USA Cal Club: Round 2

[hwj-d]

vindoline, I guess I need a shipping address

Me too, to ship it back 

[vindoline]

Well, let's see where we are. In August of 2018, nikonoid had the ref. Then, Svgeesus got his turn in November. Next, would've been dr.diesel, but he requested to take his turn in or after Spring 2019. Then Vacuuminded got it in December when hwj-d missed CM's message. So, hwj-d would be next.

The remainder of the list for this round, after hwj-d, is as follows:

flittle
bitseeker
orin
GEOelectronics
rhb
RandallMcRee
ArthurDent
edavid
CalMachine
Conrad Hoffman
VintageNut
vindoline
technogeeky
TWMIV
Muxr
SirAlucard
MaxFrister
CatalinaWOW

Since it's almost Spring, dr.diesel will need to get re-inserted sometime soon-ish.

I'm assuming that this list is correct? If anyone is missing, please send me a message

[bitseeker]

dr.diesel, if he's still interested, needs to be inserted back into the list since he postponed his turn. He's welcome to go before me, if desired.

[branadic]

Just my two cent, wouldn't it make sense to circle the reference inside one country before it moves to another? That could keep shipping cost lower and the risk of getting lost or damaged smaller.

-branadic-

[vindoline]

dr.diesel, if he's still interested, needs to be inserted back into the list since he postponed his turn. He's welcome to go before me, if desired.

I agree. I'll reach out to him before we re-boot.

[vindoline]

Just my two cent, wouldn't it make sense to circle the reference inside one country before it moves to another? That could keep shipping cost lower and the risk of getting lost or damaged smaller.

-branadic-

Huh? I don't have an address list from CM yet. I thought everyone was in the US for this club. If not, that's a great point.

[bitseeker]

Well, hwj-d has Germany's flag on his profile. I suppose the -d might indicate he's in Deutschland. Possible?

I second branadic's suggestion if we're actually going global. If that does happen, I guess it means the "USA" in "USA Cal Club" will then indicate the home base of the references.

[hwj-d]

And I thought you'd already noticed that on my bad english... 
Yes, i'm german, living in the near from Schalke-Stadion (soccer, everybody should know  ), and befor I become an IT-Consultant, I'm working as a coal-miner here in the 'Ruhrgebiet'. Not a joke, but long ago. 
I'm also for sending it back here in D first. It would also be much faster, more practical and, last but not least, cheaper overall, than sending it to the USA in a star shape there and back. But, of course, I'm also happy to follow the order originally agreed.

[hwj-d]

Btw, what actually speaks against an EU-CalClub?
That orange box in my first picture is full of VHP's ready for 4wire. Because these are overall relatively flat built mini binding-posts, I'm sure, there's a ref board with pomonas and extra voltage control, that fits in if I'm not fooled. A matching 4wire teflon cable (standard beryllium hollow-bananas > beryllium mini plugs) is already there. Wouldn't that be an ideal starting point for an EU-CalClub?

[bitseeker]

I haven't heard anyone being against an EU Cal Club. Maybe it just needs a few people to say "Yes!" and then get started. The Aussie Cal Club was in hibernation, last I heard.

[vindoline]

Well, hwj-d has Germany's flag on his profile. I suppose the -d might indicate he's in Deutschland. Possible?

I second branadic's suggestion if we're actually going global. If that does happen, I guess it means the "USA" in "USA Cal Club" will then indicate the home base of the references.

Ha! I'm so unobservant sometimes! Herzliche Willkommen! I have no problem with a global USA club, I just failed to realize that it had already happened. I have not yet gotten a club membership list from CellularMitosis, so I don't actually know where anyone is. Are there other people on the rotation list in Germany or Europe? That would change things from a practical sense.

[vindoline]

And I thought you'd already noticed that on my bad english... 

I'm always humbled by how well people from all over the world communicate in English, and I'm alway embarrassed by my poor mastery of other languages. After 50 years I can still barely spell in English without a spell-check.

I'm working as a coal-miner here in the 'Ruhrgebiet'. Not a joke, but long ago. 

I was a plumber, but then I gave that up to get a PdD in Organic Chemistry. I'm still not sure I made the right choice...

[bitseeker]

There's a joke,

Someone who speaks three languages is trilingual.

Someone who speaks two languages is bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks only one language?



American


Geography does play a role, though. If, instead of us having neighboring states speaking the same language, they were neighboring countries with different languages, things might have turned out differently with respect to multi-lingual skills here.

