I just got back from a business trip to New Jersey & London so I finally had the chance to unbox the RF power meter and sensor I bought from that enormous Equipnet auction so weeks ago.
When I opened the wrapping on the E4419B I was a bit bummed out. I've been after one of these for some time but the prices they go for have been pretty damn high so I've always missed out. While it seems like I've been collecting RF power meters (I have a 435, 438 and a E4418), I really wanted to get the E4419B because it was a code compatible replacement for the 438A (runs the same GPIB instruction set) but it will read the calibration factors directly from the EEPROM on the power sensor.
Anyway, I opened the bubble wrap and saw this:
Bugger. Bad Ch B, bad main board, bad power board - I just bought either a parts mule or one seriously dead device.
These units share a lot of parts with the E4418 so at least I was hopeful that maybe I could coble together a working unit so I thought I'd open it up to check it out. Inside it looked like nothing was swapped out so parts mule was ruled out, I didn't see anything blown up so I plugged it in and, lo and behold, it passed all the self tests. I gave it a quick once through and it seems to work fine.
So I guess they just wanted to write it off and get something better.
You can see the meter in this video:
https://youtu.be/WulPCvJC7DwTonyG
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
