Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

Skanky 5316A counter on ebay UK
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164975114613?
"Been sat in storage.." look more like been sat in a skip. Overpriced too.

[Cerebus]

I won an AKG C535EB on local auction site this last weekend (~95€ which is a quite good price.). It arrived today, the SMS telling me it was ready to pickup came as I was packing my sound system components in the car. I went by the pickup point, and put the mike straight into use. Very happy with the sound. It's been on the bucket list to get for a couple years now. And it is all I could wish for. Jazz quartet with vocalist. Newly recapped mixer, with 48,00 V DC phantom voltage per 8060A. In 5 minutes its faders up and gig time.

To all intents and purposes an all-in-one C451EB + CK5. I've never used a C535EB but the C451EB + CK5 has been one of my favourites for more years than I care to remember. If someone waved one at me for ~95€ I'd probably stutter for how quickly I'd try to say "Take my money".

[Cerebus]

Skanky 5316A counter on ebay UK
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164975114613?
"Been sat in storage.." look more like been sat in a skip. Overpriced too.

"I don't need skanky, thank you!", he said smugly. 

[bd139]

I noped out of that counter instantly despite TCXO and 1GHz because skanky indeed.

[25 CPS]

I guess you guys can sympathize with this.  One of my college friends visited and asked how many scopes I have.  The answer was out of my mouth before I could even think of it, "Oh god, I don't know."  He laughed and said it was an honest answer.  My reply was, "Probably the same for multimeters, too."

We had a good laugh.  I needed it, especially after the three hour long phone call with my childhood best friend yesterday.

[Bud]

You also forgot to mention the famous Heathrow Minute which because of the high demand for flights in and out of Heathrow they are no longer to keep to the minimum recommended separation times between planes of 1 minute to allow planes to safely clear the runway before another lands. This Heathrow Minute is actually just 45 seconds at peak times. Many times while I was working on Terminal 5 in its construction phase I heard and witnessed a few aborted landings in order to avoid the previous plane who had not departed the runway in time   

Heathrow is the worst airport on the planet in terms of service. When i got there i thought it was running by zombies. Everything was so s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w, i've never seen anywhere such demonstrably disrespective attitude of staff to their jobs and to travellers. They acted like they were all on sleep drugs. I give a credit to the guy though in the Whiskey shop who apparently recognized that I was stunned and said sorry, i know we are slow 

[Specmaster]

Thats a nice sound, as for Merlins, I agree, over at my local airfield I'm spoiled now as there are most weekends in the summer at least 2 spitfires giving joy flights in exchange for loads of dosh. Plus of course then there is the Hangar 11 collection consisting of 2 further spitfires and a Mustang P51, all of which are fitted with Merlin engines, so the sounds of those sweet engines can often be heard there and also over my house as we are on their flight path.

Those particular spitfires are extremely rare birds!  You can only do joy flights in a two-seater Spitfire...
For some reason, it does not work in the single-seater, which most Spitfires are. NB. to access the full details, you need to make sure your pop up are enabled.

No no, it is the single seat spitfire that is rapidly becoming the rare bird here as more and more of them are being brought by people cashing on the huge demand for spitfire flights and no wonder when you see the prices of these flights https://www.aerolegends.co.uk/experiences/fly-in-a-spitfire/ the cheapest of these for a 20-minute flight is £2,750 and an extra £1,000  per extra 10mins. There are many people buying up single-seaters and having them modified into 2 seaters in order get into this cash cow of a market.

Woah!  Totally different situation over here.

The closest thing we have available around here are flights in trainer aircraft, and the prices are quite reasonable.  $130CAD for the one example I looked at.
https://foundation.vintagewings.ca/collections/flights

Then again, I took a look at their collection of restored aircraft, and there is only one Spitfire left.  Pre-COVID they had three, and had been selling off one every few years to finance the next restoration project.  They were churning them out regularly; it was almost becoming a production line.
You may be on to something, since I did not track the sales and have no idea where those aircraft went to.
Instinctively, it would not make sense to chop them up and modify them into two-seaters since they are full restorations with pedigrees.
Then again, historical value and economics do not have to agree, often unfortunately.

Well this island is known as rip off Britain don't forget. Those 2 that I mentioned in the Hangar 11 collection I hope never fall prey to pleasure flight operators.

This link to the collection is slightly out of date as it mentions 4 aircraft, the hurricane and the kittyhawk have been sold to finance the full restoration of the Russian spitfire, which was rescued from a discovered crash site over 20 years ago and has been in his hangar as a collection of tangled metal until recently when he could afford the rebuild. These planes are kept solely for his own pleasure, and he flies then at various air shows during the season.  https://www.facebook.com/Hangar11Collection/

All of his planes are meticulously maintained and are in mint condition and true to the last detail, as they saw action in WW2, less the guns.

