Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[VK5RC]

In South Aus, you need a certain number of 'identity points' typically 100 to do certain things , a driver's licence counts for 50, as I am often involved in the process of ageing drivers losing their licence - the Gubbermint appointed alternative is rather amusingly called a 'proof of age card' 😂
In the 1980s I was going through US customs and the fellow was not at all amused that my driver's license at that stage did not have a photo - bizarrely he was quite satisfied with my el cheapo laminated work ID badge. Must be an mind numbing job though.

[mnementh]

I’m going to just make Swiss roll if I buy that 

I already have a metal tin for that, and it hasn't caused me to make swiss rolls (or meringue roulades, which is more my thing) all the time.

How do you make a Swiss roll? [This is a "supply your own punchline" dad joke.]

Set him on fire of course.

Kick him in the knee. Lure him to the top of a hill first to maximize velocity; use your imagination as to best bait.

mnem
a long trail of dark chocolate chips...? wait; that would just lure me to the top of the hill...

[Kosmic]

Oooooh nice. Do they have any more left?

I'm afraid not, it was advertised as the last one. 

You could try sending an offer on this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284160789600

It's a really nice kit, Fluke 27II, 2 HV probes and 1 RF Probe.

[mnementh]

It's actually a bit arrogant to assume that a local driver's license should be acceptable ID at any international border, IMO; the fact that Canada and Mexico have done so for so long is only due to strongarming from US interests. It's not like a passport is that hard to get; even my kids have them and my dad has had one all his adult life as he travels a lot but does not drive.

mnem
 

You know, you're so good at flinging bullshit that I want you to prove that statement with hard facts.

I'm waiting.

Good lord, med. The entire economy of Tejas would grind to a halt without Mexican laborers, legal and otherwise, and half the border towns on the other side would dry up and blow away without money from Americans going down there for a good time. There's a lot of pressure that's local too; we had state police barricading border crossings to prevent US citizens from crossing legally in certain locations just because of outcry over casinos.

Canada is constantly going back and forth with the US over trade and border access; all you have to do is look at the news. One of the latest I read aboot during Trump's regime before I even came up here was demands for  access to junction points nearby where the biggest of the pipelines cross over, where that normally would be restricted to company personnel in company vehicles on company business only on the leased land. It would have amounted to making special border crossing stations just for those locations at the Canadian economy's expense.

Historically, Canada has welcomed US visitors and their tourism dollars, but that is changing as more and more people flee the crazy climate down there. EDIT: They still want US tourism dollars; they just want to make sure the tourists go back home after they've shot their wads.

The US doesn't care if its citizens work or live across the border. The other way around is a totally different can of worms.

mnem
 

[med6753]

It's actually a bit arrogant to assume that a local driver's license should be acceptable ID at any international border, IMO; the fact that Canada and Mexico have done so for so long is only due to strongarming from US interests. It's not like a passport is that hard to get; even my kids have them and my dad has had one all his adult life as he travels a lot but does not drive.

mnem
 

You know, you're so good at flinging bullshit that I want you to prove that statement with hard facts.

I'm waiting.

Good lord, med. The entire economy of Tejas would grind to a halt without Mexican laborers, legal and otherwise, and half the border towns on the other side would dry up and blow away without money from Americans going down there for a good time. There's a lot of pressure that's local too; we had state police barricading border crossings to prevent US citizens from crossing legally in certain locations just because of outcry over casinos.

Canada is constantly going back and forth with the US over trade and border access; all you have to do is look at the news. One of the latest I read aboot during Trump's regime before I even came up here was demands for  access to junction points nearby where the biggest of the pipelines cross over, where that normally would be restricted to company personnel in company vehicles on company business only on the leased land. It would have amounted to making special border crossing stations just for those locations at the Canadian economy's expense.

Historically, Canada has welcomed US visitors and their tourism dollars, but that is changing as more and more people flee the crazy climate down there. EDIT: They still want US tourism dollars; they just want to make sure the tourists go back home after they've shot their wads.

The US doesn't care if its citizens work or live across the border. The other way around is a totally different can of worms.

mnem
 

All you have proven is that our economies (Mexico, USA, Canada) are very much interdependent. B - F - D.   

[mnementh]

So  what are you asking me for...?

Proof of what has been common knowledge in the global theater literally longer than I've been alive; that the US misuses and abuses its trade partners, using "Favored Trade Partner Status" as a billy club like some street thug, and saves the best abuses for its next-door neighbors?

