My Microwave Lab is Taking Shape!

[0culus]

I picked up my new baby just before Christmas! Can’t wait to get this home to the lab. I was able to set it up temporarily while I’m out of town though.  Not shown: 8515A test set and 8340B synthesized sweeper.

[xmo]

Looks like Santa was good to you.

[0culus]

Looks like Santa was good to you.

Indeed, even if Santa in this case was me and my own wallet! 

[antenna]

OK, time to turn in that 90 day TEA chip..... Start over

[TheSteve]

Such a nice toy.

Now on to cables, connectors, adapters, torque wrenches, calibration kits, frequency doublers, DC blocks, attenuators and more!

[0culus]

Such a nice toy.

Now on to cables, connectors, adapters, torque wrenches, calibration kits, frequency doublers, DC blocks, attenuators and more!

Microwave is very much a pay to play game.   

[jjoonathan]

Suhner clicky wrench! Pavlovian condition yourself to torque everything correctly

[0culus]

Suhner clicky wrench! Pavlovian condition yourself to torque everything correctly

Ah man, I want one of those but the prices are steep. 

[jjoonathan]

Yeah. Sometimes they drop in batches on ebay. It's definitely worth setting an alert, but they'll never be cheap.

Actually, come to think of it, it looks like the N size Suhner wrenches are not too bad. I bet an enterprising individual could make an adapter. Material strength is the big problem with resin printing wrenches, but if it's hugged by N size jaws on all sides I bet that problem goes away. Hmm.

[0culus]

Yeah. Sometimes they drop in batches on ebay. It's definitely worth setting an alert, but they'll never be cheap.

Actually, come to think of it, it looks like the N size Suhner wrenches are not too bad. I bet an enterprising individual could make an adapter. Material strength is the big problem with resin printing wrenches, but if it's hugged by N size jaws on all sides I bet that problem goes away. Hmm.

I need to get better test port cables before I upgrade torque wrenches though. My Maury Microwave 5/16" wrench is good enough for right now.

[jjoonathan]

Yep, a tool in hand is worth two in the bush.

[Paul B]

now is the time to go through your connectors and trash the ones that are not good quality

these are normally highly chromed or gold chrome  instead of gold plated 
also be weary of cheap connectors as the pin can be offset or even covered with insulation
these will destroy your connectors on the front of the HP test equipment and these are not cheap to replace
Paul