Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

ER40 begat ER20 spawned ER11..... last bits in todays post. With fairly much full sets of collets for each so 0.5-26mm and the less metric compatible imperial sizes too (1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 1"). The ER20 and 40 are bored through for longer shafts and bits if needed.

Already used for some work holding and cross drilling  Now I really really NEED a lathe instead of paying a now rapidly aging and increasingly arthritic 80 year old to do my bits and pieces 

[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.

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

Sorry, Wolfy, I didn't ask, & can't even remember if he had a callsign badge.

On reflection, I might even have been incorrect about the bandwidth of the BWD, but i'm pretty sure that model is either 50 or 100MHz.
I seem to remember seeing 100MHz ones, but I may be mistaken.
I pretty much doubt that BWD, if putting in all the other goodies would scrimp on bandwidth, though.

It wasn't turned on, (neither were the others) so I didn't linger that long.
Possibly someone from the NCRG might remember who it was, or maybe you could ask on the Google group WAHAMS.

[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?

Sorry, Wolfy, I didn't ask, & can't even remember if he had a callsign badge.

On reflection, I might even have been incorrect about the bandwidth of the BWD, but i'm pretty sure that model is either 50 or 100MHz.
I seem to remember seeing 100MHz ones, but I may be mistaken.
I pretty much doubt that BWD, if putting in all the other goodies would scrimp on bandwidth, though.

It wasn't turned on, (neither were the others) so I didn't linger that long.
Possibly someone from the NCRG might remember who it was, or maybe you could ask on the Google group WAHAMS.

No problems. I collect old BWD scopes and I dont have the model 540 which was a 100MHz model.

[BU508A]

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!

Perhaps, a French phrasebook would've been helpful, then.
Something similar like the famous Hungarian phrasebook from the 70's.

[URI]

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...

BTW, nice addition to your TE stack, that's quiet an improvement indeed and still a very capable and powerful device! 
Happy you! 

[AVGresponding]

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

Some years ago a group of guys hired out the local raceway for an afternoon, with an 'advanced driving instructor' basically it was about braking, avoidance, not locking brakes, getting used to ABS etc. One of the company sponsors got the local Lotus agent to turn up with an Elise (this was very early on) . We did wet bitumen all out stops from 60km/hr, the E class Benz did the best, followed by my Volvo V70, the Lotus came in about 2m further on. We tried different drivers - didn't change results - we were quite surprised with the results. Watching the Benz braking was quite amusing - you would expect a 'whale' of a car like that to wallow but it looked like it was glued onto the road. 😂

Yeah, sometimes having a bit of heft to a car is a good thing as it tends to hold the car in contact with the road surface, whereas a car that is lightweight can often catch air over bumps and that will cause total braking distances to increase.

Yeah, sometimes having a bit of heft to a car is a good thing as it tends to hold the car in contact with the road surface, whereas a car that is lightweight can often catch air over bumps and that will cause total braking distances to increase.

But, the laws of physics say that retarding an object is going to require force corresponding to its mass. This means that the heavier car is going to be harder to stop than the lighter one, all other things being equal. There is something to be said for adding adhesion by mass, certainly, although my pessimistic hunch is that it fast becomes a losing game.

In the braking on wet tarmac situation, it almost totally comes down to not locking the wheels, because the friction of a freely skidding wheel is, as is universally known, much lower than a wheel that has grip and rotates. Hence, the ABS implementation is the crucial part.

Even if the ladies and gentlemen from Stuttgart don't make them like they used to (the W124 is by some people described as the last "built to spec, not to a price" model), they still turn out mighty fine cars. Am not surprised that it came out in top for braking.

There is something to be said for adding adhesion by mass, certainly, although my pessimistic hunch is that it fast becomes a losing game.

You don't improve adhesion by adding mass, the frictional forces producing adhesion are directly proportional to mass. More mass -> more inertia/momentum to deal with -> more friction required. More mass produces more friction in direct proportion to the amount of inertia/momentum it adds - the outcome is a zero sum improvement. The trick is that reducing unsprung mass relative to total mass is easier for a larger car than it is for a small car and that does improve the ability to "keep the rubber on the road".

As pointed out by mansaxel and Cerebus, the laws of physics tell us that lighter is better.

If we look again at VK5RC's post, we see he mentions the Elise is an early one (if I am understanding him correctly), which means no ABS. You need a good amount of skill to make a non-ABS car stop better than an ABS equipped one, but yes, it will.

