What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[VK5RC]

@MarcM open the 5371A for some real electro RF porn, they don't make them like that any more, I  had to replace the battery on mine, a relatively easy job, could get the battery from RS Components.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/retro-hp-electro-porn/

[suicidaleggroll]

Special thanks to Ed Palmer for afflicting me with this nonsensical pursuit of determining when it's time to feed the cat aka Timenut  . You Voltnuts stay the hell away from me  .

You know what they say...a man with one watch always knows what time it is, a man with two watches can never be sure.

[AF6LJ]

Special thanks to Ed Palmer for afflicting me with this nonsensical pursuit of determining when it's time to feed the cat aka Timenut  . You Voltnuts stay the hell away from me  .

You know what they say...a man with one watch always knows what time it is, a man with two watches can never be sure.

That also holds true for voltmeters, frequency counters and wattmeters.

[vk6zgo]

I went to the Hamfest today-----lots of strange test gear .

I got an audio oscillator,a General Coverage Radio receiver,& an Antenna tuning Unit (more details on "Whatever happened to Ham Radio")

There was a good HP,'scope,a couple of Tek 465's (one had a faulty power supply--the other had a good power supply but unknown condition otherwise),a nice Iwatsu with a faulty power supply,& a couple of 10MHz "cheapies".
All were sold on the day,except the "cheapies".

I also saw a Tektronix "Signal Scout" in unknown condition,lots of old Signal Generators & other test stuff.
Keysight were there,demonstrating a nice MSO & Desk DMM.

[daqq]

My new precious LeCroy waveJet 314 as a replacement for the old Rigol DS5022M - a completely different league. The box under it is temporary 

[xrunner]

Vintage Kenwood R-1000 communications receiver. Very diry but works. Will need a lot of cleaning. And - all bulbs are long gone.

[AF6LJ]

Nice and those are good receivers provided someone with a golden screwdriver has not been inside.

[xrunner]

Nice and those are good receivers provided someone with a golden screwdriver has not been inside.

That's OK - I have the service manual PDF, and will be going through the entire alignment. 

[dr.diesel]

Scored a nice Heath 2718 for $20 bucks.  These are nice linear supplies and work well if you don't need CC, plus ridiculously easy to mod with 10/5/3 turn pots for fine control.

As an added bonus, no fan   

[AF6LJ]

Nice and those are good receivers provided someone with a golden screwdriver has not been inside.

That's OK - I have the service manual PDF, and will be going through the entire alignment. 

Good deal; I saw the picture over on the other thread..
Have fun, having a good general coverage receiver is both fun and quite useful as a piece of gear for sniffing out RF..
Esecpially one that has an accurate frequency readout.

[dr.diesel]

Another one resurrected.  After watching Shahriar's video while browsing busted stuff on eBay I happened across this Stanfoard Research PS350 dirt cheap.  Unit was not functional and had been modified, plus missing parts.  $10 later from Digikey (a few regulators and a FET), splicing back together about a dozen cut traces it lives again!

[GreyWoolfe]

Scored a NOS MX RM3E wand for $72 USD including shipping.  Also picked up a 1.78 mm chisel tip.  Both are coming next week and I will have a fully working Metcal MX-500P II including the Talon tweezers.  It's sitting right next to my new Hakko FX-951.  Next purchase will be a Thermaltronics SHH-1 cradle for the RM3E unless anyone has a WS-1 they are looking to get rid of really cheap.

[nanofrog]

Next purchase will be a Thermaltronics SHH-1 cradle for the RM3E unless anyone has a WS-1 they are looking to get rid of really cheap.

FWIW, the WS-4 stand works with that iron as well. 

[GreyWoolfe]

Next purchase will be a Thermaltronics SHH-1 cradle for the RM3E unless anyone has a WS-1 they are looking to get rid of really cheap.

FWIW, the WS-4 stand works with that iron as well. 

Something else to check out now.  Oh, the choices 

[nanofrog]

Next purchase will be a Thermaltronics SHH-1 cradle for the RM3E unless anyone has a WS-1 they are looking to get rid of really cheap.

FWIW, the WS-4 stand works with that iron as well. 

Something else to check out now.  Oh, the choices 

Figured it being older, you might luck up and find one cheaper than the other alternatives. 

Also, PM sent.

[Mechanical Menace]

I'm guessing the brand isn't too great but for £2 I wasn't going to pass them up.

[NiHaoMike]

Trendnet TEW-811DRU AC1200 router. Was just under $30 on sale and my Asus RT-N12 was getting a little outdated.

[_Andrew_]

New Megger UK 13A earth loop test lead for my Fluke multi function installation tester. 

The genuine Fluke test cable supplied with the meter for this are rubbish as there is no cord grip where the cable enters the 4mm banana plug so the wires shear off from the pins with day to day use. This time it was the N phase that broke away and was left sailing around in the breeze with exposed wire at the end. Conveniently much like toast landing butter side down the cables breaking off tends to happen when the test lead is connected to the mains. There not cheap cables and there is no way to easily check them for damage at the connectors. The only way is to check the conductivity of the cable when it is new then periodically check it against this result in the hope of noticing rising continuity as the wire strands starting to break in the connectors.   

