I'll take objection on this one. Fluke distributor visited the school where I was getting my first degree; that was part of the demonstration. Their professional sparky series of meters are designed to withstand a fall from the top of at least a 12-foot ladder.
Cheers,
mnem
![DMM :-DMM](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiliey_dmm.gif)
Yep, good luck doing that with an AVO, but then only a blithering idiot would dream taking an AVO up a ladder.
Then what the fuck good are they?
mnem
a portable meter that doesn't port...? ![Bullshit Detector :bullshit:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/BullshitDetector.gif)
I guess I must be a "blithering idiot", along with thousands of others, then .
Back in the day, there were no "steenkin' DMMs", so if a meter had to be used at height, you used whatever you had-----AVO, Simpson, University Graham, Metrix, or whatever, all of which were big & heavy.
Skill & care allowed people to do this---we weren't "cowboys", just had to work with what we had.
One big advantage to AVOs was the rugged leather handle on the top which allowed it to be tied off to any convenient point, like the top rung of the ladder.
Remember, those were the days when the "portability" of 7000 series Tektronix Oscilloscopes was lauded in their sales material.
The first type of portable DMM to receive approval by my then employer was the Beckman 310.
These rugged meters gave good service, the Fluke bench DMMs (too long ago to remember the model numbers), not so much.
One model of Fluke used to "play up" regularly, but was easily fixable, the next model was a total turd, ----the common saying was "it's a 'fluke' if it works!"
They never went for the early portable Flukes with the side buttons, which was probably a good idea--a later employer had one at the transmitter site with several buttons missing.
I bet it was the much more rugged later design which the Fluke guy chucked across the room!