Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

The seller with that TTi 15Mhz scope sent me an offer of 10% off the asking price just because I'm watching it, I think that they'll have to go much, much higher with the discount if they want to sell this, I like it because it is TTi and I've never seen one of them before, but just how did they ever get to value this thing at £171, even if it does appear to be working  That kind of money can get a full colour dual trace 50 / 60Mhz LCD display scope with far more capability.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265247910389

[bd139]

Quick bit of RF fun. Neighbour has noisy TV because she's deaf. Zero luck talking to her because she's got a "fuck everyone else attitude". However we have a shared antenna which is not boosted and just split.

If I terminate my feed with a short then it's glorious silence! 🤔

Do it. Video it and upload to YT. 

I did start with somewhere a little more illegal. She watches ITV here which is bang on 514MHz so I figured I could probably build a small yagi and use one of those 900MHz broadband amplifiers and the tinySA to piss all over it 

As for YT it's difficult to actually record the noise before and after without professional recording equipment that I don't have

Quick bit of RF fun. Neighbour has noisy TV because she's deaf. Zero luck talking to her because she's got a "fuck everyone else attitude". However we have a shared antenna which is not boosted and just split.

If I terminate my feed with a short then it's glorious silence! 🤔

Suggest to her that she configures her TV's " sound mode" for "clear voice". I find it makes an enormous difference, and I reduce the volume from ~50 to ~30. Expect to have to do her fiddling for her.

She is not cooperative enough to take advice from anyone.

[Cerebus]

I am collecting Arcades, Pinballs, some Test Gear to repair aforementioned Arcades and Pinballs, and I also collect Kanguroos ...

Anyone has a problem with that ?
 

Not all all. Just keep your C4 collection below the legal limits. 

Don't worry, I will. The autorities authorized a stupendous amount that I will not be able to use up ...

needless to say that all legal limits and laws are observed to the letter. Pyro stuff is no laughing matter ...

Back in the day when I had an explosives licence* they didn't seem to place any limits on the quantities you could acquire. As long as you kept records, had somewhere safe to store it all, and had the stores inspected for suitability they didn't seem to care how much you held. Lucky that I'm not the sort of man who likes to blow things up just to watch what happens. Oh, hold on ...

* UK law - at least at the time, I haven't kept up with it - required you to hold an explosives licence to purchase and use professional grade/size fireworks, which is why I had one. The weird thing that the time was the explosives licence was that, not a 'big fireworks' licence but a licence to purchase and hold explosives. The piece of paper that I had was exactly the same as the piece of paper held by the man who bought high explosives by the lorry load for a quarry, or who bought H.E. to demolish buildings with.

[bd139]

The seller with that TTi 15Mhz scope sent me an offer of 10% off the asking price just because I'm watching it, I think that they'll have to go much, much higher with the discount if they want to sell this, I like it because it is TTi and I've never seen one of them before, but just how did they ever get to value this thing at £171, even if it does appear to be working  That kind of money can get a full colour dual trace 50 / 60Mhz LCD display scope with far more capability.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265247910389

In comparison I paid £99 for that TBS1052B with 20 power ups 

The Black Star one is probably worth £10 for the interest only. It's barely useful compared to a 20MHz hameg

[BU508A]

Quick bit of RF fun. Neighbour has noisy TV because she's deaf. Zero luck talking to her because she's got a "fuck everyone else attitude". However we have a shared antenna which is not boosted and just split.

If I terminate my feed with a short then it's glorious silence! 🤔

Probably not, because you'll have then a notch filter.

Example:


http://www.hb9amo.net/hfcoaxialfilter.php

[bd139]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

[BU508A]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

 

Either that or considering sending 1kV pulses through the coax cable ...

  

[Kosmic]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

 

Either that or considering sending 1kV pulses through the coax cable ...

  

Just plug it on main 

[mnementh]

TV tuners are much too well isolated against surge; you can't be sure that would be enough... you'll want to break out the Megger. 

mnem
Lightning safety testing on your TV antenna, of course.

[0culus]

TV tuners are much too well isolated against surge; you can't be sure that would be enough... you'll want to break out the Megger. 

mnem
Lightning safety testing on your TV antenna, of course.

Local surplus joint has a couple of ±10 kV bipolar supplies that might work.  [edit] before any casual readers take this seriously, I wouldn't trust those to be safe to use without a thorough going over, to be quite honest. Serious HV isn't a place to blindly trust old gear.

[xrunner]

Oh my mind is busy with all kinds of ideas. Probably good thing I'm a long way away ... 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Quick bit of RF fun. Neighbour has noisy TV because she's deaf. Zero luck talking to her because she's got a "fuck everyone else attitude". However we have a shared antenna which is not boosted and just split.

If I terminate my feed with a short then it's glorious silence! 🤔

Can't you transmit on this channel? Ugly music, blaring children, barking dogs in an endless loop?

