Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

We rented a Catherham 7 SV in a Scotland.  It was amazing.  I've never driven anything like it.  I had a Miata and it just doesn't compare.
You are VERY close to the ground.

If you like that, try gliding. You are at about the same height, go on high alert if acceleration is less than 0-55 in 5s, and return to the ground at ~55. Plus you have much better views

The 55 plus being close to the ground caused problems for my daughter when she started to learn to drive. I had to warn instructors that her sense of speed was based on being close to the ground and being "told off" if she was unintentionally flying <45

I've never done a winch launch (over here it's almost exclusively aero tow), but it looks like a real rush.  You climb out at what, about 40* or so?  I miss soaring.

How do they control the falling line so the winch doesn't wind up birds-nesting?  Any sort of drag chute or the like to slow the fall that deploys from the end when it releases?  8000' feet of cable - holy crap that's a long 'rope'!!

It is one hell of a buzz. My daughter's first flight was an aerotow; meh. Her second, on the same day at a different club, was a winch; she was hooked

The climb is at ~35* with a low headwind, to 50* with a stiff headwind. More headwind => higher launch. In a modern glider, your feet are higher than your head (not above!).

Yes. In that video the drogue chute is the red thing in the cable about 20ft from the glider.

With the drogue chute there the cable is very controllable at the winch. All you do is increase/decrease the speed of winding in so that the chute drops maybe 100ft away from the winch. Once on the ground you simply wind the cable in slowly. In this timelapse montage you can see the blob near the glider before release, and on its own after release.


This video shows two views


OTOH without the chute - i.e. when the cable has broken, you often end up with a tangle. If the tangle is on the ground, it often isn't too bad, but if the tangle is on the cable drum it can be more of a pain.

Cable breaks are fun. If you don't act fast enough, you'll stall/spin into the ground. During training the instructor will often pull the release unexpectedly, at which point you are expect to:

• push the stick forward so you go over the top at 0g - because the wing cannot stall at zero g. Rule of thumb: if the mud floats in front of you, you've got it about right, but if it ia plastered across the canopy you've been too enthusiatic
• do nothing until pointing down and airspeed is 50kt (i.e. flying)
• if low and space ahead, land ahead
• if too high to do that, fly a "normal" circuit and land, inasmuch as any glider circuit is "normal"

[mnementh]

...dedicated 2GB of video RAM

mnem
 

Yeah I know its not that much in the grand scheme of GPU cards, but it more than likely beats laptops 

My work laptop has a RTX 2060 with 6Gb of RAM in it     Not entirely sure why!

So you can play Beat Saber on your lunch break, duh!!! 

For those who don't know what I'm talking aboot, this video makes the point better than I can. Beat Saber is one of the few games I still don't get bored with. It's like GO ; takes a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.



Be patient; I know the guy gushes a little, but the game really is that addictive.

mnem
 church.

[bd139]

Oh man I need that and some vodka right now

[cyclin_al]

So next time one complains about French I will tell him to .... GO PISS UP A ROPE as Med would say ! 

With English, one learns that it's a patchwork of exceptions, and memorises them.

With French, once you learn the reasonably consistent mapping of sound to spelling, it's about memorising the strong verbs and the occasional "Œufs" and you're good.

In German, you learn the rules, and once you can decode the sentences to place things in their right class and rôle fast enough, you can at least do the listening side of speaking the language.  A lot like Latin, actually.

Swedish is a lot of exceptions. And 4 genders. I don't know how to learn it, because I was brought up with it. The other 4 mentioned above I have some experience of getting used to. And I learned Danish by reading Donald Duck and watching TV. Literally. They call Goofy "Fedtmule".

Just be sure to learn how to say "GO PISS UP A ROPE" in each language 

[mnementh]

...dedicated 2GB of video RAM

mnem
 

Yeah I know its not that much in the grand scheme of GPU cards, but it more than likely beats laptops 

My work laptop has a RTX 2060 with 6Gb of RAM in it 

Not entirely sure why!

My HP Elite workbook (supposed to be a desktop replacement) only has 4GB of memory for everything and even with an i7 processor is slow as fuck.

4GB...?

Ummm... I haven't had a laptop with less than 8GB or a desktop with less than 16GB since... ummm... 2010-ish? Even the boi's first i3 NetBook had 8GB...   Hell, my cheap ARM-powered Lenovo Tablet has 4GB...

