Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Gonna get the largest truck they have. Put the beds, TVs & toolboxes in first; then whatever else will fit. Anything that doesn't fit gets left behind. 

mnem
No, wait... wife says the children are not optional, so taking them too. 

If space is that limited why bother with large items like beds? Even rather high value beds have a low value density. Can you tell I’ve played one or two RPGs?

[tautech]

Gonna be there any day now. 😁

mnem
*Sunday brunch widda family for a change*

U-Haul convoy ?

Gonna get the largest truck they have. Put the beds, TVs & toolboxes in first; then whatever else will fit. Anything that doesn't fit gets left behind. 

mnem
No, wait... wife says the children are not optional, so taking them too. 

With a 40+ cube mover you should be fine providing you get plenty of time to stack the load carefully.

[Mr. Scram]

Be sure to properly distribute the weight too with the heaviest objects low and up front. You can be in for a scary ride if you stick the heavy bits too far back and especially up top.

[mnementh]

If space is that limited why bother with large items like beds? Even rather high value beds have a low value density. Can you tell I’ve played one or two RPGs?

Not that limited; just those are our priorities. We have very few pieces of furniture we care about; we finally got some decent beds and we're keeping them. The space they occupy is small once broken down and we're trashing the mattresses; gonna get new ones from Amazon when we move in.

This ain't my first rodeo.

With a 40+ cube mover you should be fine providing you get plenty of time to stack the load carefully.

We looked into it. Equivalent cube/containerized moving costs about 4x as much as U-haul when you get into that size. Yes, including fuel.

mnem
moo?

[bd139]

Victory. Fixed three fails. Front end FET went phut, bad soldering on the antenna tap on the toroid and why didn't it tune? Well it turns out the tuning cap and reduction drive weren't actually attached properly. 

Bingo...



This receiver really makes you appreciate a K2  .

Anyway I think I've probably had my fun with this one (I get bored really quickly) already so it's going to depart now.

[Specmaster]

Be sure to properly distribute the weight too with the heaviest objects low and up front. You can be in for a scary ride if you stick the heavy bits too far back and especially up top.

No No, that's wrong, spread the weight evenly, a company I used to work for had a truck load of transformers to be taken to Sheffield and I drew the short straw... not quite true, I got the job because I had experience of big vehicles including 36ft long coaches. Anyway, they loaded the truck with most weight up front and on the journey I had 2 blowouts on the front tyres within 10 miles of each other on the M1 motorway. After the second one, I had to pull off at the services and redistribute the load singles handed across the entire truck, about 5,00 transformers pheew on a sweltering hot day to boot. After I did that, no more blowouts and in fact the truck was more comfortable for the rest of the journey.

[Mr. Scram]

No No, that's wrong, spread the weight evenly, a company I used to work for had a truck load of transformers to be taken to Sheffield and I drew the short straw... not quite true, I got the job because I had experience of big vehicles including 36ft long coaches. Anyway, they loaded the truck with most weight up front and on the journey I had 2 blowouts on the front tyres within 10 miles of each other on the M1 motorway. After the second one, I had to pull off at the services and redistribute the load singles handed across the entire truck, about 5,00 transformers pheew on a sweltering hot day to boot. After I did that, no more blowouts and in fact the truck was more comfortable for the rest of the journey.

My post was a bit longer originally but I omitted the rest for brevity. Dense loads like those or big trucks and trailers work slightly different. Sounds like the truck in your story may very well have been overloaded.

When moving or hauling typical mixed loads the advice to load heavy items is accurate as you’re ensuring the centre of gravity is as low and centred as possible. The density of household items is generally not enough to get anywhere near the maximum axle load. As it’s safety related I even bothered to double check and it’s what U-haul recommends too.  Obviously you need to strap all that goodness down. Loads will invariably shift on you at the worst time possible.



https://youtu.be/nIX-jN0u-S8

[tautech]

 
Toy trucks !

[bd139]

Yep.

Everyone knows this is how you load a truck

[tautech]

Yep.

Everyone knows this is how you load a truck

Again, toy trucks.
A 4 axle box body is good for some 60m³

[Mr. Scram]

Toy trucks !

We don’t all take our flock of sheep with us when we go for groceries.

[med6753]

 

[tautech]

You can get a metric shit tonne of stuff into these:

[mnementh]

EVERY. FUCKING. MORNING. From age 11 to age 17: up at 5am, from one barn to the other. And that guy's a effing amateur; during haying season I'd put two more layers of 5-square on before tapering down the top.

With a 40+ cube mover you should be fine providing you get plenty of time to stack the load carefully.

We looked into it. Equivalent cube/containerized moving costs about 4x as much as U-haul when you get into that size. Yes, including fuel.

That said... I JUST got an eMail back from one of the moving & trailer companies I contacted over a week ago. They have a 28' standard commercial height trailer that will JUST fit in our driveway, and their suggested rates are NOT batshit crazy. I'm calling them back tomorrow.   

mnem
moo?

