Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

For those that know about Inverted18650, I finally got an email from him today:

Thanks for the update, syau. I guess you're the special one.

Yep, and I guess the $85 USD I sent him for some shipment of equipment got pissed into the wind. 

[mnementh]

For those that know about Inverted18650, I finally got an email from him today:

Thanks for the update, syau. I guess you're the special one.

Same here; hope he gets his miracle.

mnem
There but for the grace of (Insert your god here) go I...

[worsthorse]

Not TEAS but related: a DCAS (Discrete Component Acquisition Syndrome) update:



The box is filled with ICs, about two hundred, mostly high end op amps and comparators. The plastic bags contain 600 transistors I sorted and inventoried out of a shoebox, mostly VHF BJTs and MOSFETs, with enough other mundane and the exotic part numbers to keep things interesting.

For as much time as I spend mucking about with Tektronix and HP gear, building RF stuff was the original cause of my TEAS and I've been hunting components from the 80s and 90s in a serious way for three or four years. I already have a pretty collection of semiconductors, so the real find in these photos are those  three Coilcraft Designer Kits of slug-tuned inductors, which have been on my unobtanium wish list for a long time.



The other two piles are a box of about two hundred trimmer caps in four sizes and three more Coilcraft Designer Kits of axial lead chokes. All the kits are complete; one was unopened.



And I am happy to report that I bought the whole lot for 70USD plus shipping. 

On the TEA end of things, I hope to finish painting the case of the Amsco variac tomorrow; I did my hardware store run today and have plenty of shiny screws to aid in assembly.   

[Specmaster]

Gee.....how many rigs does one need?

Ahem....how many scopes and DMM's do I have?


NEVERMIND! 

Haha, not sure how many DMMs you have, don't see much evidence of them in your bench photos, but scopes yah, you beat me in that arena for sure. [emoji106] But unless you have a hidden stash of DMMs I reckon that one's mine [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Specmaster]

For those that know about Inverted18650, I finally got an email from him today:

-
Thanks brotha. I won’t be “well” any time soon but I am trying to stay positive.

Selling everything here to help with bills to come and if I come through this, I’ll give it another go in a few years.

Prost and thank you for the kindness
-

Thanks for the update, so things did go downhill quicker than thought but he's a fighter and we might be seeing him come back to flock in the future. If you reply to him please convey our very best wishes to him. [emoji106]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[med6753]

Gee.....how many rigs does one need?

Ahem....how many scopes and DMM's do I have?


NEVERMIND! 

Haha, not sure how many DMMs you have, don't see much evidence of them in your bench photos, but scopes yah, you beat me in that arena for sure. [emoji106] But unless you have a hidden stash of DMMs I reckon that one's mine [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

Remember the "Wall of Flukes"? Although after I built the 2nd bench they got more scattered about.  7 of them plus a Siglent and a Mastech. Oh yea, the Heath nixie meter too.   

[tautech]

How's that scope going Med ?

[med6753]

How's that scope going Med ?

Nothing new since my last update. Just now drinking my early morning coffee and contemplating getting up the energy to put the CRT back in and fire it up and see what happens.

Watch this space. 

[bd139]

That’s got to be very early there as I’m just drinking my not quite as early morning coffee 

Weather good for Newbury tomorrow. Hamfest it is.

[med6753]

Yes, it's not quite 0430 here. Very early.

In fact, I may go back to bed. 

[beanflying]

Yes, it's not quite 0430 here. Very early.

In fact, I may go back to bed. 

Did that this morning, flicked the Espresso machine on from Bed via wifi about 7am braved the cold and wet about 8am to the shack to make a brew then back inside to the Electric Blanket for another hour. 

[med6753]

Yes, it's not quite 0430 here. Very early.

In fact, I may go back to bed. 

Did that this morning, flicked the Espresso machine on from Bed via wifi about 7am braved the cold and wet about 8am to the shack to make a brew then back inside to the Electric Blanket for another hour. 

I keep forgetting that it's the first day of Winter for you Aussie's as opposed to first day of Summer here.

[Specmaster]

Gee.....how many rigs does one need?

Ahem....how many scopes and DMM's do I have?


NEVERMIND! 

Haha, not sure how many DMMs you have, don't see much evidence of them in your bench photos, but scopes yah, you beat me in that arena for sure. [emoji106] But unless you have a hidden stash of DMMs I reckon that one's mine [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

Remember the "Wall of Flukes"? Although after I built the 2nd bench they got more scattered about.  7 of them plus a Siglent and a Mastech. Oh yea, the Heath nixie meter too.   

Nah, sorry, I win that round  , 7 bench DMM's (2 Fluke, 3 HP and 2 Solatron) and 9 hand helds (3 Flukes, 1 Proster, 1 Robin, 1 Brymen, 2 Bsides and 1 Metrix) maybe another 1 or 2 Flukes hidden from sight, so all things considered, 1 round to you and 1 to me its a draw 

[med6753]

In the DMM arena I yield to you Good Sir. 

[Specmaster]

I also have a few analogues as well 

[BU508A]

Hello,

I've visited yesterday the HAM Radio in Friedrichshafen / Germany
one of the biggest HAM-fests in Europe.

Edit: Link to their website:

https://www.hamradio-friedrichshafen.com/

And for therapeutical reasons I'd like to share some impressions with you.

