Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I have a buggery stick made by Pintek. I'm not sure I entirely trust it if I'm honest. I'd rather like a Fluke one but they go for stupid prices here.

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.

https://youtu.be/Ae9YrY3Fv-Y

The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

[PA0PBZ]

The radio seems to just suck up the signals.

Do you really have a noise level of S9+30 there or is your s-meter a bit optimistic?

[xrunner]

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.

The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

I like the look of the radio. Good deal on the signals it's pulling in. Now think of what it could do with a proper dipole or better - it would kick butt. 

[bsfeechannel]

@med: I would strip that down to bare parts and "rekit" it. I don't think I'd even try and fix that unless I had a couple of spare ones lying around 

Yea, it might wind up a total "re-kit". We'll see. Plan right now is to clean it up and repaint. Get all new tubular and B+ caps. Do some random checks of the carbon resistors. Give it the smoke test and see what happens. 

The CRT shows evidence of phosphor burn along the center line but it's not bad. And here's the 1955 Heathkit Catalog entry. A whooping -3db response at 200KHz! 

High voltages, no fuse, no ground wire. Way back when it was every man for himself.

I love it.

[med6753]

I have a buggery stick made by Pintek. I'm not sure I entirely trust it if I'm honest. I'd rather like a Fluke one but they go for stupid prices here.

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.


The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

Excellent job!  Hopefully no smoke when you go to transmit. When will that big event be?

[med6753]

High voltages, no fuse, no ground wire. Way back when it was every man for himself.

I love it.

It separated the men from the little boys and gave Darwin a fighting chance. 

[mnementh]

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

Yup. 

Black text under a purple light, NOoooooooooooooooo makes it to hard to read clearly

Nope. Just looks DELICIOUS.

Yesterday I received my new rectal thermometer.

   Here it is in comparison to my own contraption. I know they're almost indistinguishable, but let me tell you: real experts can tell them apart! 

I think I got kinda lucky here. Previously, I've only seen HV probes of unknown provenience for prices above 80 €. Now I got a real Fluke for less than half of that, with shipping. I think that actually was a fluke.

Welcome to Probulator Club!

Remember; the first rule of Probulator club is NOBODY wants to know where you put that damned thing!!! 

mnem
Fuu-u-u... now I can't stop... 

[bd139]

The radio seems to just suck up the signals.

Do you really have a noise level of S9+30 there or is your s-meter a bit optimistic?

S meter is uncalibrated. Waiting for another 20db attenuator to turn up!

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.

The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

I like the look of the radio. Good deal on the signals it's pulling in. Now think of what it could do with a proper dipole or better - it would kick butt. 

Yeah I’ve got half of one outside. Need to reassemble it. It does when my fence did as that was anchored to it 

I have a buggery stick made by Pintek. I'm not sure I entirely trust it if I'm honest. I'd rather like a Fluke one but they go for stupid prices here.

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.


The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

Excellent job!  Hopefully no smoke when you go to transmit. When will that big event be?

It has already shoved 15W into a dummy load. Building ATU and SSB module before I TX on air.

[Specmaster]

@bd139, that K2 is seriously impressive and you have done excellently to get it this point so far and no magic smoke has been allowed to escape  , keep this and maybe that other name they give you, could be buried  Keen to see just how that performs when connected to a proper antenna, it sure looks to be extremely sensitive. 

[Specmaster]

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

Yup. 

Black text under a purple light, NOoooooooooooooooo makes it to hard to read clearly

Nope. Just looks DELICIOUS.

 

Not to my eyes it doesn't the contrast between black and purple is seriously lacking. Its readable but requires a far longer glance to see the information and sometimes you might not be able take that bit of extra time to read it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

Didn't you want to say 'Purple gauche lights'?

[VK5RC]

@bd139 - serious congratulations - looks great - Elecraft do great gear - almost impossible to get here in Aus.
Rob

[mnementh]

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

   Yup.     

Black text under a purple light, NOoooooooooooooooo makes it to hard to read clearly

Nope. Just looks DELICIOUS.

 

Not to my eyes it doesn't the contrast between black and purple is seriously lacking. Its readable but requires a far longer glance to see the information and sometimes you might not be able take that bit of extra time to read it.

Sorry; you simply cannot appreciate from a photo how much better than stock this backlighting is. I literally had to turn it down to 10% just to be able to take pictures of it. It is visible in direct sunlight at 60%. And I promise you; the one thing this radio doesn't suffer from is poor contrast.

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

Didn't you want to say 'Purple gauche lights'?

As you like it... 

mnem
*Lit AF*

[mnementh]

I have a buggery stick made by Pintek. I'm not sure I entirely trust it if I'm honest. I'd rather like a Fluke one but they go for stupid prices here.