Given the fact it came with 4GB, I'm guessing your machine is pretty old. There are i7s, and there are i7s, if you know what I mean. 1-5th gen i7 (if that's what you have) is pretty anemic by today's standards; a iPad outpowers it.

My intent isn't to pick on you... only to try and put it into perspective with more modern machines. That 4GB RAM is a huge bottleneck with any modern OS... but if you go upping the RAM on a older machine, you usually run into enough expense that your money is better put towards something more civilized.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Oh man I need that and some vodka right now

A awesome combination, I can tell you from experience!

mnem
"Juice me up, Scotty."

[Specmaster]

...dedicated 2GB of video RAM

mnem
 

Yeah I know its not that much in the grand scheme of GPU cards, but it more than likely beats laptops 

My work laptop has a RTX 2060 with 6Gb of RAM in it 

Not entirely sure why!

My HP Elite workbook (supposed to be a desktop replacement) only has 4GB of memory for everything and even with an i7 processor is slow as fuck.

4GB...?

Ummm... I haven't had a laptop with less than 8GB or a desktop with less than 16GB since... ummm... 2010-ish? Even the boi's first i3 NetBook had 8GB...   Hell, my cheap ARM-powered Lenovo Tablet has 4GB...

Given the fact it came with 4GB, I'm guessing your machine is pretty old. There are i7s, and there are i7s, if you know what I mean. 1-5th gen i7 (if that's what you have) is pretty anemic by today's standards; a iPad outpowers it.

My intent isn't to pick on you... only to try and put it into perspective with more modern machines. That 4GB RAM is a huge bottleneck with any modern OS... but if you go upping the RAM on a older machine, you usually run into enough expense that your money is better put towards something more civilized.

mnem
 

I know, I have had that laptop for a number of years now so its old tech for sure.

[vk6zgo]

*shudders from PTSD flashback aboot a time the high beam fuse fell out of the dash from going over a bump and resultant drive into a ditch*

"Son, I say son, yoaw've been neglectin' to eat yoaw carrots son ain'tcha?"

Only the ones I lay down in the bottom under the pot roast.

mnem
I understand that eatin' too many carrots doesn't necessarily turn you orange ... but I'm not takin' any chances.

I thought that was from eating too many Big Macs, or was it Whoppers TFG liked?

[med6753]

...dedicated 2GB of video RAM

mnem
 

Yeah I know its not that much in the grand scheme of GPU cards, but it more than likely beats laptops 

My work laptop has a RTX 2060 with 6Gb of RAM in it     Not entirely sure why!

So you can play Beat Saber on your lunch break, duh!!! 

For those who don't know what I'm talking aboot, this video makes the point better than I can. Beat Saber is one of the few games I still don't get bored with. It's like GO ; takes a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.



Be patient; I know the guy gushes a little, but the game really is that addictive.

mnem
 church.

The last video game I played seriously was pong, and it gave me a headache. Not a gamer. Never was a gamer. Never will be a gamer. 

[Cerebus]

The last video game I played seriously was pong, and it gave me a headache. Not a gamer. Never was a gamer. Never will be a gamer. 

I once twiddled at Doom for a few hours but otherwise, no, no taste for it at all. Rather be out with beer, floozies, at al. If ever I felt the need to shoot something up I used to go down the range and give a sheet of cardboard terminal lead poisoning. (For some reason I was never any good at it. I couldn't shred the paper the way that some other people could, all I kept doing was making holes in one place. Still entertaining though.)

[Specmaster]

...dedicated 2GB of video RAM

mnem
 

Yeah I know its not that much in the grand scheme of GPU cards, but it more than likely beats laptops 

My work laptop has a RTX 2060 with 6Gb of RAM in it     Not entirely sure why!

So you can play Beat Saber on your lunch break, duh!!! 

For those who don't know what I'm talking aboot, this video makes the point better than I can. Beat Saber is one of the few games I still don't get bored with. It's like GO ; takes a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.



Be patient; I know the guy gushes a little, but the game really is that addictive.

mnem
 church.

The last video game I played seriously was pong, and it gave me a headache. Not a gamer. Never was a gamer. Never will be a gamer. 

I like to play things like Command and Conquer and things like that, strategy etc.

[Neomys Sapiens]

*shudders from PTSD flashback aboot a time the high beam fuse fell out of the dash from going over a bump and resultant drive into a ditch*

"Son, I say son, yoaw've been neglectin' to eat yoaw carrots son ain'tcha?"