[Neomys Sapiens]

Starting another ham radio repair thread. Friend of a friend asked me to check it out for the guy. I asked, did he even open it to do a cursory visual inspection? As you guys say, of course not - he couldn't be arsed to do even that. 

I'll include a pic here - it looks like it's going to be a bad PIN diode.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/yeasu-ft-991-repair/

I'm sure you're aware that most hams today are nothing more than "appliance operators" and in fact would be a danger to themselves and others if they tried to fix their equipment. 

I was talking about that with the guy who is the "intermediary". I think most of them (of course not all) are too scared to even open the lid anymore. A board full of SMD components is like looking at a mysterious puzzle too small to comprehend. I said well if I can't fix it we might be able to get a new V_U PA board and he can just replace the whole board. Oh no he doesn't want to touch it!

Even the full license lot here think a soldering iron goes up your bum. It’s a bit of a disaster.

Err...a confidential question please! (I never made it to a license) Could you tell me which end goes first?

[Cerebus]

Quick bit of RF fun. Neighbour has noisy TV because she's deaf. Zero luck talking to her because she's got a "fuck everyone else attitude". However we have a shared antenna which is not boosted and just split.

If I terminate my feed with a short then it's glorious silence! 🤔

Can't you transmit on this channel? Ugly music, blaring children, barking dogs in an endless loop?

The "Build a DVB-T2 modulator to D book 8 standards" project just might keep BD so busy that he'd no long notice the noise. And by the time he had finished she'd probably have popped her clogs.

[vk6zgo]

Mine are the cheap Chinese and they do get sloppy after a while and I have to re-tighten screws and then all is well.

Even the real old "Anglepoise" ones do that, & eventually, no amount of tightening will fix them.

[vk6zgo]

Barbarella on back of a dragon... 

In your dweams, dwagon! 

[Brumby]

.... when I get a new piece of equipment and rolls her eyes and then asks "where are you going to put it? "     

This is why my recently acquired 5328A only got a quick photo session before quickly getting fitted into my rack.

But I didn't get a roll of the eyes .... I just got "The Look" when I brought in the box.  (That's why the photo session was quick.)

[Zucca]

To the audio guys.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/help-with-a-rode-nt2-a-mic-phantom-power-and-co/new/#new

This is how my YT channel starts.... broken mic. boom

[mnementh]

Barbarella on back of a dragon... 

In your dweams, dwagon! 

In my dweams, she takes a number.   

mnem
Besides, I don't bat for the right team... And she ain't into the trans-species thang...

[beanflying]

When your new HID needs nearly 200Mb of software, seriously you lazy f...... learn how to program tight code 

[Andrew_Debbie]

The seller with that TTi 15Mhz scope sent me an offer of 10% off the asking price just because I'm watching it, I think that they'll have to go much, much higher with the discount if they want to sell this, I like it because it is TTi and I've never seen one of them before, but just how did they ever get to value this thing at £171, even if it does appear to be working  That kind of money can get a full colour dual trace 50 / 60Mhz LCD display scope with far more capability.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265247910389

150MHz  1Ga/S with an AWG if you are willing to buy a Hantek.   I have one.  It has flaws, but for ~$230 with VAT and FedEx shipping I can live with it.   (poor S/N at high gain, external trigger limited to CMOS logic levels and some firmware issues)

There are also the GW Instek scopes at CDL with starting bids around £90

[tggzzz]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

 

Either that or considering sending 1kV pulses through the coax cable ...

  

The thought of using a Zerostat had occurred to me, but physically damaging her stuff isn't a good idea.

But if misterminating bd's outlet could affect her reception, I would guess that connecting that to the nanovna would be sufficient - no need for yagi/amps. You could turn it on/off every minute, and listen to see it was having the desired effect.

[BU508A]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

 

Either that or considering sending 1kV pulses through the coax cable ...

  

The thought of using a Zerostat had occurred to me, but physically damaging her stuff isn't a good idea.

But if misterminating bd's outlet could affect her reception, I would guess that connecting that to the nanovna would be sufficient - no need for yagi/amps. You could turn it on/off every minute, and listen to see it was having the desired effect.

 

[Vince]

Grrrr... can't see that video, YT blocked if for French viewers based on copyright grounds... it's a video from a French TV station, might be why...

[Specmaster]

So what you’re saying is I will need to tune it 

Out comes the nanovna 

 

Either that or considering sending 1kV pulses through the coax cable ...

  

The thought of using a Zerostat had occurred to me, but physically damaging her stuff isn't a good idea.

But if misterminating bd's outlet could affect her reception, I would guess that connecting that to the nanovna would be sufficient - no need for yagi/amps. You could turn it on/off every minute, and listen to see it was having the desired effect.

 

Well bd could always phone the emergency services again and have them smash her front door in again, she might be in trouble and need assistance, at least thats what he could claim, he could always say that couldn't get a response from her when he knocked at her door