 

Let's start with a starting Zeppelin, they were produced right next to the exhibiton area:




Enjoy some tube artwork:



An old Zenith vacuum tube radio:



And a "Volksempfänger":



A transmitter of the US Army from 1945:



very nice vacuum varicaps:



expensive Nixie tubes:



original ENIGMA machine:



a slightly more modern version of the ENIGMA:



A Tek tower:



various gear:



stacked PSUs, they wrapped some of them in plastic foil and powered them up.
Then they found out, that eventually they'll produce a funny smelling 



a SA and a VNA (I think):



Lots of scope probes:



a nice 0.01 Ohm reference resistor



Dare or truth: who will draw 67A through these binding posts?



need a power meter? here we go:



especially for BD139: tons of PCB material, different thickness of the FR4:



OLED backlights:



we are all getting older and the eyesight is decreasing, but don't worry: help is near:



more stacked PSUs



whatever a "Magnetic Therapy" is: you can get it here:



want to buy some very expensive Aluminium? Have a look:



some LeCroy scopes:



a beautiful millivoltmeter from Hartmann & Braun



this clever guy knows his customers: buy some gear over 30 Euro and get a bottle of wine:



Fluke scopemeter bonanza:



magnifying gear:



Uff, a cup of TEA would be nice know. It is amazing, even for this the sellers are prepared:



old but very nice meter from Chauvin Arnoux:



cheap deadly capacitors:



and this is something we all are looking for: a 800kW meter:



vacuum tube heaven:



some lecture:



This picture of a very nice microphone (RFT CM 7151) has been sent to me by a friend of mine.
The 7151 is not as good as a Neumann U47 but it comes very near to it. It is much cheaper
than a U47 and occaisonly it shows up in the bay.



Hope, you enjoyed those impressions, I for myself had a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Mounty

[med6753]

Impressive!  I wish we had hamfests like that here. The last one I went to had NO vintage equipment for sale and just ONE dealer selling new rigs plus the ARRL table. And all the hobo's sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts.   

[bd139]

especially for BD139: tons of PCB material, different thickness of the FR4:

More seriously, that's a pretty good hamfest that. I might have to go one day as it's drive-able from here

Tomorrow hopefully looks like this for me:




Edit: mini-rant. Bought a couple of small things from Elecraft again to stuff inside the K2. So west cost near SF all the way to the UK ... 2 days USPS. Pretty good. Now 5 fucking days since they landed at Heathrow 

[worsthorse]

wow!  that's an amazing selection of equipment and parts. nothing like that here in the states as far as i know.

i'd be wanting a trailer to haul my purchases away at a hamfest like that. 

thanks for sharing all the photos!

[Specmaster]

@bu508a, now that is what I call a hamfest the last one I saw anything remotely like it was at Ponders End fecking years ago. Nice photos, thanks for making us all jelly of you [emoji3]

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[med6753]

The 7904 is back together and the results are it's still failing. But now I know why. Look at the pix. That's with the HV lead disconnected. The intensity and focus voltage are driving an image to the screen. The CRT is internally shorted. Rats! Went out on Ebay and found one guaranteed to work for a reasonable price. Just hope it gets here in one piece.



Don't seem to be having any luck with CRT's lately. First it was the bad focus CRT in the 465B, then the wrong CRT in the OL-1. And now this. Oh well.

Edit, about 5 minutes after I took that pix the PSU shutdown and went into tick mode again. I had to disconnect the base of the CRT to get the PSU to come back up. That pretty much double confirms that the CRT is toast.

[BU508A]

@bu508a, now that is what I call a hamfest the last one I saw anything remotely like it was at Ponders End fecking years ago. Nice photos, thanks for making us all jelly of you [emoji3]

 

Just to make it clear: my pictures are showing a very little part of the complete flea market.
There was tons of RF gear and stuff which I didn't take pictures, because this would have
doubled easily the amount of the photos.
The whole flea market lives in two exhibition halls of an estimated ground size of 50 to 150m.
In the second hall was an auction from one seller (Rosenkranz Elektronik  https://www.rosenkranz-elektronik.de/?site=index&change_language=english ) but they tend to have high prices.

I think, I'll visit the HAM Radio next year as well, maybe some of you guys will show up there, too? 

And, the flea market is not the only place where things and gear will be sold. There is a third hall next to
the flea market, where new stuff one can buy. For reasonable prices with a nice exhibition discount.
Really, I'm glad that I'm allowing me only one day to visit the HAM Radio.    

Cheers,

Mounty

[mnementh]

Not TEAS but related: a DCAS (Discrete Component Acquisition Syndrome) update:(SNIPPITY)

   And I am happy to report that I bought the whole lot for 70USD plus shipping. 

On the TEA end of things, I hope to finish painting the case of the Amsco variac tomorrow; I did my hardware store run today and have plenty of shiny screws to aid in assembly.   

Ooooh... "kid in a candy shoppe" time!

   When I'm replacing screws, I especially like to upgrade to Allen button-heads in stainless. They go well with retro gear like this and modern stuff as well.

mnem
I can haz coffee...?

[bd139]

The 7904 is back together and the results are it's still failing. But now I know why. Look at the pix. That's with the HV lead disconnected. The intensity and focus voltage are driving an image to the screen. The CRT is internally shorted. Rats! Went out on Ebay and found one guaranteed to work for a reasonable price. Just hope it gets here in one piece.

Don't seem to be having any luck with CRT's lately. First it was the bad focus CRT in the 465B, then the wrong CRT in the OL-1. And now this. Oh well.

Edit, about 5 minutes after I took that pix the PSU shutdown and went into tick mode again. I had to disconnect the base of the CRT to get the PSU to come back up. That pretty much double confirms that the CRT is toast.

I know how you feel. This year, that 7603 tube...

[bd139]

I think, I'll visit the HAM Radio next year as well, maybe some of you guys will show up there, too? 

I may go. Might try and scam some free accomodation from the members of my family near Bulach as that's only 90km from Friedrichshafen