Only the ones I lay down in the bottom under the pot roast.

mnem
I understand that eatin' too many carrots doesn't necessarily turn you orange ... but I'm not takin' any chances.

The normally off-white ventral fur of the WATERSHREW aquires an orange-ish tint in individuals with a high intake of crustaceans (freshwater crayfish).

[mnementh]

*shudders from PTSD flashback aboot a time the high beam fuse fell out of the dash from going over a bump and resultant drive into a ditch*

"Son, I say son, yoaw've been neglectin' to eat yoaw carrots son ain'tcha?"

Only the ones I lay down in the bottom under the pot roast.

mnem
I understand that eatin' too many carrots doesn't necessarily turn you orange ... but I'm not takin' any chances.

I thought that was from eating too many Big Macs, or was it Whoppers TFG liked?

Cheetos.

mnem
you are what you eat...

[Vince]

So next time one complains about French I will tell him to .... GO PISS UP A ROPE as Med would say ! 

With English, one learns that it's a patchwork of exceptions, and memorises them.

With French, once you learn the reasonably consistent mapping of sound to spelling, it's about memorising the strong verbs and the occasional "Œufs" and you're good.

In German, you learn the rules, and once you can decode the sentences to place things in their right class and rôle fast enough, you can at least do the listening side of speaking the language.  A lot like Latin, actually.

Swedish is a lot of exceptions. And 4 genders. I don't know how to learn it, because I was brought up with it. The other 4 mentioned above I have some experience of getting used to. And I learned Danish by reading Donald Duck and watching TV. Literally. They call Goofy "Fedtmule".

Just be sure to learn how to say "GO PISS UP A ROPE" in each language 

Nope, we are on TEA, I only need to care about English sorry ! 

[vk6zgo]

Price tag implies it's for a pack of 10 units though !  I assume you only need one ?!

That's the subtle difference between "10 Pieces" and "10 Piece". 10 Piece means you get 10 bits with it, not 10 rachets.

McBryce.

The French have always had a problem with plurals. 

English: Man, men.
German: Mann, Männer.
French: Homme, hommes.

In only one of those languages is one of those pairs of words pronounced the same, despite being written differently. You can't tell if the Frenchman is talking singular or plural unless you also get the define article as well: l'homme, les hommes (or "les hommes, eh" if it's Canadian French).

When I was initially learning French we were being taught to read, write and speak at the same time. I was constantly tripping up over the fact that the written plural was, for the most part, formed just like an English one but not pronounced.

Or the way French words look like Italian words, except they drop the last few letters when they are spoken.

Yonks ago, I travelled through Italy, Switzerland, & into France.

As Aussies wave their hands around a lot when speaking, just like Italians I could communicate pretty well, & also picked up quite a few useful words, which mostly were pronounced as they were spelt.
An Italian/English dictionary & some handwaving worked well.

Alas, this did not work in France.
Looking up a word, it quite often looked like an Italian or English word, but the pronunciation was something else again!

[vk6zgo]

Arguably the Caterham 7 is the most Lotus of any still available; Colin Chapman was a pioneer of performance through weight reduction, and the 7 weighs in at a little over half a ton, making it lighter even than a Mk1 Elise, and probably half the weight of current Lotus offerings.

They bought the design rights to the 7 in the early 1970s and have evolved the design without losing the original looks or light-weight philosophy. The one with a GSX-R engine is going to be terrifyingly fast round a track.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Colin Chapman said something along the lines of "A car needs to do three things - accelerate, stop, and change direction.  Adding horsepower helps one.  Making it lighter helps all three."  The '05 Elise has a curb weight of 1975 lbs/896 kg.  The brakes will about rip your eyeballs out - a friend of mine drove it and commented "When you step on the brake pedal, it's like the hand of God reaches down and grabs the car!"

The 7 must REALLY be a blast to drive!

-Pat

Yes, but you can do both.  I remember the Triumph Spitfire I shoehorned a Cologne 2.6/5-spd trans into; by the time I was done carving away and boxing the subframes, we'd lost 200 lbs and almost tripled the HP. Fukkin' thing sat higher in the front (actually, restored "as new" ride height) and would do wheelstands in the first two gears but it still stopped on a dime. 

mnem
"If a car doesn't go, you're walking. If it doesn't stop, you're dead." ~grand-dad

So it was quite  a triumph for you?