Also not mentioned in VK5RC's post is the relative state of the tyres on each of the vehicles. It seems plausible that the Lotus agent brought a demonstrator car, which had probably been thrashed until the tyres were nearly slicks; not an advantage on a skid-pan.

As for the issue of unsprung weight, a lot can be done in mitigation by tweaking the damping and springing rates, and of course most modern (post leaf-spring, live axle) cars use quite complex suspension geometries in pursuit of this as well.

I would expect the Elise to win that braking contest easily, in the hands of a skilled driver, and with variables like the tyres being equal.

[bd139]

Dropped into hunts rally. Pissing it down. Bought SFA. Sellers were either taking the piss or selling wet things. Mirfield were there selling fake tinySA’s so that’s intent for sure. Have reported it back to Erik. Waste of fuel 

[tggzzz]

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

If you had a train set as a kid, you'll probably find OpenTTD addictive. Build road/rail/air transport systems including surprisingly complex and subtle signalling to everything running smoothly.

It started out in 1994 as a Transport Tycoon Deluxe. When that eventually became abandon ware, lots of people recreated it as OpenTTD, and extended its capabilities.

[tggzzz]

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!

It is a neat photo, isn't it!

200ft sounds hairy for a circuit, especially on some of the fields round here. Cable break practice is drummed into you, since it is one way you can kill yourself relatively easily. There are some videos and simulations around that certainly get your attention! Here's a couple of a "too-steep" takeoff:
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430312036_spin-2.mp4
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430311970_flick5.mpg

I chose to learn on an ex-RAF airfield with three runways, so it was quite hard to miss the field. Mind you, I've seen the aftermath of two instructors landing short after having the traditional "who is in control of this plane?" conversation immediately before landing arriving.

[tggzzz]

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).

In addition, HP's DAT drives were designed and made with Sony. Sony only stopped flogging them because HP had the better sales channel.

[Cubdriver]

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!

It is a neat photo, isn't it!

200ft sounds hairy for a circuit, especially on some of the fields round here. Cable break practice is drummed into you, since it is one way you can kill yourself relatively easily. There are some videos and simulations around that certainly get your attention! Here's a couple of a "too-steep" takeoff:
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430312036_spin-2.mp4
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430311970_flick5.mpg

I chose to learn on an ex-RAF airfield with three runways, so it was quite hard to miss the field. Mind you, I've seen the aftermath of two instructors landing short after having the traditional "who is in control of this plane?" conversation immediately before landing arriving.

Low altitude stall/spins will definitely ruin your day in short order.  And perhaps I should have worded my earlier statement better - 200 feet to complete a teardrop turn and land in the opposite direction on the runway you'd just departed from - certainly couldn't have flown a pattern at the grass strip I was flying out of - trees all around it.  Anything less than 200, look for something ahead.

-Pat

[beanflying]

Last place I went full size winch launching as from viewed from the noisy end. They use rope instead of the more normal steel cable as it is a working airfield. Line Breaks were much more common

The really good thing for winch launching in particular at the learning stage was it is much cheaper at the expense of some altitude in most cases.

[tggzzz]

Dropped into hunts rally. Pissing it down. Bought SFA. Sellers were either taking the piss or selling wet things. Mirfield were there selling fake tinySA’s so that’s intent for sure. Have reported it back to Erik. Waste of fuel 

That's a bit of a hike for you

I might go to the Weston-super-Mud rally in a month. Since disabled people get in 30mins early, I might go on my mother's mobility scooter That's probably the only (small) chance of finding anything there.

(Mirfield's website says "OUT OF STOCK  NEW STOCK DUE W.C 29TH AUGUST 21 Mirfield Electronics are TinySA approved suppliers in the UK, beware of buying a cloned product on other UK sites.")

[tggzzz]

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!

It is a neat photo, isn't it!

200ft sounds hairy for a circuit, especially on some of the fields round here. Cable break practice is drummed into you, since it is one way you can kill yourself relatively easily. There are some videos and simulations around that certainly get your attention! Here's a couple of a "too-steep" takeoff:
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430312036_spin-2.mp4
https://members.gliding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/04/1430311970_flick5.mpg

I chose to learn on an ex-RAF airfield with three runways, so it was quite hard to miss the field. Mind you, I've seen the aftermath of two instructors landing short after having the traditional "who is in control of this plane?" conversation immediately before landing arriving.

Low altitude stall/spins will definitely ruin your day in short order. 

