistance and 1 on the work side of my workbench for the same reason.  I don't need absolute accuracy, I just need to be in the ballpark.  I also didn't count my Micronta true RMS meter either but it does work.  I am not sure yet if I am going to keep the GW Instek GOS_6112 scope since I got the Tek 2465.  I will see how that goes.  I will keep the hacked Hantek DSO-5102B.  At this point, I don't see me collecting anything else.  Room, money and need are the limiting factors.

[0.01C]

CNY850+HKD150shipping 2.7G SG

[Nx-1997]

Another HP 3478A for less than $100, calibrate by fluke, cal date unknown. Was going to repair it but when it arrived it was working perfectly. Its only missing a power button. And its bang on with my bottom one, calibrated near the end of 2015  .

[AF6LJ]

I love HP3478As
They are good, cheap and reliable.

[alm]

As long as you do not have to look at the display . Or need to compensate for some offset.

[kandrey89]

Scored a Keithley 2304A (20V 5A high speed power supply) for $125 off ebay. Seller listed it for $200 with 10+ stock but kept dropping the price, I offered $125 and he accepted.

The unit came:
1. very dusty, never cleaned for 20 years
2. last calibration 1997
3. overall looks OK, not banged up
4. missing connector on the back, so need to buy it
5. missing the handles/stand

I plan on converting it to a front access banana jacks, unfortunately I looked and it's too complicated to access the terminals on the PCB to draw current from. I think I'm going to have to drill a hole in the case and feed wires from the back connector through to the front banana jacks inside the unit.

[alm]

I believe you could also solder wires to the bottom of the output connectors. Whether this is nicer or less nice than drilling holes in the case is up to you.

[kandrey89]

I was thinking about that, while I might do that, I didn't really want to because there is a ground plane fill very close to each pin and just a solder mask insulator, mmmmmmm kind of shitsy.
But maybe, maybe...

[1Ghz]

Got this Tektronix 2712 spectrum analyzer for 286 USD include shipping.
I love it!