Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I don't need Gixen; I have "patience".   

"The universal warrior uses all weapons at his disposal." ~Sun Tzu (or was it Castaneda... ehhh, who cares?)

mnem
why are you reading this?

"The wise warrior does not waste his resources on unnecessary subscriptions"

A specious argument at best. Gixen doesn't cost a penny unless you need oodles of snipes. Like, only numbers that professional buyers would need.

Even their premium mirror service with oodles of extra features... like multiple wins from a grouped bid... is only $6 a year. That's 50c a month.

We waste more than that on electricity just to come in here and bitch aboot high eBay prices; so even in that respect, Gixen saves you money. The money saved on TE is just gravy.

mnem
*SMH*

Specious? Hardly. Facetious? Certainly. I refuse to take things like this seriously. And myself. And other people.

How can Gixen save me money, when its purpose is to enable me to buy more things? I can snipe at least as well, probably better, and if I miss something because I forgot about it, or am asleep when the bidding ends, well clearly I didn't want it badly enough.

Then you can still save assache using the free number of winning snipes per month as a self-regulating mechanism.

And I highly doubt you can bid as well on three items all ending in the same 5 minutes, which Gixen will do, and will usually ONLY net one out of the three. While you do something that earns you the money to pay for your winning bid. Using the stuff you bought much cheaper using Gixen.

I can do facetious too. 

mnem
We are, after all, TEAnonymous. This place is all aboot enabling...

[0culus]

Added another wave meter to my collection, this time the model P532A in waveguide, 12-18 GHz.  These really are neat devices, made with amazing precision to achieve the ridiculous Q factor.



What's even more fun, is Keysight still sells these. You heard that right. They only list the X band 537A, but somewhere there must be at least one customer who still wants them. 

[AVGresponding]

I don't need Gixen; I have "patience".   

"The universal warrior uses all weapons at his disposal." ~Sun Tzu (or was it Castaneda... ehhh, who cares?)

mnem
why are you reading this?

"The wise warrior does not waste his resources on unnecessary subscriptions"

A specious argument at best. Gixen doesn't cost a penny unless you need oodles of snipes. Like, only numbers that professional buyers would need.

Even their premium mirror service with oodles of extra features... like multiple wins from a grouped bid... is only $6 a year. That's 50c a month.

We waste more than that on electricity just to come in here and bitch aboot high eBay prices; so even in that respect, Gixen saves you money. The money saved on TE is just gravy.

mnem
*SMH*

Specious? Hardly. Facetious? Certainly. I refuse to take things like this seriously. And myself. And other people.

How can Gixen save me money, when its purpose is to enable me to buy more things? I can snipe at least as well, probably better, and if I miss something because I forgot about it, or am asleep when the bidding ends, well clearly I didn't want it badly enough.

Then you can still save assache using the free number of winning snipes per month as a self-regulating mechanism.

And I highly doubt you can bid as well on three items all ending in the same 5 minutes, which Gixen will do, and will usually ONLY net one out of the three. While you do something that earns you the money to pay for your winning bid. Using the stuff you bought much cheaper using Gixen.

I can do facetious too. 

mnem
We are, after all, TEAnonymous. This place is all aboot enabling...

You are adding an extra layer of complexity, for no good reason. No. I am already enabled, adding Gixen wouldn't alter that, just waste more of my time with another layer to fiddle with.

[AVGresponding]

Our muppet eBay seller is still trying to peddle this steaming turd, although I think the price is a bit lower this time, need to go a lot lower yet I think 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133842289474

Knowing how that seller operates, I'm surprised he isn't asking twice as much.

It's entirely possible that the three pictures in the listing show all of the scope that actually exists...

[mnementh]

Marmalade? bleurgh 

This one's for you. 

dwagons love orange marmalade... we're worse than Paddington.    The other kinds are good too. 

mnem
And the chewier, the better.

[mnementh]

I don't need Gixen; I have "patience".   

"The universal warrior uses all weapons at his disposal." ~Sun Tzu (or was it Castaneda... ehhh, who cares?)

mnem
why are you reading this?

"The wise warrior does not waste his resources on unnecessary subscriptions"

A specious argument at best. Gixen doesn't cost a penny unless you need oodles of snipes. Like, only numbers that professional buyers would need.

Even their premium mirror service with oodles of extra features... like multiple wins from a grouped bid... is only $6 a year. That's 50c a month.

We waste more than that on electricity just to come in here and bitch aboot high eBay prices; so even in that respect, Gixen saves you money. The money saved on TE is just gravy.

mnem
*SMH*

Specious? Hardly. Facetious? Certainly. I refuse to take things like this seriously. And myself. And other people.