Jeezus med... it's all over every news outlet on the planet. All it takes is a little interest.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Wowsers, some eBay sellers get their fingers out when it comes to getting things delivered, I just received an email from UPS informing me that I will getting a delivery tomorrow that will need to be signed for. It was only picked up today from the drop-off shop in Reading, and it hasn't had to go scooting passed me to the national sorting hub and then send back down south, well done UPS. 

Do not count your chickens........

I'll let you know tomorrow if my chickens roosted or flew off 

[Specmaster]

Hmm just had a nap and some lucid dreams and as a side effect invented a completely new form of piracy!

Interesting evening so far 

And..........

[Specmaster]

Oooooh nice. Do they have any more left?

I'm afraid not, it was advertised as the last one. 

I have 2 of the 27's but not with the HV probes and they still meet their original specification, nice solid meters and I mean SOLID, could drive nails home with them if you had to 

[Specmaster]

Just love popping down a firearms license when asked for ID and the ensuing argument when told it doesn't qualify. 
Pic it has too and a LOT harder to get than a drivers license.

My military ID was not. For some reason they did not get it qualified as an official ID document. But, since it is for all practical purposes as secure as an official ID, and, like your firearms license, a lot harder to get, most people accepted it as such anyway.

How long ago ?
We have a Mil base we supply to some 800km away and a few years back they gave us the grand tour but the last time we were there delivering stuff we couldn't get inside the gates even to do a business drop off. 
So our contact just met us at the gate rather than go through a week of paperwork just to get us a pass. 

Oh, it was perfectly fine to use the mil-ID at bases, you got in no questions asked, if it was a base that did not have a "Allowed Visitors List". The more interesting ones do have one, and then it might be an offense to even go up to the gate and ask nicely... Of course I always was on official business, and I always had an appointment with someone on the inside, to be able to justify my presence. No monkeying around. Play by the rules. The guards have lots of guns (typically a Glock and a FN C carbine, sometimes a FN MAG as backup..) and extensive training to use them...

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

[tautech]

Just love popping down a firearms license when asked for ID and the ensuing argument when told it doesn't qualify. 
Pic it has too and a LOT harder to get than a drivers license.

My military ID was not. For some reason they did not get it qualified as an official ID document. But, since it is for all practical purposes as secure as an official ID, and, like your firearms license, a lot harder to get, most people accepted it as such anyway.

How long ago ?
We have a Mil base we supply to some 800km away and a few years back they gave us the grand tour but the last time we were there delivering stuff we couldn't get inside the gates even to do a business drop off. 
So our contact just met us at the gate rather than go through a week of paperwork just to get us a pass. 

Oh, it was perfectly fine to use the mil-ID at bases, you got in no questions asked, if it was a base that did not have a "Allowed Visitors List". The more interesting ones do have one, and then it might be an offense to even go up to the gate and ask nicely... Of course I always was on official business, and I always had an appointment with someone on the inside, to be able to justify my presence. No monkeying around. Play by the rules. The guards have lots of guns (typically a Glock and a FN C carbine, sometimes a FN MAG as backup..) and extensive training to use them...

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

[Cerebus]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Radiation risks of nuclear weapons (before they go bang) get rather exaggerated. I'd rather be near a well maintained nuclear weapon than near one of the Cobalt sources that you can find scattered around university campuses or one of the Technetium sources that you can find in many a hospital.

The radiation's not a problem as long as you can hear the gentle 'bing bong' of the radiation alarms. If they go quiet however, run. If you hear klaxons, put your head between your knees and ... well, you know the rest.

[Specmaster]

Just love popping down a firearms license when asked for ID and the ensuing argument when told it doesn't qualify. 
Pic it has too and a LOT harder to get than a drivers license.

My military ID was not. For some reason they did not get it qualified as an official ID document. But, since it is for all practical purposes as secure as an official ID, and, like your firearms license, a lot harder to get, most people accepted it as such anyway.

How long ago ?
We have a Mil base we supply to some 800km away and a few years back they gave us the grand tour but the last time we were there delivering stuff we couldn't get inside the gates even to do a business drop off. 
So our contact just met us at the gate rather than go through a week of paperwork just to get us a pass. 

