Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Free entertainment!  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/the-non-linear-plasma-reactor/

 

I didn't even need to read it. The posting style says crazy. I am watching Simon avidly 

I left a constructive suggestion for improving his reactor.   

[bd139]

Free entertainment!  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/the-non-linear-plasma-reactor/

 

I didn't even need to read it. The posting style says crazy. I am watching Simon avidly 

I left a constructive suggestion for improving his reactor.   

Can't go wrong with more Orgons! 

[mnementh]

Dang, the Queen is appearing on all the TV news channels today. Can't watch all the other problems in the world because of her party thing ... maybe I should be grateful! 

Oh yes forgot why I had a day off today. That’s about as far as I give a shit about the Queen. Not that I had a day off. Been sitting here on standby in case something goes terribly wrong for someone. No carnage yet.

This is when they bury all the bodies other shit quietly. Beware.

FTFY.

mnem
A friend helps you move. A true friend helps you move the body.

[m k]

Just realized I still have the old inverter thing, it includes a repacking project.

In case of failure it would be nice to be able to replace only 1/6.

BTW,
bragging rights for knowing what's accidentally hiding in the shadows of upper left corner.

[mnementh]

Disquieting Vicious rotor winds in the mountains?

An aircraft I'd been in had the main wing strut bend in flight. The passengers quickly exited, and the pilot managed to land safely.

I hope not in this order, though!

Yes, in that order. They weren't foolish enough to hang around.

Passengers or parachutists ? Somone who takes off in an aircraft not intending to be in it when i lands is not a passenger.

People on an aircraft are either passengers or aircrew. Aircrew operate the aircraft in flight. The parachutists took no part in operating the aircraft, apart from (possibly) opening the door.

Not  quite right even for public transport, there are also cabin crew. For aerial work (parachuting is aerial work) there are also mission personnel and parachutists.
Also when I fly for flight testing I am neither flight crew or passenger.

Which means, I suspect, that the pilot(s) probably call you luggage, baggage, or freight, depending on how many straps it takes to secure you. 

"Self-loading freight", perhaps.

Those would be the ones who come wearing the straps already...   

mnem
...and seem to really like riding crops for some reason. 

[bd139]

Dang, the Queen is appearing on all the TV news channels today. Can't watch all the other problems in the world because of her party thing ... maybe I should be grateful! 

Oh yes forgot why I had a day off today. That’s about as far as I give a shit about the Queen. Not that I had a day off. Been sitting here on standby in case something goes terribly wrong for someone. No carnage yet.

This is when they bury all the bodies other shit quietly. Beware.

FTFY.

mnem
A friend helps you move. A true friend helps you move the body.

There are no bodies in IT fortunately. When they leave the office things may change... 

[bd139]

Disquieting Vicious rotor winds in the mountains?

An aircraft I'd been in had the main wing strut bend in flight. The passengers quickly exited, and the pilot managed to land safely.

I hope not in this order, though!

Yes, in that order. They weren't foolish enough to hang around.

Passengers or parachutists ? Somone who takes off in an aircraft not intending to be in it when i lands is not a passenger.

People on an aircraft are either passengers or aircrew. Aircrew operate the aircraft in flight. The parachutists took no part in operating the aircraft, apart from (possibly) opening the door.

Not  quite right even for public transport, there are also cabin crew. For aerial work (parachuting is aerial work) there are also mission personnel and parachutists.
Also when I fly for flight testing I am neither flight crew or passenger.

Which means, I suspect, that the pilot(s) probably call you luggage, baggage, or freight, depending on how many straps it takes to secure you. 

"Self-loading freight", perhaps.

A friend of mine, a commercial pilot, refers to them as lice because they infest his plane 

[Cerebus]

Dang, the Queen is appearing on all the TV news channels today. Can't watch all the other problems in the world because of her party thing ... maybe I should be grateful! 

Oh yes forgot why I had a day off today. That’s about as far as I give a shit about the Queen. Not that I had a day off. Been sitting here on standby in case something goes terribly wrong for someone. No carnage yet

This is when they bury all the other shit quietly. Beware.