[AVGresponding]

You also forgot to mention the famous Heathrow Minute which because of the high demand for flights in and out of Heathrow they are no longer to keep to the minimum recommended separation times between planes of 1 minute to allow planes to safely clear the runway before another lands. This Heathrow Minute is actually just 45 seconds at peak times. Many times while I was working on Terminal 5 in its construction phase I heard and witnessed a few aborted landings in order to avoid the previous plane who had not departed the runway in time   

Heathrow is the worst airport on the planet in terms of service. When i got there i thought it was running by zombies. Everything was so s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w, i've never seen anywhere such demonstrably disrespective attitude of staff to their jobs and to travellers. They acted like they were all on sleep drugs. I give a credit to the guy though in the Whiskey shop who apparently recognized that I was stunned and said sorry, i know we are slow 

Calling them zombies is probably closer to the truth than you realise. Most of them are probably dead on their feet from covering the shifts of all the ones off isolating. It's a serious problem.

[Specmaster]

Skanky 5316A counter on ebay UK
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164975114613?
"Been sat in storage.." look more like been sat in a skip. Overpriced too.

Yep, skanky indeed but it would clean up nicely I think, but it is overpriced considering its condition, and it needs working on.

[Specmaster]

You also forgot to mention the famous Heathrow Minute which because of the high demand for flights in and out of Heathrow they are no longer to keep to the minimum recommended separation times between planes of 1 minute to allow planes to safely clear the runway before another lands. This Heathrow Minute is actually just 45 seconds at peak times. Many times while I was working on Terminal 5 in its construction phase I heard and witnessed a few aborted landings in order to avoid the previous plane who had not departed the runway in time   

Heathrow is the worst airport on the planet in terms of service. When i got there i thought it was running by zombies. Everything was so s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w, i've never seen anywhere such demonstrably disrespective attitude of staff to their jobs and to travellers. They acted like they were all on sleep drugs. I give a credit to the guy though in the Whiskey shop who apparently recognized that I was stunned and said sorry, i know we are slow 

Calling them zombies is probably closer to the truth than you realise. Most of them are probably dead on their feet from covering the shifts of all the ones off isolating. It's a serious problem.

It is indeed, buts lets not get around to blaming the track and trace app but lay the blame right where it really belongs eh. 

[bd139]

FML lost my sunglasses. Got 13 years out of that pair. RIP 

[Specmaster]

That really sucks 

[cyclin_al]

Thats a nice sound, as for Merlins, I agree, over at my local airfield I'm spoiled now as there are most weekends in the summer at least 2 spitfires giving joy flights in exchange for loads of dosh. Plus of course then there is the Hangar 11 collection consisting of 2 further spitfires and a Mustang P51, all of which are fitted with Merlin engines, so the sounds of those sweet engines can often be heard there and also over my house as we are on their flight path.

Those particular spitfires are extremely rare birds!  You can only do joy flights in a two-seater Spitfire...
For some reason, it does not work in the single-seater, which most Spitfires are. NB. to access the full details, you need to make sure your pop up are enabled.

No no, it is the single seat spitfire that is rapidly becoming the rare bird here as more and more of them are being brought by people cashing on the huge demand for spitfire flights and no wonder when you see the prices of these flights https://www.aerolegends.co.uk/experiences/fly-in-a-spitfire/ the cheapest of these for a 20-minute flight is £2,750 and an extra £1,000  per extra 10mins. There are many people buying up single-seaters and having them modified into 2 seaters in order get into this cash cow of a market.

Woah!  Totally different situation over here.

The closest thing we have available around here are flights in trainer aircraft, and the prices are quite reasonable.  $130CAD for the one example I looked at.
https://foundation.vintagewings.ca/collections/flights

Then again, I took a look at their collection of restored aircraft, and there is only one Spitfire left.  Pre-COVID they had three, and had been selling off one every few years to finance the next restoration project.  They were churning them out regularly; it was almost becoming a production line.
You may be on to something, since I did not track the sales and have no idea where those aircraft went to.
Instinctively, it would not make sense to chop them up and modify them into two-seaters since they are full restorations with pedigrees.
Then again, historical value and economics do not have to agree, often unfortunately.

Well this island is known as rip off Britain don't forget. Those 2 that I mentioned in the Hangar 11 collection I hope never fall prey to pleasure flight operators.

This link to the collection is slightly out of date as it mentions 4 aircraft, the hurricane and the kittyhawk have been sold to finance the full restoration of the Russian spitfire, which was rescued from a discovered crash site over 20 years ago and has been in his hangar as a collection of tangled metal until recently when he could afford the rebuild. These planes are kept solely for his own pleasure, and he flies then at various air shows during the season.  https://www.facebook.com/Hangar11Collection/

All of his planes are meticulously maintained and are in mint condition and true to the last detail, as they saw action in WW2, less the guns.