Oh, it was perfectly fine to use the mil-ID at bases, you got in no questions asked, if it was a base that did not have a "Allowed Visitors List". The more interesting ones do have one, and then it might be an offense to even go up to the gate and ask nicely... Of course I always was on official business, and I always had an appointment with someone on the inside, to be able to justify my presence. No monkeying around. Play by the rules. The guards have lots of guns (typically a Glock and a FN C carbine, sometimes a FN MAG as backup..) and extensive training to use them...

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

Both to a degree but I'm not sure that there was any radiation, never saw any evidence of anyone wearing a dosimeter or whatever they were called, in fact all I ever saw weapon wise apart from the arms carried by the guards, was artillery shells being tested for stability in large heated stores of which there was about 6 or 7 such stores, distanced away from each other by about 300ft with huge blast walls and earth mounds between them. I was very relieved when I was able to drive away from them. At the on Foulness Island, once checked at the main gate, and the car searched, I then had to drive the length of the island unaccompanied to reach these stores, about 10 miles through the firing ranges, via a few checkpoints and once at the stores, military presence was evident. At Aldermaston however, you had to leave your car in the car park by the main gate and walk into reception and be searched, and then you were driven everywhere either in police or military vehicles  who escorted me to the door of the person I was booked to meet with heavily armed guards, and I could leave that room until further guards were sent to escort me. I never saw anything on that site. The only other place I have had to be escorted everywhere was RAF Northolt which puzzled me as it is just an airfield, but then I discovered on one trip there, that is where the Royal flight was based and Royalty arrived to fly out while I was there and the whole place was locked down until they had taken off 

[tautech]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.

[cyclin_al]

It's actually a bit arrogant to assume that a local driver's license should be acceptable ID at any international border, IMO; the fact that Canada and Mexico have done so for so long is only due to strongarming from US interests. It's not like a passport is that hard to get; even my kids have them and my dad has had one all his adult life as he travels a lot but does not drive.

mnem
 

You know, you're so good at flinging bullshit that I want you to prove that statement with hard facts.

I'm waiting.

Good lord, med. The entire economy of Tejas would grind to a halt without Mexican laborers, legal and otherwise, and half the border towns on the other side would dry up and blow away without money from Americans going down there for a good time. There's a lot of pressure that's local too; we had state police barricading border crossings to prevent US citizens from crossing legally in certain locations just because of outcry over casinos.

Canada is constantly going back and forth with the US over trade and border access; all you have to do is look at the news. One of the latest I read aboot during Trump's regime before I even came up here was demands for  access to junction points nearby where the biggest of the pipelines cross over, where that normally would be restricted to company personnel in company vehicles on company business only on the leased land. It would have amounted to making special border crossing stations just for those locations at the Canadian economy's expense.

Historically, Canada has welcomed US visitors and their tourism dollars, but that is changing as more and more people flee the crazy climate down there. EDIT: They still want US tourism dollars; they just want to make sure the tourists go back home after they've shot their wads.

The US doesn't care if its citizens work or live across the border. The other way around is a totally different can of worms.

mnem
 

All you have proven is that our economies (Mexico, USA, Canada) are very much interdependent. B - F - D.   

Take a look at the news sites about the handling of the NEXUS cards.  However, read up the perspective of the Mexican or Canadian news outlets... it covers a portion of what the dwagon is going on about...

[Vince]

Today's update on the glowing Tek 575 curve tracer 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tektronix-type-575-curve-tracer-repair-and-restoration/msg3687073/#msg3687073

[mansaxel]

You could try sending an offer on this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284160789600

It's a really nice kit, Fluke 27II, 2 HV probes and 1 RF Probe.

While I paid entirely too much for shipping, the purchase price wasn't even close to that. Which probably is fair, because this one has a Cat rating, and I suspect there's some rule saying that A Big Organisation must use only IEC 61010-1 rated gear. 

[bd139]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.

They haven’t seen electricity hurt anyone yet.

Only thing to be scared of is stupid people.

[mansaxel]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine.

We've never had more than a weak start at an official program of getting nukes. USA intervened and sold us civvy uranium if we promised to not make bombs. There was still rather extensive "research on the effects of nuclear weapons" which has been found to be quite indistinguishable from a theoretical weapons programme. This did end -- according to my sources -- in the early 70s and was reformed to one of the better nuclear testing monitoring setups. Chernobyl was first publicly detected in the west as a "local anomaly" outside one of our civvy reactors.