How can Gixen save me money, when its purpose is to enable me to buy more things? I can snipe at least as well, probably better, and if I miss something because I forgot about it, or am asleep when the bidding ends, well clearly I didn't want it badly enough.

Then you can still save assache using the free number of winning snipes per month as a self-regulating mechanism.

And I highly doubt you can bid as well on three items all ending in the same 5 minutes, which Gixen will do, and will usually ONLY net one out of the three. While you do something that earns you the money to pay for your winning bid. Using the stuff you bought much cheaper using Gixen.

I can do facetious too. 

mnem
We are, after all, TEAnonymous. This place is all aboot enabling...

You are adding an extra layer of complexity, for no good reason. No. I am already enabled, adding Gixen wouldn't alter that, just waste more of my time with another layer to fiddle with.

Ohhh... I think I understand now... you want your TEA, and you want to bitch aboot high eBay prices. And damn anything that interferes with those two just & wholesome pursuits.

mnem

[bd139]

Anyone near Fareham?:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124853508170

Well fuck I just drove past Fareham earlier. Could have put an offer on it.

I went walking in Chichester today hence the lack of spamming as alluded to earlier. Will be on discord. 

Have attached an artistic highlight from “centurion way”….

[BU508A]

Mole Borg in the UK? 

[AVGresponding]

I don't need Gixen; I have "patience".   

"The universal warrior uses all weapons at his disposal." ~Sun Tzu (or was it Castaneda... ehhh, who cares?)

mnem
why are you reading this?

"The wise warrior does not waste his resources on unnecessary subscriptions"

A specious argument at best. Gixen doesn't cost a penny unless you need oodles of snipes. Like, only numbers that professional buyers would need.

Even their premium mirror service with oodles of extra features... like multiple wins from a grouped bid... is only $6 a year. That's 50c a month.

We waste more than that on electricity just to come in here and bitch aboot high eBay prices; so even in that respect, Gixen saves you money. The money saved on TE is just gravy.

mnem
*SMH*

Specious? Hardly. Facetious? Certainly. I refuse to take things like this seriously. And myself. And other people.

How can Gixen save me money, when its purpose is to enable me to buy more things? I can snipe at least as well, probably better, and if I miss something because I forgot about it, or am asleep when the bidding ends, well clearly I didn't want it badly enough.

Then you can still save assache using the free number of winning snipes per month as a self-regulating mechanism.

And I highly doubt you can bid as well on three items all ending in the same 5 minutes, which Gixen will do, and will usually ONLY net one out of the three. While you do something that earns you the money to pay for your winning bid. Using the stuff you bought much cheaper using Gixen.

I can do facetious too. 

mnem
We are, after all, TEAnonymous. This place is all aboot enabling...

You are adding an extra layer of complexity, for no good reason. No. I am already enabled, adding Gixen wouldn't alter that, just waste more of my time with another layer to fiddle with.

Ohhh... I think I understand now... you want your TEA, and you want to bitch aboot high eBay prices. And damn anything that interferes with those two just & wholesome pursuits.

mnem

I never bitch about prices. I may laugh, chuckle or shake my head, but I never bitch. Mostly because I really don't give a fuck.

[med6753]

Catching up here. Some good TEA mixed with jams and marmalades.  No TEA here today nor tomorrow. Lady Cop currently knitting and watching a documentary on Winston Churchill. I don't completely understand her fascination with British history. I suppose she could do worse.   

Won't be on Discord later. We are going out for dinner at a place with excellent views of the Hudson River. On Monday going to start building the 2nd scope cart. I'll post progress pictures. I may also grab the Heath VTVM and fix it's last defect. No Type 547. That can wait.

[Cerebus]

I don't completely understand her fascination with British history.

We have some. 

A bit over two centuries doesn't count as history more 'recent recollections', and of course anything that happened more than 245 years ago in the US counts as "British history". 

But seriously, what anyone is taught or told in their own country as "history" looks rather different if compared to what is taught or told about the same events in other countries. One can get a very useful perspective on what might have really happened if you listen to accounts taken from a different viewpoint.

[Vince]

I looked at that, and that's £5.69 a jar versus £2.59 on Tiptree's own website. Unfortunately Tiptree paused international sales during the Covid thing and don't seem to have resumed them fully again yet.