I've watched a too-low-too-slow competition flight spin in on the final turn. He walked away from it without injury.

For some excellent photos see https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1311828/Shoreham-air-crash-pilot-escapes-stunt-glider-smashes-runway.html (apologies for linking to a Daily Wail article!)

[tggzzz]

The really good thing for winch launching in particular at the learning stage was it is much cheaper at the expense of some altitude in most cases.

Nice vid, but I didn't see a drogue chute.
Winch launches are much more exhilarating[1], there's no tuggie for you to kill, and you get lots of practice at the "difficult" launch and landing phases. If you are going to be able to have a soaring flight, there's a good chance you will be able to "get away" from a 2kft winch launch (or 1500ft in a heavy high performance glider). If not, you can always do three successive spin-recoveries at heights that give powered pilots the screaming heebie jeebies!

[1] The last time I heard someone on a trial lesson scream all the way up, she landed with the traditional slightly inane grin and went back up again.

[Specmaster]

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 !

No no, Firefox doesn't need 10Gb, it is much less as this test here shows, much the same is required for all of the top three browsers, with Edge just a fraction  less than both Firefox and Chrome.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/chrome-firefox-edge-ram-comparison

[beanflying]

The really good thing for winch launching in particular at the learning stage was it is much cheaper at the expense of some altitude in most cases.

Nice vid, but I didn't see a drogue chute.
Winch launches are much more exhilarating[1], there's no tuggie for you to kill, and you get lots of practice at the "difficult" launch and landing phases. If you are going to be able to have a soaring flight, there's a good chance you will be able to "get away" from a 2kft winch launch (or 1500ft in a heavy high performance glider). If not, you can always do three successive spin-recoveries at heights that give powered pilots the screaming heebie jeebies!

[1] The last time I heard someone on a trial lesson scream all the way up, she landed with the traditional slightly inane grin and went back up again.

No chute so the rope dropped straight down on the strip. Slightly different animal to steel cable.

All of our R/C winches run chutes but we power down to a turnaround pulley as the winch and pilots are at the same end.

[tautech]

I collect old BWD scopes and I dont have the model 540 which was a 100MHz model.

Oh do you. 
A busted 835 was one I had on the path to today and got reasonably cheap from our Trademe Buy/Sell.
Nice little CRO it was too and quite easy to work on although it incorporated some unusual design features for a scope of its vintage. Fixed and flogged.
Guessing you already know about your fellow Aussie Keven Chant's repository of BWD manuals:
https://www.kevinchant.com/bwd.html

[flash2b]

Last Saturday I have bought these at the DNAT swap meet in Bad Bentheim (Germany):

•    H&B Elavi 15n
•    BCC Metrawatt Metravo 4S
•    Uni 11e
•    Siemens Zeitmesser M 09005-A23-A1
•    2 Sun Hayato IC pullers (Made in Japan)
•    Wiha PZ2 100mm screwdriver

Does anyone have the schematics for the multi-meters, since they need some TLC ? I already found the manual for the Elavi 15n but no schematic.

More info on the Siemens Zeitmesser https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siemens-zeitmesser-m-09005-a23-a1/

[bd139]

Dropped into hunts rally. Pissing it down. Bought SFA. Sellers were either taking the piss or selling wet things. Mirfield were there selling fake tinySA’s so that’s intent for sure. Have reported it back to Erik. Waste of fuel 

That's a bit of a hike for you

I might go to the Weston-super-Mud rally in a month. Since disabled people get in 30mins early, I might go on my mother's mobility scooter That's probably the only (small) chance of finding anything there.

(Mirfield's website says "OUT OF STOCK  NEW STOCK DUE W.C 29TH AUGUST 21 Mirfield Electronics are TinySA approved suppliers in the UK, beware of buying a cloned product on other UK sites.")

Yeah decided to go for a drive out. Car runs on mosquito farts so no big deal. Enjoyed the drive.

Be careful with the mobility scooter - they might think you’re a ham  . Last time I went to Weston-Super-Mare was Butlins which I’m sure gave me a bout of suicidal depression for a couple of months 

As for Mirfield, it’s a shit show. He had at least 5 of them there. All fake. Figure he might be selling the genuine ones online (he sent me a genuine replacement unit) and shifting the fake ones at hamfests where the clientele is less discerning. Either way you can’t trust the company now so I will no longer do business with them or recommend them.

