Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[SeanB]

I’m not going to list the title because I’ll probably get owned. Stay away from any 1970s amateur radio material of US origin though.

To be fair half of the designs in that particular series of books do not work right first time anyway, and often work only because there was a mistake in construction.

[Wolfgang]

I’m not going to list the title because I’ll probably get owned. Stay away from any 1970s amateur radio material of US origin though.

[Soap On]
Coward ! Name the villains so justice can be done !!
[Soap off]

[Cerebus]

Random slightly on topic-ish at least it's about electronics. Just scanning some old electronics books for "archival purposes"  and found this turd:



This is ENTIRELY devoid of reference in the text.

Yes all of that, and also includes the (IMNSHO) cardinal sin of having a negative rail at the top of the page.

[Wolfgang]

Well, the negative rail on top is probably from Germanium PNP only days. This was not considered unusual at the time of the first transistor radios. 

[mnementh]

At least give us a hint... is it a "handbook" or a periodical; perhaps one beginning with "Q"?   

mnem
Is there a difference?

[bd139]

Something with A, R and L?

Yes it smells like that.

Alas these ones I recently inherited and are either poorly scanned so far or entirely unscanned so it's time to correct that.

To be fair half of the designs in that particular series of books do not work right first time anyway, and often work only because there was a mistake in construction.

Indeed. They clearly built and tuned it for the device spread of "that exact transistor they had in their mits at the time". Much of my early electronic failures in the early 1980s were after reading such texts. Bernard Babani Books and particularly the crap that R A Penfold kicked out were cancer.

Yes all of that, and also includes the (IMNSHO) cardinal sin of having a negative rail at the top of the page.

That was a side effect of germanium transistors and lots of drugs in the 1960s I suspect. I never got on with that.

At least give us a hint... is it a "handbook" or a periodical; perhaps one beginning with "Q"?   

It's a compilation of Q** articles, complete without errata and retitled carefully as an attempt to disguise it as a book.

[Cerebus]

Well, the negative rail on top is probably from Germanium PNP only days. This was not considered unusual at the time of the first transistor radios. 

That's what the perpetrators always claim, but I bet that really they are the kind that hang the Union Flag and crucifixes upside down, and open crisp packets from the wrong end too.

[Wolfgang]

Something with A, R and L?

Yes it smells like that.

Alas these ones I recently inherited and are either poorly scanned so far or entirely unscanned so it's time to correct that.

To be fair half of the designs in that particular series of books do not work right first time anyway, and often work only because there was a mistake in construction.

Indeed. They clearly built and tuned it for the device spread of "that exact transistor they had in their mits at the time". Much of my early electronic failures in the early 1980s were after reading such texts. Bernard Babani Books and particularly the crap that R A Penfold kicked out were cancer.

Yes all of that, and also includes the (IMNSHO) cardinal sin of having a negative rail at the top of the page.

That was a side effect of germanium transistors and lots of drugs in the 1960s I suspect. I never got on with that.

At least give us a hint... is it a "handbook" or a periodical; perhaps one beginning with "Q"?   

It's a compilation of Q** articles, complete without errata and retitled carefully as an attempt to disguise it as a book.

Now I Know !!! Its "The best of QUK" - The handbook to frustrate beginners so the give up ham radio for sure. !! Am I right ?

[bd139]

Close to it. Back in the 1970s there wasn't the Internet so people couldn't shitpost at how bad a book was. You walked in to the shop and remained angry and isolated.

Watching this. Very interesting and some HP SA porn in here. Much coolness at 3 mins inwhen trimming a filter with a scalpel on the fly.

[Cerebus]

Clearly witchcraft. You get the faggots, I'll get paraffin and burning pitch.

[Wolfgang]

Clearly witchcraft. You get the faggots, I'll get paraffin and burning pitch.

If you think this witchcraft, look at this one:
http://sa555.blogspot.com/2016/12/10-ghz-beacon-or-the12w-26ghz-signal.html

[GregDunn]

"Zathras lives a sad life... will probably die a sad death. But ahhh... the symmetry."  Zathras - Babylon 5

Sorry to nose in, but my OCD forces me to correct this very excellent line:  "Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other peoples' needs. Very sad life... probably have very sad death. But at least there is symmetry."

JMS said Zathras was based on his Russian grandmother. 

[bd139]

If you think this witchcraft, look at this one:
http://sa555.blogspot.com/2016/12/10-ghz-beacon-or-the12w-26ghz-signal.html

I understand that one. It's still lumped there. Sort of.

[Wolfgang]

Close to it. Back in the 1970s there wasn't the Internet so people couldn't shitpost at how bad a book was. You walked in to the shop and remained angry and isolated.