So this time I found the Megger equivalent test lead "RS part number 255-623" which I have to say I already prefer. There appears to be a more secure fixing on the banana plugs and although on their web site it showed strait 4mm connectors it was supplied with right angle 4mm connectors which in use I find to be less cumbersome as they don't stick out so far getting caught on things. At £36 + 20% sales tax there still a relatively costly cable but cheeped than the last Fluke cable which was over £50.

[edpalmer42]

HP 5371A Frequency and Time Interval Analyzer w/ two 54003A from Fleabay for $200.00 + $49.74 Shipping.  I've got some FE5680 Rb Standards, a NTBW50AA GPSTM, and (recently thanks to the forum), a Lucent RFTG-u REF0, REF1 package. When I started, it was easy - the Rb was correct  . But then I got a second Rb and suddenly I no longer knew what time it was  . So I picked up the NTBW50 to resolve the issue....  well that just made things worse .  Probably what I need is another GPSDO to finally clear all this up  . When the recent thread on precision timing references popped up I scored the Lucent RTFG setup for $100 (Shortly after they jumped up to $200 then a little while later they dropped it to $150.00. Glad I scored it @ $100). I finally concluded that the more precision clocks I have the less certain I am about what the correct time is.  So, now I'm hoping that purchasing the 5371a will provide the ability to finally resolve my personal dilemma of what time is it .

Special thanks to Ed Palmer for afflicting me with this nonsensical pursuit of determining when it's time to feed the cat aka Timenut  . You Voltnuts stay the hell away from me  .

Hi Marc,

I haven't been ignoring you. I haven't been following this thread so it's just plain luck that I saw your message.

You're more than welcome regarding the Time-Nuts infection.  Happy to oblige!   

You really think that the 5371A will satisfy your growing lust for ever more precise measurement of time & frequency?  How quaint.  I remember back when my 5372A was the most sophisticated piece of equipment I had.  I couldn't believe that I would ever need (or be able to afford!) anything better.  Now I rarely turn the thing on.  After all, it has a resolution of only 150 ps!  Hardly worth mentioning.

I'm kidding, but only partially.  Time-Nuts is something of an addiction.  You're always pushing for a better source or better measurement capability.  It's fascinating to realize that you can make measurements at the parts-per-trillion range in your basement, attic, or garage.  Right now I'm doing a data run on a 10 MHz precision oscillator.  It looks like it's daily aging rate will be around 4e-11 per day, i.e. 0.0004 Hz per day.

Regarding your 5371A, you might consider picking up one or two 54002A modules.  They're 50 ohm which makes it an easy connection to most test equipment and oscillators.  Just be patient and don't pay a lot of money for them.  The only thing inside them is one little 5% resistor.  Also, notice that the 54003A modules have an input capacitance of only 10 pf.  Many scope probes can't compensate a value that low.  Finally, open up all your pods and check the soldering between the external contacts and the circuit board.  They tend to fail with age.

Ed

P.S.  I see that you chose an appropriate avatar!

[Landrew2390]

I picked up a working Pentium MMX machine with genuine Windows 3.1 on it last week.  All it cost me was some minor repairs to the gentleman's laptop.

Now I just need to find something to do with it . . .

[AF6LJ]

I picked up a working Pentium MMX machine with genuine Windows 3.1 on it last week.  All it cost me was some minor repairs to the gentleman's laptop.

Now I just need to find something to do with it . . .

How about this..
www.smoothwall.org

[eas]

A tiny palm-sized Quad-copter for $15.

One of the leads for one of the motors was frayed by a screw during manufacture. Once I fixed it, the thing is amazing. The cats aren't sure what to make of it yet.

[BFX]

Litle signal generator 
Anritsu MG3681A for a $1400 excellent condition 

[Landrew2390]

I picked up a working Pentium MMX machine with genuine Windows 3.1 on it last week.  All it cost me was some minor repairs to the gentleman's laptop.

Now I just need to find something to do with it . . .

How about this..
www.smoothwall.org

That's a great idea.  I'm not sure it would be worth it though.  The PC only has a 10baseT networking card installed and I don't really want to sink any money into this unit.  I'm probably going to end up parting it out and giving the rest to the local technical college.  Amazingly, it still has the original ATX power supply inside and it's still in regulation.

[AF6LJ]

I picked up a working Pentium MMX machine with genuine Windows 3.1 on it last week.  All it cost me was some minor repairs to the gentleman's laptop.

Now I just need to find something to do with it . . .

How about this..
www.smoothwall.org

That's a great idea.  I'm not sure it would be worth it though.  The PC only has a 10baseT networking card installed and I don't really want to sink any money into this unit.  I'm probably going to end up parting it out and giving the rest to the local technical college.  Amazingly, it still has the original ATX power supply inside and it's still in regulation.

I have a castoff from one of my clients doing firewall service. This is great software, the user interface is simple enough that a minimum of technical knowledge is required.