If it wasn't for the rapaciousness of the Royal Mail - it costs a fortune to send anything anywhere now - I wouldn't even pause to think, I'd just send you a jar as a gift - still no taxes or duty on small gifts. But, sending a single jar of jam to France from England ought to be cheap as chips - a £2.59, 350g jar of jam from the supermarket would cost £7.80 for surface post to France and would take 3-5 days. By way of contrast I just got my latest consignment of PCBs from China and the postage on that was £2.01 airmail and took 7 days - posting a "small parcel" in the UK to the UK would cost £3.20.

I also suspect that, post Brexit, English food might have a hard time with French customs unless managed by someone who knows the right person to bribe. 

Fuck royal mail.... same with the French Post, it's a total ripoff and gets worse and worse every year. They must a hidden agenda of losing any and all customers so they can go bankrupt and fire everybody.. I don't know... 

Just clicked here and there on that British Corner website, have answers now.

1) They opened recently a warehouse in Mainland Europe, in the Netherlands, to make it easier admin-wise to sell stuff to continental citizens. So that's why they can sell 'DDP', duty paid. That explains why the jar costs twice the normal price, 5 instead of 2+.

2) Shipping is 5 pounds up to 1kg, 8 pounds up to 2kg, which is the same we get charged by transporters here for local / national destinations. So that's excellent. It gets even better for heavy stuff : up to 30kg, it's only 12 pounds, which is twice cheaper than the normal price.

So my jar of strawberry would therefore cost me 5 + 5pounds, 10 pounds, which is 14 Euros at today's exchange rate. Just checked on-line the price for BOnne Maman strawberry.... 1,20 Euro.    So the TipTree will end up 12 times more expensive huuuuu... I will think about it...... 

[Robert763]

From Fluke 8800A. We are on page 3904, so a picture of Motorola 2N3904.
They are used to switch the amplification via jfets. One of the control lines had to be lifted (green wire to gate), because the 5 Megohm between two of them were to much leakage so the jfet didn't swich on or needed minutes while the displayed value was 188888 or driving carrusel. Cleanin and drying the board didn't help. Error was back next day.

Oh, I see. We're doing that now are we. Challenge accepted.



MMBT2906 and 2N2906. Sorry no 2N3906s in TO-18 in my stock. I've got other things in TO-18, but that would be cheating.

(That's what it says, I know some would call that a PN2906 but it's got 2N3906 printed on it.)

NO, HELL NO!
This is TEA not CEA.
I don't want to see pictures of CMOS logic every page from 4000 on!

[AVGresponding]

Catching up here. Some good TEA mixed with jams and marmalades.  No TEA here today nor tomorrow. Lady Cop currently knitting and watching a documentary on Winston Churchill. I don't completely understand her fascination with British history. I suppose she could do worse.   

Won't be on Discord later. We are going out for dinner at a place with excellent views of the Hudson River. On Monday going to start building the 2nd scope cart. I'll post progress pictures. I may also grab the Heath VTVM and fix it's last defect. No Type 547. That can wait.

Enjoy your night out!

[AVGresponding]

Discord is awakened

[mnementh]

Sorry... was busy cookin'.

I was feeling the Montreal Steak Seasoning this morning... and a need for lots of starch, so oodles of Yukon Gold taters (and even a few big wedges for me ) and half a pound of Portobellos to round out the flavor with celery and onion, plus a moderate dose of garlic powder as my wife cannot handle fresh garlic, no matter how long I let it cook down.

I saved a few of the prettier shrooms to go on top a couple hours before she's done so they don't cook down to mush.

mnem
yummmm. 'nuff sed.

[bd139]

Discord is awakened

Will be along soon. Attempting to source some chicken goodness at the moment.

[Specmaster]

I don't need Gixen; I have "patience".   

"The universal warrior uses all weapons at his disposal." ~Sun Tzu (or was it Castaneda... ehhh, who cares?)

mnem
why are you reading this?

"The wise warrior does not waste his resources on unnecessary subscriptions"

A specious argument at best. Gixen doesn't cost a penny unless you need oodles of snipes. Like, only numbers that professional buyers would need.

Even their premium mirror service with oodles of extra features... like multiple wins from a grouped bid... is only $6 a year. That's 50c a month.

We waste more than that on electricity just to come in here and bitch aboot high eBay prices; so even in that respect, Gixen saves you money. The money saved on TE is just gravy.

mnem
*SMH*

Specious? Hardly. Facetious? Certainly. I refuse to take things like this seriously. And myself. And other people.

How can Gixen save me money, when its purpose is to enable me to buy more things? I can snipe at least as well, probably better, and if I miss something because I forgot about it, or am asleep when the bidding ends, well clearly I didn't want it badly enough.

Then you can still save assache using the free number of winning snipes per month as a self-regulating mechanism.