Watching this. Very interesting and some HP SA porn in here. Much coolness at 3 mins inwhen trimming a filter with a scalpel on the fly.

I would say this ist still rational RF engineering. The guy knows what he is doing, its a classic software-optimized RF design, the wavelength is long enough so mechanical precision is coarse enough for a hobby knife, ... it just works, and for a first prototype its a lot better than a whoöe series of etched designs because the eps-r for your FR4 strays so much.
Another techniques is "flagging" wil strategically positionen copper foil strips. Believe it or not, filters of this sort are used up to several 10GHz at least (not on FR4, of course).

[bd139]

Yep it looks pretty sensible to me. No different to when I design filters now like coaxial stubs which are trimmed with the return loss bridge (formerly bodged!)

Currently looking at upping frequency now and playing with 23cm band. It's clearly not a black art and looks quite fun. Firstly those little ADF4351 boards as a signal generator. Off the shelf mixers from mini circuits, tiny little dipole, same on receive end down to 2m and into the 818. Range a few inches to start with.

My counter will hit 3GHz and the 7L12 will hit 1.8GHz so it's already on the books a bit at least

[Wolfgang]

Yep it looks pretty sensible to me. No different to when I design filters now like coaxial stubs which are trimmed with the return loss bridge (formerly bodged!)

Currently looking at upping frequency now and playing with 23cm band. It's clearly not a black art and looks quite fun. Firstly those little ADF4351 boards as a signal generator. Off the shelf mixers from mini circuits, tiny little dipole, same on receive end down to 2m and into the 818. Range a few inches to start with.

My counter will hit 3GHz and the 7L12 will hit 1.8GHz so it's already on the books a bit at least

23cm can still be successfully hacked (close to the bottom):

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/prototyping/

[bd139]

Pretty cool. Thanks for writing this up. Going to go read

[bd139]

Test gear compare time... Did a quick comparison of noise sources I have available just for the hell of it. Horizontal span is 100MHz (10MHz/div)

K7QO noise source. Total shit. Might try some faster transistors in there tomorrow. Think I have some 1.6GHz Ft ones lying around. See if it sucks less.



Rigol DG1022Z. Pretty flat to 80-90MHz. Not bad for a 25MHz AWG. Well done Rigol:



I am going to start a web site which has some decent designs on it I think which actually have quantifiable test results rather than a bunch of fucking lies on the end of the article. Hamland is full of total bullshit that doesn't actually work properly. Acres and acres of shit. Once identified I will in future murder it.

hambollocks.com is merely £7. Tempting.

[Mr. Scram]

I was browsing through the options for board to board connectors because I always felt that the standard pin headers are a little bit dicky, but then I remembered that PC/104 uses them too. I guess that if it's good enough for industry standard stuff that gets thrown around it's good enough for my projects.

[Wolfgang]

... a noise source that is more bumpy than the DUT to be measured is hardly an option.
As a last resort, you could try to calibrate it out, but if its tens of dB it should go to the dump.

If you want something really flat, try tubes:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/making-noise/noise-sources-i-have-built/

Its a bit of effort, but the noise flatness is beautiful.

[Kosmic]

Check out this guy, http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/zifssb/xband.html He made a 10ghz transceiver on diy FR4 board.

I really like stripline components. As soon as I have some time, I want to prototype some stuff on Fr408 board. The dielectric constant is not that bad.

[Kosmic]

Wolfgang, how do you do the labeling on your custom box ? Look pretty neat.

[bd139]

... a noise source that is more bumpy than the DUT to be measured is hardly an option.
As a last resort, you could try to calibrate it out, but if its tens of dB it should go to the dump.

If you want something really flat, try tubes:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/making-noise/noise-sources-i-have-built/

Its a bit of effort, but the noise flatness is beautiful.

Yes exactly my point with that noise source. Total junk. I could calibrate it out in software if I had a digital interface to this SA, but I don't

Will have a good read through your noise source experiments tomorrow. Tubes are an option - already have some HT transformers for bias supply Thanks again.

Currently reading Siglent SVA1000X literature. Tautech will be happy 

Check out this guy, http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/zifssb/xband.html. He made a 10ghz transceiver on diy FR4 board.

I really like stripline components. As soon as I have some time, I want to prototype some stuff on Fr408 board. The dielectric constant is not that bad.

Big fan of S53MV. He has done some excellent projects on there. I actually stole his boost converter design for something a couple of years back. Worked out of the box, unlike most crap on the internet!

[mnementh]

Y'all are just TRYIN' ta make ne0's head explode, aren'cha?!? 

mn3m
"RF burns are the worst." ~ me

[Cerebus]

hambollocks.com is merely £7. Tempting.

Hmm, easily mistaken for a seller of post-pub grub.

I'll have mine extra crispy with a side order of chilli dipping sauce.