[Cubdriver]

We rented a Catherham 7 SV in a Scotland.  It was amazing.  I've never driven anything like it.  I had a Miata and it just doesn't compare.
You are VERY close to the ground.

If you like that, try gliding. You are at about the same height, go on high alert if acceleration is less than 0-55 in 5s, and return to the ground at ~55. Plus you have much better views

The 55 plus being close to the ground caused problems for my daughter when she started to learn to drive. I had to warn instructors that her sense of speed was based on being close to the ground and being "told off" if she was unintentionally flying <45

I've never done a winch launch (over here it's almost exclusively aero tow), but it looks like a real rush.  You climb out at what, about 40* or so?  I miss soaring.

How do they control the falling line so the winch doesn't wind up birds-nesting?  Any sort of drag chute or the like to slow the fall that deploys from the end when it releases?  8000' feet of cable - holy crap that's a long 'rope'!!

It is one hell of a buzz. My daughter's first flight was an aerotow; meh. Her second, on the same day at a different club, was a winch; she was hooked

The climb is at ~35* with a low headwind, to 50* with a stiff headwind. More headwind => higher launch. In a modern glider, your feet are higher than your head (not above!).

Yes. In that video the drogue chute is the red thing in the cable about 20ft from the glider.

With the drogue chute there the cable is very controllable at the winch. All you do is increase/decrease the speed of winding in so that the chute drops maybe 100ft away from the winch. Once on the ground you simply wind the cable in slowly. In this timelapse montage you can see the blob near the glider before release, and on its own after release.


This video shows two views


OTOH without the chute - i.e. when the cable has broken, you often end up with a tangle. If the tangle is on the ground, it often isn't too bad, but if the tangle is on the cable drum it can be more of a pain.

Cable breaks are fun. If you don't act fast enough, you'll stall/spin into the ground. During training the instructor will often pull the release unexpectedly, at which point you are expect to:

• push the stick forward so you go over the top at 0g - because the wing cannot stall at zero g. Rule of thumb: if the mud floats in front of you, you've got it about right, but if it ia plastered across the canopy you've been too enthusiatic
• do nothing until pointing down and airspeed is 50kt (i.e. flying)
• if low and space ahead, land ahead
• if too high to do that, fly a "normal" circuit and land, inasmuch as any glider circuit is "normal"

Very cool multiple exposure!  With Aero Tow where I was training, they wanted a callout of '200 feet' when climbing through that altitude as it was considered to be the minimum height to safely circle back and land on the field in the event of a rope break.  Neglecting to make this callout would almost certainly result in a simulated rope break with the instructor yanking the release unexpectedly on a subsequent flight, and they'd do it occasionally no matter what to keep you on your toes.

I'd imagine a bird's nested cable on the drum must be a nightmare to untangle!

-Pat

[Vince]

Computers : you all seem from another planet ! 

My computer I built 15 years ago. In 2006, I was wiating for the Core2Duo to come around.

So in 2006 I got a Core2duo 8200  2,6GHz 2MB cache IIRC.
4GB of RAM
x2 HDD 500GB Samsung, mechanical/ spinning of course.

17" CRT monitor. Was using my existing monitor from my previous machine. NEc M700. Now using a Samsung Syncmaster 700p, still 17" CRT.

Graphics card ? GeForce 6200. The lowest spec I could find at the time, as I am not a gamer. Just needed basic 3D not heavy duty stuff. Goal was to be cheap and passive cooling and as low power as possible. Aim was a machine that's very quiet and doesn't draw too much power, because electricity you have to pay.

Printer : HP Lasert 6P B&W, bought brand new in 1997. First toner lasted 10 years and 4000 pages a promised by HP. Replacement toner I didn't even pay, daddy got one from work. It lasted for 13 years and also 4000 pages. Replaced it last year, was seifed, druims would not turn anymore... Replacement toner 20 Euros from Ebay Germany. Printer now prints just as good as new.
Lowest cost per page, highest reliability one could hope for. I certainly got money money's worth on that printer ! Of course now it's got a new toner it will last a few more years still and maybe reach 30 years, that would not surprise me.


RAM : 3 years ago Firefox, a memory hog, forced me to up that to 8GB, max the motherboard would take.


So 15 years later, still very happy, machine works just fine and does what it needs to do ! The 2 HDD never failed even though machine ran 24/7 for those 16 years. They are still super silent too, no weird high-pitch noise like some drives do when their crappy bearing is on the way out.


