Informal survey: do you use 1960s test equipment

[med6753]

Oh I forgot, I do have a Heathkit IP-32, that's probably 60s, possibly even 50s, I don't actually know when it was produced.

It's not that early. Late 60's into the 70's. You can tell by the updated "Heathkit" logo.

[thinkfat]

I have an AN/PRM-10 that I use occasionally to check resonance of antennas.

[Gregg]

I have a 60’s vintage Variac that is built like a tank and some old analog volt and amp meters with old fashioned binding posts that require moving the test lead to change the input; none of that banana plug rubbish. 
I also have an old dim light bulb test I made in the 60’s.
None of the above get much use except for one very nice analog volt meter I have connected to my alarm batteries.  I like the analog for a quick glance assurance that all is well.

[khutch004]

I will retire soon and have amassed a collection of old tube radios to restore. I also plan to get my amateur station on the HF bands again. So I have a "lab" in my basement and it uses a mixture of old and new equipment. I have a Simpson 260 and 303, a Heathkit V-7A, several tube testers, a couple of military RF signal generators, and a Tek 465 (which doesn't get used and which has a wonky channel). I also have a Siglent scope, spectrum analyzer, and function generator. My old stuff dates from the 70's, 60's and before but obviously I have an attraction to quite new gear too.

[xrunner]

No '60s. Late 80s, 90s, 2000 (and some new) ...

[james_s]

It's not that early. Late 60's into the 70's. You can tell by the updated "Heathkit" logo.

Interesting, I guess I assumed it was older due to the fact that it's tube based, although now that I think about it there are some silicon diodes in it and back in the 50s those would have been selenium or tubes. Either way it's been very handy, it was given to me by my tech-ed teacher when I was in 8th grade as it was not useful for anything being done in that class. You don't see a lot of high voltage lab power supplies these days, it's perfect for playing with tubes.

[KevinA]

Yes, up to retirement.

Not by choice. The sales office, advertising department etc got anything they asked for, but service had to make do with a piece of wet string and anything tenth hand I managed to get for peanuts.

[Ground_Loop]

I have a systron donner frequency counter from I think the 60s that I use.

Is it a nixie tube display?

Yep,  I replaced the worn out orange filter with a red one. It looks fantastic in person.


Also shown is my 555 with a bit of a hang over.

[Hexley]

There are a few mid- to late-60s items here that get used from time to time:

• HP 6203B DC Power supply (from the Harrison era)
• HP331A Audio distortion analyzer
• HP 1103A "Trigger Countdown" (converted to a tunnel diode pulse generator with some simple mods)
• Tektronix Type 134 Current probe amplifier

[bdunham7]

Holy prescaler!! Does it work?

I have a nixie-display DMM from Fairchild but assembled by Systron-Donner (I think they were pretty close to Fairchild both geographically and otherwise) and those mid-to-late 60s instruments were showcases for brand new IC designs, many of which were quickly superseded so you only see them in a few years worth of stuff.  And the original prices of that stuff would have been stupendous. 

[Ground_Loop]

Yea it works. If you're specifically asking about the prescaler, I think so. I don't have a signal source that goes high enough to adequately test it. If I feed it 3GHz (bottom of the input range) I can get the 1MHz indicator to illuminate and some stable numbers on the nixies. I also have another ACTO that is the lowest range of the three models produced. It appears not to work.  I do very little RF work so repair will need to wait.

[Alex Eisenhut]

There are a few mid- to late-60s items here that get used from time to time:

• HP 6203B DC Power supply (from the Harrison era)

Oh yeah, I have one of those lying around, HP6284A, but I find it too big and hot even for me... It's got that huge ballast resistor in the back and it smells like a baseboard heater when it gets going!

[PaulAm]

I'm reorganizing my bench and picked up a Fluke 8100A nixie dmm for it.  Most of my stuff is from the late 70's and 80's up through 2000 more or less.  I do have a Tek 555 that I keep out in the shop; that's probably the oldest piece I have.  This is all hobby though.

[1audio]

There are some items from the 1960's that really have not been supplanted. Sometimes not needed much but still not easily replaced by newer stuff. A short list from my collection:
Both JRL and ESI Kelvin Varley dividers
Gertch and Dytronics ratiotrans
Fluke 931A AC differential voltmeter
GR 1346 Microvolter
ESI SR1 reference resistors (similar for GR caps and GR inductors)

I have others. The point being that these are pretty fundamental and do not have new improved tech versions that do the same or better for a lot less. Oscilloscopes, VNA's etc. are a much different story but some needs don't change and reference dividers and standard caps aren't evolving very fast (or getting cheaper).

I also have become a fan of early Lambda power supplies. They really work well (low noise and good stability) and are quite sturdy even if they are 40-50 years old.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Something even I have a hard time using are 1960s passive scope probes. At least the ones I have are too massive.

They look like this



but feel more like this on modern stuff



Except for >600V stuff, then my old P6007 is pretty cool.

[bicycleguy]

I have a HeathKit 50KV High Voltage probe that I actually wanted to use last week to look at a ratZapper.  Couldn't find it though