And I highly doubt you can bid as well on three items all ending in the same 5 minutes, which Gixen will do, and will usually ONLY net one out of the three. While you do something that earns you the money to pay for your winning bid. Using the stuff you bought much cheaper using Gixen.

I can do facetious too. 

mnem
We are, after all, TEAnonymous. This place is all aboot enabling...

You are adding an extra layer of complexity, for no good reason. No. I am already enabled, adding Gixen wouldn't alter that, just waste more of my time with another layer to fiddle with.

Ohhh... I think I understand now... you want your TEA, and you want to bitch aboot high eBay prices. And damn anything that interferes with those two just & wholesome pursuits.

mnem

As you all know, I have been bidding on the bay but not winning much, and I have been using in the main, Gixen but on many items I have been bidding live, and I can honestly say without contradiction there has been a total of 49 auctions where I have used Gixen this year and god how many auctions I have been part of live. There has been quite a lot of BIN buys and a few where I have had an offer accepted. To date this year out of 49 auctions using Gixen, I have won 2 of them, 1 was for my max bid and the other (Fluke 85) was £2 lower than my max bid and both of those wins was while I was otherwise busy or not in a position to bid, i.e., driving etc.

The thing about using Gixen is that it does teach you discipline, you set the price you are comfortable paying and if you can resist increasing the max bid, it will keep your spending under control for you. What is the point in getting caught up in the heat of auction fever (yes it exists) like a gambler who has to have that buzz from winning at any cost. Many people on this forum admit to having massive long repair queues, why get more gear than you can realistically repair? All that does is to fill your place with clutter and use up your funds, funds which could be used getting the parts you need to repair your latest addition. I dare say that many will find that by the time they get to fixing some items, that they then discover the parts you require are unobtainable and so becomes lost funds that could have been better used?

The other thing that Gixen does is to keep records of the items you bid for, dates etc and the final price along with your max bid, so it quickly becomes a useful database, and you can see trends in prices etc.

[Specmaster]

Discord is awakened

Will be along soon. Attempting to source some chicken goodness at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be on later myself tonight as well.

[McBryce]

Prices on Bonanza are even nuttier than on ebay...

This is pretty funky though: https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Data-Check-Monitor-Oscilloscope-1200B/850205708

Awww, man... that thing is fukkin' awesome. I want it painted satin black in my HT cabinet displaying all 7 channels... or maybe 7 different streams of that oscilloscope music thing...



Damn... I'm actually tempted to make a lowball offer, but it would cost $150 to get it to me.

mnem
Honeeeee... can I have forgiveness for a birthday present...?

Definitely. Rig it up to a row of filters and make a scope audio spectrum analyser out of it. Oooo, ideas. I am in the process of building a Nixie spectrum analyser, but now you've gone and diverted me.

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

Here is a question for our American friends, I have been following the ongoing saga of the Champlain Towers South collapse in Miami and this chap here is a structural engineer and seems to have the best approach towards unravelling the cause of it bearing in mind the recent discussion here regarding the apparent poor response of the fire service as seen in many YT videos. Given the time of night that this shocking event happened, especially as the original alarm the Police responded to was a code 49, a fire alarm, why did it take the fire service so long to arrive, and given the type of building it was why did they not have any rescue capability or even a turntable ladder on the first call out. Then why did it take so long for the search and rescue teams to arrive, given that it was evident that there was people trapped in the still standing part of the building, screaming out for help?

[capt bullshot]

So, today the new TEAcquisition appeared.
Here's some more hints:



Watch out, it's a 110V unit



And has a carrying handle



To power it up, one needs 110V



Looks good so far



BTW
One day absent from TEA and five or more pages to read ...
So I'll be absent one more day, more pictures and disclosure of the unit then.

[bd139]

So it looks like it might be something in the frequency domain rather than the time domain?

[tautech]

So it looks like it might be something in the frequency domain rather than the time domain?

I'm picking a 6 or 8ch scope.

[tggzzz]

Lady Cop currently knitting and watching a documentary on Winston Churchill. I don't completely understand her fascination with British history.

Er, that's not history. Even I can remember being given the day off school for his funeral. If somebody, anybody, can remember something, it ain't history. Hence fighting in WW1 has recently become history.

Anyway, bring her over here sometime - there's plenty to do especially if you avoid the standard tourist haunts. If you like strolling, how about along roads/tracks that have had a name for a couple of milennia. Or, as I did today, crawl inside Hetty Pegler's Tump which is at least 5000 years old. You can't have a picnic on Stonehenge stones anymore (boo, hiss), but there are plenty of other rings.

And then you will begin to realise that "here 100miles is a long way, whereas there 100 years is a long time".