However I do intend to replace it in a year or so, but mostly because Firefox wants more nad more RAM as years go by... now even 8GB is not enough. FF alone takes 10GB, have only on the machine. So have 2GB on the swap.. well more than that since the OS and other apps need to run too !
Have 4.7GB of swap. The other day it nealry used it all up and computer was down to a crawl, an the verge of freezing. Took 20 minutes of trashing the HDD, but I managed to switch to console to fire up 'top' to kill FF. Couldn't do it on the desktop as the mouse was not responsive enough...

So I mostly want t a new machine so that I cna put a ton of RAM on it. 16GB minimum to fix the current situation. 32GB to cater for future needs. Ideally MB would need to support 64 and I would put that much once the price of the RAM sticks decreases enough. But 32GB to start with that's for sure.

Then also wnat to change it because I only have PCI slots on the MB and my Geforce 6200 is not supported anymore by Nvidia. Need a more modern card which means PCI-X not vanilla PCI.  Still, same logic : the lowest power one, passive cooling and small heat sink. Just like the GF6200.

Also fancy switching to an SSD as nowadays tehy seem decent, and available in large capacities for cheap even from reputable brands.

Also need a faster Ethernet adapter as I would like to setup a NAS to share files with the soon to come second computer, want one in the lab. NAS also would act as a backup if the SS in one machine crashed.. I hear they do like to crash after just a few years, sometimes only 3 years, unbelievable.
So would need faster than 100MBps. I understand the newer NIC's can do 1GB, that would do it ! 

Would also not mind USB 2 or 3, as USB vanilla is slow as a dog for file transfers.

Would also like a faster memory  and memory controller, so I can shift large amounts of data around quickly, like when I am in Gimp working on large pictures.

Might switch to an LCD screen to get a slightly larger screen, but it really kills me, I love my old CRT. Just a bit too bulky and power hungry.

However I still want that next computer to have, of course, serial ports and a parallel port so I can use my HP Laserjet, and a VGA port so I can use my CRT, as I doubt I will get rid of it this easily.
So I guess I would have use some adapter or add come extension cards to get the UART and parallel port.


Anyway that's the plan...

All that to confirm what others have said a few messages ago : computers have now reached a point where evne the crappiest is good enough for most people... hence why mine still does the job 15 years later !  That would have been impossible in the '90's where the life expectancy was 3 years or so... was moving so fast !

[Vince]

Just finished soldering the order for 8 OBD cables for my friend !

I hope he will be pleased !  I don't get a cent from this so he better not complain...

3AM going to bed...   

[Cerebus]

As Aussies wave their hands around a lot when speaking, just like Italians I could communicate pretty well, & also picked up quite a few useful words, which mostly were pronounced as they were spelt.
An Italian/English dictionary & some handwaving worked well.

The great thing about Italian is by the time you've learned perhaps three menus worth of food words you've learned all the really difficult spellings. Once you're past that, of all the languages I've encountered personally, Italian is the easiest to write down spelled correctly if you've only heard the word and not seen it written.

OK, I just tried an experiment. I wrote down the first two Italian words that came into my head that I was sure I hadn't seen written down. I picked "Montelusa" which is a fictional town in Sicily frequented by Inspector Montalbano and "ragazza" which is what gets him and Mimi in trouble most ("una ragazza" = "a girl"). Then I looked them up. Aced the spelling first time. See that awkward "zz" spelling - learned it from "pizza". I rest my case.

[vk6zgo]

Whats happened on the computing front, it wasn't all that long ago that I recall folk were looking for the kick arse AMD Ryzen CPU's towards the top end of the family, coupled with the fastest RAM modules and one of the very best graphics cards, top end MB's and either the very quietest fans for cooling and/or plenty of bling in the cases and internal lighting, oh yes and the meanest of power supplies. Now it seems that people are happy with ex corporation laptops that more than likely have been baked, running for hours on end, maybe left in cars even where the temperature could rival those found in saunas, and or possibly been clogged up insides with fluff and dust etc due to idiots using them on their laps, or even beds etc, without providing them with a hard flat surface to ensure adequate flow of cooling air both internally and also of course around the outside and beneath to wick away the heat build up 

All the "youngies" don't know what a normal computer is, & do all their stuff on (shudder) "tablets" or (double shudder) "smart phones".  