A cynic would check every ministries' and agencies' press release feeds for everything that was released at 5:30 pm on Wednesday.

I've been spending the day painting 'garden' things. By hand. One third done and I've had enough, it's time to break out the gun:

[BU508A]

Free entertainment!  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/the-non-linear-plasma-reactor/

 

I didn't even need to read it. The posting style says crazy. I am watching Simon avidly 

I left a constructive suggestion for improving his reactor.   

Can't go wrong with more Orgons! 

You are simply far too modest for this world. 

[tautech]

Disquieting Vicious rotor winds in the mountains?

An aircraft I'd been in had the main wing strut bend in flight. The passengers quickly exited, and the pilot managed to land safely.

I hope not in this order, though!

Yes, in that order. They weren't foolish enough to hang around.

Passengers or parachutists ? Somone who takes off in an aircraft not intending to be in it when i lands is not a passenger.

People on an aircraft are either passengers or aircrew. Aircrew operate the aircraft in flight. The parachutists took no part in operating the aircraft, apart from (possibly) opening the door.

Not  quite right even for public transport, there are also cabin crew. For aerial work (parachuting is aerial work) there are also mission personnel and parachutists.
Also when I fly for flight testing I am neither flight crew or passenger.

Which means, I suspect, that the pilot(s) probably call you luggage, baggage, or freight, depending on how many straps it takes to secure you. 

"Self-loading freight", perhaps.

Those would be the ones who come wearing the straps already...   

mnem
...and seem to really like riding crops for some reason. 

Here, all those ground based call them meat bombs. 

[Specmaster]

If you're looking for that specific image, string DA8703 shirt returns a lot of hits, at least over on this side of the pond.

Thanks. This one for example?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154604074331

Apart from the fact that the product is located in China and has the following caveat:-

Estimated between Wed, Jan 29 and Thu, Feb 20
This item has an extended handling time and a delivery estimate greater than 2705 business days.
Please allow additional time if international delivery is subject to customs processing.

So after allowing for weekends etc, that equates to something like 10.5 years before it is estimated that you will receive it...

So all is good then 

Look again. May also be in Moscow...

So... delivery some unspecified time after UPS resumes service to Russia, then... 




EDIT: Oh, this just gets better and better... 


mnem
Or are they saying Moscow, China...? Is there a city/town/dorp named Moscow in China...?

It gets better still, I just did a Google Earth search for Moscow, China and it took me to a suburb in Moscow, Russia, very strange. Is the Kremlin trying to finance their war effort   

[mansaxel]

Dang, the Queen is appearing on all the TV news channels today. Can't watch all the other problems in the world because of her party thing ... maybe I should be grateful! 

Oh yes forgot why I had a day off today. That’s about as far as I give a shit about the Queen. Not that I had a day off. Been sitting here on standby in case something goes terribly wrong for someone. No carnage yet

This is when they bury all the other shit quietly. Beware.

HMS Defender is here in our capital harbour. They'd asked permission for extra salute gunnery due to the jubilee. There's also a buncha other grey ships here, including USS Kearsarge.  I'm considering taking a look at them tomorrow morning; not certain I'll manage.

[tggzzz]

Disquieting Vicious rotor winds in the mountains?

An aircraft I'd been in had the main wing strut bend in flight. The passengers quickly exited, and the pilot managed to land safely.

I hope not in this order, though!

Yes, in that order. They weren't foolish enough to hang around.

Passengers or parachutists ? Somone who takes off in an aircraft not intending to be in it when i lands is not a passenger.

People on an aircraft are either passengers or aircrew. Aircrew operate the aircraft in flight. The parachutists took no part in operating the aircraft, apart from (possibly) opening the door.

Not  quite right even for public transport, there are also cabin crew. For aerial work (parachuting is aerial work) there are also mission personnel and parachutists.
Also when I fly for flight testing I am neither flight crew or passenger.

Which means, I suspect, that the pilot(s) probably call you luggage, baggage, or freight, depending on how many straps it takes to secure you. 

"Self-loading freight", perhaps.

Those would be the ones who come wearing the straps already...   

mnem
...and seem to really like riding crops for some reason. 

