Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Not exactly TEA but related. Lately I've been having issues with the police/fire scanner receiving signals on VHF around 151 - 155MHz. Even on repeaters I get rapid fade and sometimes severe audio distortion. The county must have made some sort of change to their repeater set up. At first I thought it was my scanner but I have a backup and it was the same.

The one common theme with the scanners is that they are on their whip antennas. Landlord was not keen on me hanging an outside antenna. So decided to try an alternative. Purchased a 2M ham band mobile antenna with it mounted inside. It should be resonant enough at 155MHz to give me some gain. Well, it does and the results have been very good. Almost always consistent signals with little fade and no distortion.

Here's what I got. Nagoya UT-72. It also covers 440MHz.

What's not to love about having a Echidna stuck above the roof  Beanflying is not now or ever becoming a HAM 

Actually been up on the roof replacing the nails with screws and some guttering work the last few days. Next job is put up a short mast for the Discone if the weather holds.

That's exactly the type of antenna I wish I could put up. Oh well. 

[worsthorse]

Hey, guys. Check out this poor fellow's situation : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/just-scored-a-hp-4140b-in-pristine-working-condition-now-what/msg2509320/#msg2509320

Don't all drool at once, now. I left a lure invitation for Hal to come over to our house.

Makes my 48 linear feet of equipment look, well, reasonable. 

[beanflying]

Not exactly TEA but related. Lately I've been having issues with the police/fire scanner receiving signals on VHF around 151 - 155MHz. Even on repeaters I get rapid fade and sometimes severe audio distortion. The county must have made some sort of change to their repeater set up. At first I thought it was my scanner but I have a backup and it was the same.

The one common theme with the scanners is that they are on their whip antennas. Landlord was not keen on me hanging an outside antenna. So decided to try an alternative. Purchased a 2M ham band mobile antenna with it mounted inside. It should be resonant enough at 155MHz to give me some gain. Well, it does and the results have been very good. Almost always consistent signals with little fade and no distortion.

Here's what I got. Nagoya UT-72. It also covers 440MHz.

What's not to love about having a Echidna stuck above the roof  Beanflying is not now or ever becoming a HAM 

Actually been up on the roof replacing the nails with screws and some guttering work the last few days. Next job is put up a short mast for the Discone if the weather holds.

That's exactly the type of antenna I wish I could put up. Oh well. 

In the roof?

https://youtu.be/D0j1WBMO_9E

[mnementh]

I managed to score this over the weekend (Should arrive today or tomorrow).
Fluke 332D Voltage Standard, in non-working condition, so it should be fun to try to fix.....

Does anyone here have experience with these who can give me any pointers or tips on getting this thing all working nice?

Oh my... getting your feet wet on 6 digits of uncertainty? You sir, are a masochist.  Welcome to the nuttery! 

@mnem, do you recognize this?      i will post photos of the inside and outside refurb tomorrow, after i finish touching up the paint and making one last upgrade. btw, getting the GR variac remounted took a toll on my carefully wrought paint job. 

But I DO know the power... See, it's printed right here: 720VA!!! 

mnem


You're welcome! 

[mnementh]

Not exactly TEA but related. Lately I've been having issues with the police/fire scanner receiving signals on VHF around 151 - 155MHz. Even on repeaters I get rapid fade and sometimes severe audio distortion. The county must have made some sort of change to their repeater set up. At first I thought it was my scanner but I have a backup and it was the same.

The one common theme with the scanners is that they are on their whip antennas. Landlord was not keen on me hanging an outside antenna. So decided to try an alternative. Purchased a 2M ham band mobile antenna with it mounted inside. It should be resonant enough at 155MHz to give me some gain. Well, it does and the results have been very good. Almost always consistent signals with little fade and no distortion.

Here's what I got. Nagoya UT-72. It also covers 440MHz.

   What's not to love about having a Echidna stuck above the roof  Beanflying is not now or ever becoming a HAM 

Actually been up on the roof replacing the nails with screws and some guttering work the last few days. Next job is put up a short mast for the Discone if the weather holds.

That's exactly the type of antenna I wish I could put up. Oh well. 

No problem. 

mnem

[med6753]

Not exactly TEA but related. Lately I've been having issues with the police/fire scanner receiving signals on VHF around 151 - 155MHz. Even on repeaters I get rapid fade and sometimes severe audio distortion. The county must have made some sort of change to their repeater set up. At first I thought it was my scanner but I have a backup and it was the same.

The one common theme with the scanners is that they are on their whip antennas. Landlord was not keen on me hanging an outside antenna. So decided to try an alternative. Purchased a 2M ham band mobile antenna with it mounted inside. It should be resonant enough at 155MHz to give me some gain. Well, it does and the results have been very good. Almost always consistent signals with little fade and no distortion.

Here's what I got. Nagoya UT-72. It also covers 440MHz.

What's not to love about having a Echidna stuck above the roof  Beanflying is not now or ever becoming a HAM 

Actually been up on the roof replacing the nails with screws and some guttering work the last few days. Next job is put up a short mast for the Discone if the weather holds.

That's exactly the type of antenna I wish I could put up. Oh well. 

In the roof?

https://youtu.be/D0j1WBMO_9E

Nope, this building has no attic. 

[bitseeker]

I'm orbiting the voltnut rabbit hole. Wrote a logging script over the weekend and have been capturing voltage, temp and humidity measurements from two voltage references every 3–4 seconds for the past 27+ hours.

[beanflying]

@med there is always the impale the Landlord on the mast to solve your reception and lack of quality Arial problems 

Seems I have added more or less the final bit of the Calibration puzzle 'for now' to a very decent standard Lowball offer accepted on a Valhalla AC/DC current calibrator and very cheap freight.