That said, for the more senile of us, I haven't bought a computer for years------do manufacturers still install "dumbed down" versions of Windows?

The last new desktop I bought was an "e-Machines" beast, which "crashed" regularly, with the only way to get it back being to return to the original installation status, losing all the stuff we had installed and our data!

"System Restore" didn't work, neither did any of the "smart tricks" suggested on the Internet.
The main problem was that we didn't have "admin privileges"----------we were locked out of obtaining them!

Ultimately, I bit the bullet & bought a new Windows 7 disc, installed that, waved goodbye to the "e Machines" crud, & crashes have been few & far between ever since.
If there is a problem, "System Restore" usually fixes it.

[URI]

Holy crap!

Missed a week of postings on the TEA thread because of being in the process of buying a house and just ended up checking ~60 pages. I'm done now, creeping to bed..      

[vk6zgo]

Back on topic, sorta.

I went to the Perth Hamfest yesterday.
There was quite a bit of test gear there, but I didn't bite for any, although a bit tempted.

There was one lot of stuff from a Deceased Estate, which had a hp 180 main frame, but unfortunately no plugins, there were also a couple of downconverters & a 410C from the same manufacturer.

They had been stored in a poorly waterproofed shed, & were quite "crusty".
I was quite tempted by the 410C, just for the sake of the pin & ferrule on the dc probe, as they are missing on mine, but put temptation behind me.

Further along, another bloke had a 465, which was also a bit crusty.
it had apparently had something ferrous sitting on top of it, as there was a big rust stain across the top cover.

Yet another place had a BWD 100MHz two channel 'scope with delayed timebase, of a similar class to the 465.
This was a bit dusty, not really crusty, but I left it.
Another guy had a UHF/SHF Spectrum analyser & more useful hp one (can't remember the model, sorry).
The latter was horribly overpriced at $A1700!
The same guy had a quite nice Marconi signal generator, too.

There were a few more "odds 'n sods" around, but none that took my fancy.
In any case, I don't really have the room for it!

I eventually  bought a nice looking, but oldish ham HF transceiver in the shape of a Yaesu FT707 at $A250, & a "Pogo stick" 2m vertical antenna for $A25 (lazy old sod----I should have made the antenna myself, as I had most of the bits!).

I think if I can do a bit of "hamming" I might ease myself back into spending more time in the lab/hamshack/crud overflow room/dog & cat room.

[wolfy007]

Back on topic, sorta.

I went to the Perth Hamfest yesterday.
There was quite a bit of test gear there, but I didn't bite for any, although a bit tempted.

There was one lot of stuff from a Deceased Estate, which had a hp 180 main frame, but unfortunately no plugins, there were also a couple of downconverters & a 410C from the same manufacturer.

They had been stored in a poorly waterproofed shed, & were quite "crusty".
I was quite tempted by the 410C, just for the sake of the pin & ferrule on the dc probe, as they are missing on mine, but put temptation behind me.

Further along, another bloke had a 465, which was also a bit crusty.
it had apparently had something ferrous sitting on top of it, as there was a big rust stain across the top cover.

Yet another place had a BWD 100MHz two channel 'scope with delayed timebase, of a similar class to the 465.
This was a bit dusty, not really crusty, but I left it.
Another guy had a UHF/SHF Spectrum analyser & more useful hp one (can't remember the model, sorry).
The latter was horribly overpriced at $A1700!
The same guy had a quite nice Marconi signal generator, too.

There were a few more "odds 'n sods" around, but none that took my fancy.
In any case, I don't really have the room for it!

I eventually  bought a nice looking, but oldish ham HF transceiver in the shape of a Yaesu FT707 at $A250, & a "Pogo stick" 2m vertical antenna for $A25 (lazy old sod----I should have made the antenna myself, as I had most of the bits!).

I think if I can do a bit of "hamming" I might ease myself back into spending more time in the lab/hamshack/crud overflow room/dog & cat room.

How much was asked for the 100MHz BWD? Dont suppose you know who was selling it?

[0culus]

I give you a much happier 4145B...got a replacement floppy drive from a good friend. Identical part number to the one that was in there (Sony manufactured...not surprising, since the line of -hp- semiconductor parameter analyzers was made in Japan much like the LCR meters). It works perfectly, unlike the old one. I was able to make two copies of the system disk it came with...one for me and one for Pat (Cubdriver). Still in the hunt for the test fixture and cables...