[hwj-d]

The ref is cooking now all the time 24/7 since it came to me. The ref seems very stable at 7.045632V with a very little tendence to go down a bit in the >0.1 ppm range. But honestly, this is already beyond my possibility to measure this with my equipment. Probably I already measure the inaccuracy of my dmm6500 rather than that of the reference. The ambient temperature hardly changes, at most in the range of 21.7°C to max 22.0°C (49% RH) over the entire period, so that I can hardly notice any influence on the measurement.
So I will send the ref back to vindoline next week.

I would like to thank everyone involved,
it was fun.   

[JBeale]

I am interested to participate in some sort of "Cal Club" although with only a Keithley 196 (6.5 digit DMM, 10 years out of cal) and one Geller Labs SVR-T reference (AD587LQ) available to me here, I would only find out how far my references are out and not contribute any meaningful measurement of the LTZ.  That said... how can I apply to join the club?   (Edit: I am in the USA, near Portland OR)

[vindoline]

JBeale, Welcome! You're now in the club 
We are currently going through a bit of a re-boot or reorg. CellularMitosis did an amazing job of getting the club off the ground and running it for a few years. I'm going to be taking over the logistical aspects soon. I'm still waiting for the references to find their way to upstate NY. At that point I think we'll see some movement!
At this point there are quite a few Cal Club members, so I'm afraid it will still be a bit of a wait for your turn.
By the way, the K196 was my first "good" meter! I still really like it.

[bitseeker]

Welcome, JBeale. I also have a 196 in the stable. It's hard to beat the BIG display.

[JBeale]

Thank you very much and it is good to know the club is still running. I understand it will be some time for my turn. In the meantime I discovered https://www.ebay.com/itm/LM399H-10V-Precision-voltage-Reference-Calibrated-LM399/254200638725 as well as http://www.voltagestandard.com/ which are not too pricey so I will try those while I'm waiting. 

I'm embarrassed to admit I recently got a $10 AD584 board from Amazon, but it was what you might expect at the price. The annoying thing is it included what seemed to be a calibration sheet (mostly in Chinese) mentioning "Agilent 34401A" and listing some numbers out to 5 decimals but the 10V number printed (10.00066 V) was about 4.5 mV above what I measured! I don't imagine my Keithley is so bad as that, especially when my Geller SVR-T says it's a whole lot closer.

[bitseeker]

Some of those "calibration" sheets are just duplicated in bulk. Some have actual measurements made and hand written, though. It's a tossup. Does yours look like real ink on paper?

[Grandchuck]

I think you will pleased with the one from voltagestandard.com.  Mine has proven to be accurate and stable ... performance much better than its specifications.  My lab is air conditioned, and that helps a lot.

On another note, is an updated list of usa cal club members forthcoming?  It would be nice to know where I am on the list.

[JBeale]

Indeed the voltagestandard ref looks good. It arrived today 4/20 and the documentation states it was calibrated just yesterday 4/19 to an in-cal Keysight 3458A.
I see it was burned in 1038 hours, has an added temperature compensation circuit and it has a measured tempco (+0.7 ppm/C).  I consider this thing is an impressive bargain, at the price.

The only sanity check I can do myself so far is compare with my many-year-old Geller 10V ref which is now 50 uV (5 ppm) below this one, with the room at 19 C. 

[hwj-d]

Just a little information update. The ref is on the way to vindoline. I changed the lid a little, to make the ref somewhat more useful. The ref itself doesn´t change by this. More after it reached vindoline (hopefully).
greets 

[bitseeker]

Thanks for the update. Curious to see your refinement to the ref.

[hwj-d]

Ok, now it's time to lift the veil, what I did with the lid.

Now there are two precise resistors 1k and 10k under it, with the ability to take a real 4-wire measurement, but without changing the dimensions of the tekko housing. I put little but precise 4-wire measurement cabels in the package, hoping that was a good and usefull idea. Some pictures:

(edit translation)

[nnills]

I haven't heard anyone being against an EU Cal Club. Maybe it just needs a few people to say "Yes!" and then get started. The Aussie Cal Club was in hibernation, last I heard.

As you requested: Yes!
But all jokes aside, has there already been a EUCalClub? My 34401A is certainly in for a calibration. And I would be willing to help if so requested. In any case I hope there are enough interested people to start a european cal club!