[med6753]

For everybody that think that Canada is a dark cold place, this is where I spent the last 2 weeks.




On the shore of Lake Ontario. Water was actually more hot that the pool at home.

Tomorrow I need to get back to work, boooo 

I'm surprised you didn't have to shovel the ice off the beach first. 

[med6753]

(Attachment Link)

EVERY. FUCKING. MORNING. From age 11 to age 17: up at 5am, from one barn to the other. And that guy's a effing amateur; during haying season I'd put two more layers of 5-square on before tapering down the top.

With a 40+ cube mover you should be fine providing you get plenty of time to stack the load carefully.

We looked into it. Equivalent cube/containerized moving costs about 4x as much as U-haul when you get into that size. Yes, including fuel.

That said... I JUST got an eMail back from one of the moving & trailer companies I contacted over a week ago. They have a 28' standard commercial height trailer that will JUST fit in our driveway, and their suggested rates are NOT batshit crazy. I'm calling them back tomorrow.   

mnem
moo?

Is there gonna be an issue taking it across the border into Canada? You better ask. 

[tautech]

(Attachment Link)

EVERY. FUCKING. MORNING. From age 11 to age 17: up at 5am, from one barn to the other. And that guy's a effing amateur; during haying season I'd put two more layers of 5-square on before tapering down the top.

mnem
moo?

Wish I'd taken pics of our 6 wheeler ATV with 11 bales on it. 
Up and down the farm tracks was fine but don't dare go onto any sidlings. 

[mnementh]

Is there gonna be an issue taking it across the border into Canada? You better ask. 

That's one of about a hundred questions I'm going to have for the guy tomorrow. 

The email said they could do the move, and for about $800-1000 more than my napkin-corner estimate of cost with a U-Haul truck, which are usually pretty close; I've moved whole households a couple dozen times in my 5 decades on this ball of dirt.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

(Attachment Link)

EVERY. FUCKING. MORNING. From age 11 to age 17: up at 5am, from one barn to the other. And that guy's a effing amateur; during haying season I'd put two more layers of 5-square on before tapering down the top.

mnem
moo?

Wish I'd taken pics of our 6 wheeler ATV with 11 bales on it. 
Up and down the farm tracks was fine but don't dare go onto any sidlings. 

During the spring/mud season, we'd lease a Gator for a month or so for fence-tending season. It was also much nicer for haying animals in the lower 40 than trucks that would get stuck or the small tractor with a pallet hoist on the 3-point.

mnem
Don't. miss it. a bit. 

[neo]

Joplin Hamfest day 2









The HP 614A UHF generator and the TS-452C/U are particularly interesting because of NSA. U.S. government on both of them, though the 614A had it's asset tag scraped off. To me that suggests that whoever owned it (spy shop?) really wants to remain anonymous because nobody ever goes through that much trouble.

Total haul;
HP 614A UHF generator. 2 kilomegahertz signal generator. $20
TS-452C/U 100MHz wobbulator with all but one coil, $10
Random VTVM $1
FREE transformer
HP 8554L $25 (!!!!!! Lucky bastard, ain't I?)
HP 5326A $30 because NIXIES and it powers on and it's cute
Homemade 100V PSU and sweep generator, $15 for the set
Heathkit GD1-A grid dip meter with GD1-B manual and all the coils and the case. $20.
1922 Peace Dollar $20.
1923 Peace Dollar $20.
& $9 worth of adapters.

Mena hamfest coming up quick! My wallets sore already....

And my back, that 614A is a heavy bastard at 70 pounds! 

[worsthorse]

There's been a little sprinkle of moisture to ease the TEA drought here...

I've been looking for the P6406 word recognizer probe used with the Tektronix 308 for three or four months. The ebay asking prices have been, IMO, insane... around four hundred dollars.      So I did without, until today, when I found a 308 that has the P6406 and P6451 probes, test leads, and test clips for 90USD shipped.

Because what could be better than buying a whole 'nother piece of TE just because it has the probes you need for a piece of test gear you already have? 

[mnementh]

Oh, right...

mnem
 

[worsthorse]

Mystery part time...

I am still sorting stuff and today was "container of connectors" day. Wondering if anyone can help me figure out what these two parts are.

First candidate. A BNC connector:





As you can (maybe) see in the second photo, the top slides down to reveal a center pin.

The second candidate, a BNC feedthrough:



There's a drawing next to it. Both of them measured 29 ohms at the center pin-to-pin and 400pf across the center to ground.  It reminds me of the "RC normalizer" that I included in the photo.

Anybody have any idea what these things are? I spent an hour googling part number variations without success.

[xrunner]

Oh, right...

mnem
 

Operator - need a driver program for an eighteen wheeler - hurry!

[mnementh]

I know Kung-Fu...!

mnem
...and eighteen other Chinese-sounding words...!!!