Very much a similar story here with the Vintage Wings collection.  The guy who runs this collection will probably be recognizable to some in our TEA group, or at least the company where he made all his money.  He made the collection a not for profit, charitable organization so that it can carry on with out him.  Smart man 

All the planes are meticulously maintained and are in mint condition and true to the last detail.  Even better, each one carries a special name, based on the history of the individual aircraft and who flew it back in the day.  The stories are just as captivating as the bird itself.
I too hope they never fall prey to pleasure flight operators.  These birds are far too pristine for that, and are worth preserving in all their glory.

I would love to see the Hangar 11 collection, if I ever find myself on the proper side of the pond.  Likewise, I could use an excuse to make yet another visit to Vintage Wings.

Forgot to mention that they do a "Warbird U" from time to time.  It is a one day ground school covering flying, maintaining and building a particular aircraft.  Usually one of the presenters is a certified Flight Test Pilot and who has flown that particular aircraft.  Quite fascinating!

[BU508A]

FML lost my sunglasses. Got 13 years out of that pair. RIP 

Perhaps, Elton John has some replacements for you?   

[med6753]

If there's one thing I've learned over the years in working on Tek stuff is rarely does the problem jump out and bite you in the arse. You have to dig and dig and go around in circles and finally the defect reveals itself. This horizontal issue is proving to be just that. I think I have a good idea where things are going south but then again, I could be totally wrong.

But for now I'm taking a long break and may dive back in later or tomorrow. 

[bd139]

Don't bust yourself on it 

As for Elton John's sunglasses, I only share his swearing and the accent when I'm angry 

Edit: oh on Tek, I know it's Carlson, but:

[med6753]

Don't bust yourself on it 

As for Elton John's sunglasses, I only share his swearing and the accent when I'm angry 

Edit: oh on Tek, I know it's Carlson, but:

Yea, I saw that video earlier today. 

Edit....how can I be jealous? I know I'll never get the quantity. 

[bd139]

Yeah there's quantity and quality. I'd rather have a decent 7104 and some TM500 with some nice plugins and a selection of probes instead of that entire room.

[med6753]

Yeah there's quantity and quality. I'd rather have a decent 7104 and some TM500 with some nice plugins and a selection of probes instead of that entire room.

True. The difference between his collection and mine is that all mine have been restored and work. Yes, I have some units squirreled away as spare part units but that's necessary to keep the working units in good order. You can bet that nearly 75% of what is sitting on his shelves need some sort of repair.

[BU508A]

Yeah there's quantity and quality. I'd rather have a decent 7104 and some TM500 with some nice plugins and a selection of probes instead of that entire room.

True. The difference between his collection and mine is that all mine have been restored and work. Yes, I have some units squirreled away as spare part units but that's necessary to keep the working units in good order. You can bet that nearly 75% of what is sitting on his shelves need some sort of repair.

Ever considered to become an assistant of him?   

[bd139]

I suspect that Carlson would be told to "piss up a rope" within a week if med went over there 

[med6753]

Yeah there's quantity and quality. I'd rather have a decent 7104 and some TM500 with some nice plugins and a selection of probes instead of that entire room.

True. The difference between his collection and mine is that all mine have been restored and work. Yes, I have some units squirreled away as spare part units but that's necessary to keep the working units in good order. You can bet that nearly 75% of what is sitting on his shelves need some sort of repair.

Ever considered to become an assistant of him?   

No, I do better by myself. 

[Specmaster]

Don't bust yourself on it 

As for Elton John's sunglasses, I only share his swearing and the accent when I'm angry 

Edit: oh on Tek, I know it's Carlson, but:

Yep, I've seen this video, it was on his Patreon channel and I couldn't fathom out a way of sharing it with everyone    I must say that is a pretty impressive collection he has built up there.

[med6753]

I suspect that Carlson would be told to "piss up a rope" within a week if med went over there 

Down the rope too. 

[Specmaster]

Yeah there's quantity and quality. I'd rather have a decent 7104 and some TM500 with some nice plugins and a selection of probes instead of that entire room.

True. The difference between his collection and mine is that all mine have been restored and work. Yes, I have some units squirreled away as spare part units but that's necessary to keep the working units in good order. You can bet that nearly 75% of what is sitting on his shelves need some sort of repair.

I think that you'll find that you're wrong about that ratio, I'd say that it was much nearer to 25% need some sort of repair / adjustment, most of his stuff for repair is in his other labs or on the floor like the analogue 1GHz scope.