Edit: got to be honest here and say that the stuff at hamfests these days is mostly trash. Has been since before Covid hit, declining rapidly in quality and increasing in price and dishonesty as of 2019. I might skip them in future. I had another option today of a day out I wish I’d taken instead which involved potentially falling in the Thames and in retrospect that looked more attractive.

[tggzzz]

The really good thing for winch launching in particular at the learning stage was it is much cheaper at the expense of some altitude in most cases.

Nice vid, but I didn't see a drogue chute.
Winch launches are much more exhilarating[1], there's no tuggie for you to kill, and you get lots of practice at the "difficult" launch and landing phases. If you are going to be able to have a soaring flight, there's a good chance you will be able to "get away" from a 2kft winch launch (or 1500ft in a heavy high performance glider). If not, you can always do three successive spin-recoveries at heights that give powered pilots the screaming heebie jeebies!

[1] The last time I heard someone on a trial lesson scream all the way up, she landed with the traditional slightly inane grin and went back up again.

No chute so the rope dropped straight down on the strip. Slightly different animal to steel cable.

All of our R/C winches run chutes but we power down to a turnaround pulley as the winch and pilots are at the same end.

Where the rope falls depends on the pilot's skills and the crosswind. Where I flew/winched, we were taught to chop the power if the glider drifted too far sideways.

Before my time the club used the "reverse winching" technique, where there was a pulley at the far end, and the winch was actually a car that drove towards the launchpoint. Turnarounds were apparently fast since the cable didn't have to be towed out after a launch, but there was the possibility that the car could "encounter" the glider (easy) or cable (not sure!)

[tggzzz]

Be careful with the mobility scooter - they might think you’re a ham  .

I have no shame w.r.t. getting a bargain; in that company I won't bother to have a bath and shave before I go

Last time I went to Weston-Super-Mare was Butlins which I’m sure gave me a bout of suicidal depression for a couple of months 

I suspect that was north (Sand Bay, now Pontins) or south (Brean Down, several). Either way, "all inclusive" is a "red flag" to me: they've got your money so why should they go to any effort to make the prison enjoyable. The local rag has monthly horror stories about such places.

Edit: got to be honest here and say that the stuff at hamfests these days is mostly trash. Has been since before Covid hit, declining rapidly in quality and increasing in price and dishonesty as of 2019. I might skip them in future. I had another option today of a day out I wish I’d taken instead which involved potentially falling in the Thames and in retrospect that looked more attractive.

I tend to agree - I wouldn't go far, an 45mins at the most. I'll reassess that after things become more normal - perhaps there will be more silent key sales then. I did get a couple of entertaining Tek instruments at pleasing prices that way.

[shakalnokturn]

Ah you got the DMM912. I was considering that. Glad to hear it went to a good home.

It's in very good condition. There are some oddities in its construction, but it seems a decent meter. The heritage shows in some predictable places; it has a much wider AC bandwidth than the Fluke 289 for instance (~4MHz for the Tek and 600kHz or so for the Fluke).

The blue rubber-baby-buggy-bumper is a pleasant change from the usual yellow/orange/red from Fluke and clones etc.

Interesting. Someone mentioned somewhere (I can't find it now) that they were possibly made by Brymen. Not sure if that is true or not.

A little late... Catching up.

http://mrmodemhead.com/blog/tektronix-dmm912-teardown/

I says APPA too.

[flash2b]

Tektronix DMMs were made by Escort in Taiwan, not Brymen or Appa. Later on Escort was bought by Agilent/Keysight which produces now its portable DMM products.

[Robert763]

Dropped into hunts rally. Pissing it down. Bought SFA. Sellers were either taking the piss or selling wet things. Mirfield were there selling fake tinySA’s so that’s intent for sure. Have reported it back to Erik. Waste of fuel 

Hmm, you didn't see the Tek 585A with scope mobile and multiple plug-ins including SA nd test? Only £85 ONO?
I would have loved to rescue it but literally don't have anywhere to put it. It also ads nothing to my capability.
I bought  bunch of kit including:
HP 1653B LA with 'scope option
HP 33335A Synth with OCXO and printed manual
HP 5090A
HP 5090B
Shuttle DS81 micro PC
Pico ADC 12 interface (12 bit logger / scope adaptor)
Olsen IEC power  strip new C/W plugs.
Sony Video Walkman + 3 non display portable recorder and box of bits.
Greenpar interseries abaptor and attenuator (NIB)
Various other bits.
Total spend including entry fee £55