Those straps being the ones holding the 'chute pack to the torso.

[tautech]

BU508A
We mucked around some setting up instrument displays as eye candy bait to pull punters in and mostly it worked very well. 

Some RTSA appetizers from phone shots.
~900 MHz amplitude and frequency sweeps from SSG3021X into hendorog's SSA3075X-R in RTSA mode in Density display...lasted ~2s

Some 3d spectrogram ones tomorrow. 

Following on from those.... an early EMEX post before they graciously doubled the size of our space this pic showed the RTSA spectrogram of the local WIFI although with Density set high it drowns out most of the small bits of activity going on.


So I grabbed a few random screenshots while sniffing WiFi and only just now realized hendorog's SSA3075X-R was still set to inverted image setting for screen captures.   

[Neomys Sapiens]

IS ANYONE AWARE of a BNC-to-current clamp adaptor (preferably original TEK) being offered for sale?

[25 CPS]

Wise move.

I've been asked a couple of times recently if I'd recommend it as a hobby and quite frankly I've had to say no. While there are a couple of notable exceptions, I actively dislike the community as a whole. It's got some really bad social problems and a poor but accurate reputation. From various life experiences, I've learned the best thing to do when you come across such communities is to disassociate yourself from them.

Edit: I consider saving test gear they kept prisoner to be a socially responsible thing to do

From what I've seen locally, it's the same here.  Amateur radio has the reputation it deserves.

I'm pretty sure I've written before about how I was told that hamfests were the place to go to get "the good stuff, cheap" when I was setting up my own workshop a number of years ago and how I was taken by surprise just how filthy the people were and how little good equipment there was and how expensive it was.  Typically it was disgusting old fogies selling totally destroyed junk for high prices:

"I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does, I don't know if it works, but I do know I want top dollar for it."

That was practically the rule of thumb.  After a couple of these experiences, I found I had far better success with Kijiji and gcsurplus.ca and the local surplus shops.  The one outstanding exception:  Facebook Marketplace.  I think I've had one successful transaction on there.  The rest of it has been busts where the item's already sold and the ad hasn't been taken down or no responses at all.  Case in point, I'm trying to buy something locally and I've sent two messages and neither have been replied to.  You'd think if you're selling someone and someone eager to give you money has contacted you twice...

[xrunner]

From what I've seen locally, it's the same here.  Amateur radio has the reputation it deserves.

I'm pretty sure I've written before about how I was told that hamfests were the place to go to get "the good stuff, cheap" when I was setting up my own workshop a number of years ago and how I was taken by surprise just how filthy the people were and how little good equipment there was and how expensive it was.  Typically it was disgusting old fogies selling totally destroyed junk for high prices:

"I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does, I don't know if it works, but I do know I want top dollar for it."

That was practically the rule of thumb.  After a couple of these experiences, I found I had far better success with Kijiji and gcsurplus.ca and the local surplus shops.  The one outstanding exception:  Facebook Marketplace.  I think I've had one successful transaction on there.  The rest of it has been busts where the item's already sold and the ad hasn't been taken down or no responses at all.  Case in point, I'm trying to buy something locally and I've sent two messages and neither have been replied to.  You'd think if you're selling someone and someone eager to give you money has contacted you twice...

Example for the readers, if I may ...

Here's an example that came through my nest about a year ago. It is an NRD-515 another ham got at a hamfest. Ordinarily that would be a cool shortwave receiver. However this one was so beat-to-shit I was shocked. The cover looks like it was used in a blacksmith's training class to hammer things on. Half the knobs could barely be turned. However this guy brought it to me because it didn't sound right. Long story short, one of the IF filters was bad and some gorilla simply bypassed the filter with a wire LOL. 

So the IF path was fucked and worse, the bad JRC IF filter (some non-common spec.) wasn't to be had anywhere. So I said well you got taken if the seller said it worked OK (which he did). Keep it maybe someday you can obtain the unobtainium, then start hammering the case back in shape. 

[bd139]

Wise move.