I'm more concerned with the firearms, indeed. People with guns are much more efficient at killing people, regardless of motive. To paraphrasefuck with the NRA distortion of reality slogan.

As it happens, we've got the same law governing security at my present work, even if it is a civilian company. But we're important, they say, so we get to pay for armed guards and stuff.

[tautech]

mansaxel
I was under the impression citizens of your country still had to do compulsory CMT and were issued with their own weapon for life. Is that not the case ?

[Robert763]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.

Many years ago in the early days of ebay I bought some TE from a fairly local (Dorset) seller so went to pick it up/ They were at Winfrith and only when I got there did I realise they were inside the outer cordon of the nuclear site. Unfortunatly I had an old aircraft instrument in the car and I could see the radiation detectors on on the exit lane of the security gate.  THat would have been some explaining to do as the instrument was Radium luminised and pretty "hot".
I parked in the far corner of the car park and called the seller saying I'd forgotton my ID and could they bring the item out to me.....

Another time an alert Avis counter agent in the USA noticed that the photos on my passport and driving licence were identical dispite being dated 2 years apart. He thought they were fake. Fortunaly Gurgle to the rescue and they found the UK GOV website saying that you could use your electronically stored passport photo for your driving licence renewal.

[mansaxel]

mansaxel
I was under the impression citizens of your country still had to do compulsory CMT and were issued with their own weapon for life. Is that not the case ?

Typical Sweden / Switzerland confusion. No. We implemented the draft back around 1900. Kept it all through the cold war, tapering off the amount of men called up from say 1993 and on, turned the draft off in 2010 and went for recruited employment only. This did not work. Since 2018ish, the draft is back, for all 18yo, boys and girls. Only a fraction of each class get drafted, and they're scrutinized for motivation pretty thoroughly.

We used to have weapons at home for some territorial units, but that's not so anymore. The Model 1896 Mausers are all returned to stores, struck from the registers and quite a lot of them ended up overseas.

La Suisse, OTOH, they used to have that gun-in-closet. I don't think they still do, but am uncertain.

[McBryce]

Can't stand waiting for page 4066 ...

I'm deliberately quoting you. Otherwise you'll have missed the page!

McBryce.

Edit: Plus some of my own thru-hole 4066:

[vk6zgo]

So we didn't have to run back & forth from the control room, one of the "clever chaps" made up a box with two large key switches, which could be plugged into one of the GPOs conveniently mounted on pillars throughout the building.

I want to know how you got the whole of the General Post Office onto a pillar. I mean, that's going to be 10s of 1000s of people!

Or put differently - GPO is not a universal abbreviation and I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Abbreviations for bits of electrical kit do not, in general, travel well. e,g, UK abbreviations RCD, RCBO, ELCB.

But everybody else worked it out!

OK, for not you, who is indulging in some gentle "piss taking", but for anyone who is genuinely confused, it is a "General Purpose Outlet".

It is not as confusing as "plug tops", the very common term "jack plugs", or many others.
For instance, whenever I hear "AVR" I think of large motorised power transformers, & USB translates to "Upper Side Band!"

An interesting sidelight on "GPO" & Post offices:

In Oz, back in the day, the organisation was the "Postmaster General's Dept " & a "GPO" was the main Post Office in  each State capital, which was generally, a very imposing building.
"Australia Post" still use the term "GPO" for their headquarters in each State, but it is pretty much a "virtual" thing, the buildings themselves having been sold off to the ever salivating "Private Sector!"

[vk6zgo]

Cerebus -

I remember you talking aboot looking for some sort of tray to use for populating PCBs; something with a lip to keep flyaways captive. Yesterday I picked this up from the Thrift; it looks like just the kind of thing you were asking for. I'm guessing it is some sort of silicone baking sheet for ummm... I dunno what...?

Dimensions are 150mm x 150mm inside; lip is 10mm high to the inside surface. Bottom measures 2mm thick so marginally safe to solder right on it; or you could just put your PCB on a MetCal potholder or somesuch for a little extra safety.

No idea what they'd call it on your side of the pond; hopefully not too frightfully expensive.

mnem
*solder-ily*

That looks like the silicone version of a swiss roll tray (which has a fancier nom gastronomique that I can't remember offhand). Might be a winner.

i was trying work out what the strange, other-worldly creature sprawled on it was, before I realised it was a reflection!