So 2 hours of work later and we have a working K2. The 20m BPF alignment is slightly out and the USB BFO is slightly off. However I will fix later.

https://youtu.be/Ae9YrY3Fv-Y

The ridiculous thing is the antenna I'm using here is just a bit of wire around the door / curtain rail / picture frame in the living room in a downstairs room in the middle of London. The radio seems to just suck up the signals. My FT818 was deaf.

Looking great man.  Guess you'll be able to hear me cussing up in Canada... 

mnem
*&@#$?$%!!!*

[bd139]

LMAO hopefully less cussing than the current location

Some comedy radio action here which made me laugh. Vintage SSB tune up ... skip to 1:25 and listen for about a minute: http://vintagessb.net/wimpy/VintageSSBReplay%203-23-2019.mp3

Calibrated S-meter. Apparently on my shittena I have S1 noise which is pretty good!

[med6753]

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

   Yup.     

Black text under a purple light, NOoooooooooooooooo makes it to hard to read clearly

Nope. Just looks DELICIOUS.

 

Not to my eyes it doesn't the contrast between black and purple is seriously lacking. Its readable but requires a far longer glance to see the information and sometimes you might not be able take that bit of extra time to read it.

Sorry; you simply cannot appreciate from a photo how much better than stock this backlighting is. I literally had to turn it down to 10% just to be able to take pictures of it. It is visible in direct sunlight at 60%. And I promise you; the one thing this radio doesn't suffer from is poor contrast.

Purple gauge lights?  Now THAT would be original. Good call Mnem.   

Didn't you want to say 'Purple gauche lights'?

As you like it... 

mnem
*Lit AF*

Show off! 

[med6753]

LMAO hopefully less cussing than the current location

Some comedy radio action here which made me laugh. Vintage SSB tune up ... skip to 1:25 and listen for about a minute: http://vintagessb.net/wimpy/VintageSSBReplay%203-23-2019.mp3

Calibrated S-meter. Apparently on my shittena I have S1 noise which is pretty good!

Freaking Slop Bucket and all those guys tuning up over each other.  The AM boys have much better discipline.

[bd139]

That's because there's only like 2 of them still alive 

[med6753]

That's because there's only like 2 of them still alive 

Maybe over there but on this side of the pond there is a very active 75 meter AM group.

[bd139]

Yeah it's dead here completely. Instead we have 80m SSB which is one of those bands I am thankful that I don't have enough space for a decent antenna for. There's some good stuff at the bottom but above the first 80KHz it's all health problems and politics.

Top band is quite active here though. There's a regular net, the frequency I forget, which is hilarious. It's basically like the goon show.

Edit: 160m is shit as well now: http://www.160m.net/ (tune to 1920KHz) ... aortic aneurysm scan...

[beanflying]

Just need to find some shelf space for it now  Rolled a simple 3DP light box to play with clear etched panels so I cut the duff 419A panel to drop on the test one. The box will take a 100mm strip of tape just need to tweak the internal box for the wider WS2812 tape. Tested the Grey with edge light - FAIL as expected

[beanflying]

Yesterday I received my new rectal thermometer.



Here it is in comparison to my own contraption. I know they're almost indistinguishable, but let me tell you: real experts can tell them apart! 

I think I got kinda lucky here. Previously, I've only seen HV probes of unknown provenience for prices above 80 €. Now I got a real Fluke for less than half of that, with shipping. I think that actually was a fluke.

HV Bodge    Good deal on the Fluke 

[worsthorse]

I did another round of work with the guy that filled his garage with test equipment. The lot buyer I introduced to him came by and bought almost all of it. I am pretty sure he got a screaming deal, given some of the stuff in the pile.  But he didn't take any of the boxes of parts, so last night I dug through and sorted them, or most of them.  I came home with a large carton of transistors, PCB blanks, some more discrete components, ICs, and DIP sockets. He probably has three or four thousand dollars worth of ICs and other stuff if he wants to go through the agony of being an ebay component seller. Not something I want to do, though I admit to be tempted.

I started the final stage of the cleaning and re-org project at 530AM. At the end of the day, the first set of shelving is up, the test equipment and ham gear is sorted, stored and inventoried. Tomorrow the second set of shelves go into place, the remaining gear, parts, and cable will be sorted and stored, and I will actually be able to find stuff when I need it.

Getting my shop in order has solidified my desire to release some of this gear back into the wild. My wife may be right... I don't really have a use for four 8640Bs.  Two, maybe, but not four.   

[0culus]

I have one 8640B now and I love it. It's in nearly perfect condition. 

[0culus]

Received my HP 11570A accessory set for the 8405A vector voltmeter today. It includes everything you need to do 50 ohm network measurements with the 8405A, except for a couple of pads that you may or may not need depending on the input power. You zero the phasemeter with the arrangement shown in the second pic (noting the amplitude shown on the voltmeter; the probe below is the phase reference), and then insert your DUT between the power splitter and the probe shown on top, and note the amplitude delta and the phase angle shown.