I've been asked a couple of times recently if I'd recommend it as a hobby and quite frankly I've had to say no. While there are a couple of notable exceptions, I actively dislike the community as a whole. It's got some really bad social problems and a poor but accurate reputation. From various life experiences, I've learned the best thing to do when you come across such communities is to disassociate yourself from them.

Edit: I consider saving test gear they kept prisoner to be a socially responsible thing to do

From what I've seen locally, it's the same here.  Amateur radio has the reputation it deserves.

I'm pretty sure I've written before about how I was told that hamfests were the place to go to get "the good stuff, cheap" when I was setting up my own workshop a number of years ago and how I was taken by surprise just how filthy the people were and how little good equipment there was and how expensive it was.  Typically it was disgusting old fogies selling totally destroyed junk for high prices:

"I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does, I don't know if it works, but I do know I want top dollar for it."

That was practically the rule of thumb.  After a couple of these experiences, I found I had far better success with Kijiji and gcsurplus.ca and the local surplus shops.  The one outstanding exception:  Facebook Marketplace.  I think I've had one successful transaction on there.  The rest of it has been busts where the item's already sold and the ad hasn't been taken down or no responses at all.  Case in point, I'm trying to buy something locally and I've sent two messages and neither have been replied to.  You'd think if you're selling someone and someone eager to give you money has contacted you twice...

It's no better here. Most of the stuff at hamfests is garbage. I tend to mostly snag low risk stuff like ARRL books these days because they are always dirt cheap, difficult for even the most penis fingered ham to fuck up and have a very inflated resale value on eBay. I have on at least three occasions picked up multiple copies of the same titles. At best I'll buy some test gear expecting only to end up retaining the knobs or the feet for resale. Got lucky a few times and got some enjoyment out of the whole thing. But quite honestly I think I enjoy the drive and the occasional natter with TEA folk more than the actual hamfest.

As far as equipment goes, I think that the prices on the reasonable Chinese stuff (nod to tautech and Siglent) these days makes the value proposition of a lot of the second hand crap somewhat dubious unless it's <10 of your local currency. Even for hobby use. It's nice to be able to turn on a scope without having to fix it first

The recent 3465A purchase was seen as a set of feet. Only by chance and boredom did it evolve into a working multimeter 

[bd139]

From what I've seen locally, it's the same here.  Amateur radio has the reputation it deserves.

I'm pretty sure I've written before about how I was told that hamfests were the place to go to get "the good stuff, cheap" when I was setting up my own workshop a number of years ago and how I was taken by surprise just how filthy the people were and how little good equipment there was and how expensive it was.  Typically it was disgusting old fogies selling totally destroyed junk for high prices:

"I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does, I don't know if it works, but I do know I want top dollar for it."

That was practically the rule of thumb.  After a couple of these experiences, I found I had far better success with Kijiji and gcsurplus.ca and the local surplus shops.  The one outstanding exception:  Facebook Marketplace.  I think I've had one successful transaction on there.  The rest of it has been busts where the item's already sold and the ad hasn't been taken down or no responses at all.  Case in point, I'm trying to buy something locally and I've sent two messages and neither have been replied to.  You'd think if you're selling someone and someone eager to give you money has contacted you twice...

Example for the readers, if I may ...

Here's an example that came through my nest about a year ago. It is an NRD-515 another ham got at a hamfest. Ordinarily that would be a cool shortwave receiver. However this one was so beat-to-shit I was shocked. The cover looks like it was used in a blacksmith's training class to hammer things on. Half the knobs could barley be turned. However this guy brought it to me because it didn't sound right. Long story short, one of the IF filters was bad and some gorilla simply bypassed the filter with a wire LOL. 

So the IF path was fucked and worse, the bad JRC IF filter (some non-common spec.) wasn't to be had anywhere. So I said well you got taken if the seller said it worked OK (which he did). Keep it maybe someday you can obtain the unobtainium, then start hammering the case back in shape. 

That's about right. The poor dude got screwed. That's another problem with a lot of hams; dishonesty. It starts with the boast about doing DX on a bit of wet coax and goes into straight up fraud.

You can't trust anything at a hamfest to be working. I haven't got anything that just worked and some stuff was miserably fucked up. This was my favourite inside a 465...