[tggzzz]

I'm orbiting the voltnut rabbit hole. Wrote a logging script over the weekend and have been capturing voltage, temp and humidity measurements from two voltage references every 3–4 seconds for the past 27+ hours.

Get yourself a saturated Weston standard cell, and use it as a thermometer; 40uV per degree C near room temperature

[Ero-Shan]

There's a rare beast on German eBay: https://www.ebay.de/itm/RIESIGER-2-Strahl-Oszi-Oszilloskop-Oscilloscope-Tektronix-556-RM/283519389520?hash=item4203128f50:g:1n4AAOSwNz1dB55N

Even without plug-ins and in non-working condition, the machine is very tempting, especially at this price.
But the image of Ero-shan going there by train to collect it and carrying it home makes me cringe. No way this is going to happen.

Maybe one of the other Germans (with cars) is interested. The same seller offers an 585A (sans plug-in) also ..

[tggzzz]

Seems I have added more or less the final bit of the Calibration puzzle 'for now' to a very decent standard Lowball offer accepted on a Valhalla AC/DC current calibrator and very cheap freight.

Wow, that is cheap freight; let's hope not too cheap!

Hope it works and that you don't have to recal it

[bd139]

Something random. So I'm digging through my notes and I found this "low cost" gem.



Probably fine for filter and harmonic analysis. Just add noise source

[beanflying]

Got the Attenuator bit covered. Some playing with the SDR and it in the near future and see if it is useful.

[tautech]

This TEA enabler splashed out a little on himself today with a bright and shiny 500 MHz 4ch scope ! 
Gunna have to wait for his next shipment arrives to play with it but that's some weeks away ! 

[bd139]

Awesome. We expect rise time measurements you know 

[Ero-Shan]

Extended outage = easier time catching up on this thread

I was just posting a solution to the problem of nuclear fusion power for the world and it was lost! 

This all the more tragic since I posted the answer to life, the universe and everything. Now I can't remember it. It required some deep thought!

[Tomorokoshi]

Extended outage = easier time catching up on this thread

I was just posting a solution to the problem of nuclear fusion power for the world and it was lost! 

This all the more tragic since I posted the answer to life, the universe and everything. Now I can't remember it. It required some deep thought!

When seconds count, you may find the answer to be right above.

[BU508A]

This all the more tragic since I posted the answer to life, the universe and everything. Now I can't remember it. It required some deep thought!

Are you a relative to Detritus from the Ankh-Morpok (Night-)Watch?   

Quote:
"While Detritus does not have much imagination, he is fairly intelligent, by troll standards, especially since the end of Men At Arms, when Cuddy made a clockwork cooling helmet for him, which reduces the effect heat has on the conductivity of Detritus' silicon brain. The helmet stopped working completely in the desert heat of Jingo, but has been repaired by the time of The Truth. Like all trolls, he becomes extremely intelligent as the temperature drops, once almost developing a grand unified theory of everything in several hours when locked in a 'Pork Futures' warehouse. "

Source:
https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Detritus

 

[bd139]

5334B arrived literally just as I was slapping bacon in my sandwich...

... pics soon.

[Mr. Scram]

5334B arrived literally just as I was slapping bacon in my sandwich...

... pics soon.

I'm not sure why you're slapping your bacon and I'm equally unsure I want pictures of it.

[BU508A]

5334B arrived literally just as I was slapping bacon in my sandwich...

... pics soon.

From the sandwich? 

[bd139]

You have to slap the bacon first

Sandwich done. Counter works very nicely.  Cal isn't terrible. Condition is pretty good. Inside is untouched. RIFAs will be replaced - ordering new ones as I'm out.

2.8Hz off 10MHz, assuming my signal generator is right, which it is approximately. Not bad either way. GPSDO needs to purchased to actually get a single source of truth. Buttons all work.



Insides dirty. Will go and clean them. Bottom right shows the three missing parts to get channel C. Add one prescaler IC and a couple of diode rings and remove a capacitor then you get 1.3GHz. Also note the OCXO hole. Will see if I can fill that one way or another.



Rise time measurements ... woot. Also does pulse voltage measurements. Double woot.



These motherfuckers are GOING tomorrow. RS order going in shortly.



Very happy 

Edit: £13 of fresh new Kemet RIFAs ordered as I've run out!

Edit 2: now looking at Leo Bodnar references. What have I become?!?!?! 

[tggzzz]

GPSDO needs to purchased to actually get a single source of truth.

Glad you think of it as "a" not "the" single source of truth.

Edit 2: now looking at Leo Bodnar references. What have I become?!?!?! 

A neophyte.

[bd139]

Yes I was careful using A there.  When you start asking THE, the universe pushes back with relativistic concerns

A good song about it:



Also a good read for the time nuts: https://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1965-04.pdf

[mnementh]

I try to limit my particle theory to that which is visible to the naked eye, thank you. And preferably pork-derived.

Extended outage = easier time catching up on this thread

I was just posting a solution to the problem of nuclear fusion power for the world and it was lost! 

This all the more tragic since I posted the answer to life, the universe and everything. Now I can't remember it. It required some deep thought!

I asked Deep Thought about you (we go way back)... s/he said:  

5334B arrived literally just as I was slapping bacon in my sandwich... pics soon.

I'm not sure why you're slapping your bacon and I'm equally unsure I want pictures of it.

You HAVE to slap your bacon, otherwise it will slap YOU. And that would be... VERY WRONG.  Saving pics? That's just kinky. 

mnem
*sick-as-a-dog dwagon crawling back to bed*