And yes I got it working. After I'd repaired his attempt to desolder stuff with napalm.

[xrunner]

Gulp  Looks like the machine from 2005 War of the Worlds attacking the PCB inhabitants!

You can't trust anything at a hamfest to be working. I haven't got anything that just worked and some stuff was miserably fucked up. This was my favourite inside a 465...



And yes I got it working. After I'd repaired his attempt to desolder stuff with napalm.

[tautech]

EMEX debrief....
#1 Objective successfully accomplished ....waving the flag !
A good # of EE's, still practicing, retired or moved on to other professions and even advanced hobbyists had never heard of Siglent so we did our thing for the brand. 

#2 A few sales achieved and confirmed although not enough to cover the costs of EMEX and we haven't even seen hendorog's bill yet ! 

#3 Remember to always set best eye candy displays to turn heads and you can see punters thinking.....who are these people and what brand is doing this funny shit ? 

#4 Those that walk directly to a DSO and bring the Trigger level within the waveform amplitude know how to drive a scope.....mostly.... although they need be shown it's easier with a modern one just to press the Level encoder. 

#5 Always approach the mesmerized kid staring at the eye candy display....one ~12 asked what were the instruments doing and his older brother and dad kept walking. Quick explanation ..... displaying and measuring electrical waveforms like the heartbeat monitor in medical programs have them instantly understand the basic principals then with a pamphlet placed in their hand and instruction to do some Googling about oscilloscopes as pop returns with a grin and wink and they go on their way......hopefully with sights set to investigate this wonderful industry and even possibly become an EE. Never forget how impressionable we were at some time in our journey.

#6 Always take the time to welcome past and recent customers that took the trouble to come hunt us out and although NZ is a small country the way we run our operation we meet very few.

#7 A big thanks to Siglent for helping us fund our stand fees and the supply of posters......and although this event was forecast for 2020 it's taken an additional 2 years for them and us to get any ROI.

#8 Another big thanks to our newish neighbor Nev, (Brownie/Coco the cats dad) professional sign and poster wizard for our new 350mm x 2m company signage. 
https://www.onformsigns.co.nz/

#9 Last and certainly not least, hendorog, thanks mate for putting up with us, keeping us on the straight and narrow, RF and VNA assistance....yes I'm very slowly coming up to speed, and for just being good company and helping with the heavy lifting.

/EMEX

[TERRA Operative]

IS ANYONE AWARE of a BNC-to-current clamp adaptor (preferably original TEK) being offered for sale?

I have too many AM503's here if that's the sort of thing you are looking for?

[AVGresponding]

IS ANYONE AWARE of a BNC-to-current clamp adaptor (preferably original TEK) being offered for sale?

What current and frequency range?



EDIT: By strange coincidence - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-(eu)-lem-pr-50-universal-50mhz-30a-current-probe/

[Cerebus]

#6 Always take the time to welcome past and recent customers that took the trouble to come hunt us out and although NZ is a small country the way we run our operation we meet very few.

It's not a particularly small country (NZ 270 Mm², Italy 301Mm², UK 242 Mm²) in fact it must be pretty close to both the median and the mode for country size, it just has a particularly small population (NZ 5.1 million, Italy 58.9 million, UK 67 million) for its size. I suspect that it feels to you like small country just because you've a neighbour that's seriously oversized (7,692 Mm²).

One wouldn't expect a small British or Italian company to have met many of its customers unless it was in one of those peculiar industries that all squeeze into a few geographic areas (Jewellery and jewels come to mind, which in the UK all happens in one street in London and a small area in Birmingham).

[Neomys Sapiens]

IS ANYONE AWARE of a BNC-to-current clamp adaptor (preferably original TEK) being offered for sale?

I have too many AM503's here if that's the sort of thing you are looking for?

Nope. I mean the calibration adaptor. Which is seemingly just a wire loop, but should be 50R-correct.
Tek # 015-0601-50 is the 1-turn and there is another one in gray plastic, where the orientation of the active part is perpendicular to the connector. (I even think someone did show the other one here.)