Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[25 CPS]

Thank you all so much for the kind words.  I have a lot of people supporting me on this and so far I am happy to say that even though it started off rough, my mental state is much better.  I have great doctors, the best in the area taking care of me so I know that the outcome will be successful.

Excellent - they'll see you through kicking this thing's rear.  We're all pulling for you.

[tggzzz]

Thank you all so much for the kind words.  I have a lot of people supporting me on this and so far I am happy to say that even though it started off rough, my mental state is much better.  I have great doctors, the best in the area taking care of me so I know that the outcome will be successful.

You may be aware of http://yananow.net/Links.shtml#search with its searchable anecdotes

Thousands of people have been down the road ahead of you and more than a thousand of them have told their stories. Most of these men have left their e-mail addresses and will respond to any questions you might have. Most have also kept their stories update for many years. SURVIVOR STORIES is the link to the Survivors Stories - entries where men and their partners give details of their diagnosis and treatment. These stories are indexed and can be searched by a number of criteria including:
    Treatment chosen Age at diagnosis Initial PSA Gleason Score on biopsy
    Year of diagnosis Country or State of residence Date of Last Update

[Cerebus]

... has been teasing me that my A$$ will probably glow enough ...

From that are we to take it that you regard your A$$ as some kind of money-maker? 

[Cerebus]

Non Trivial. So much copper in the PCB.....

My count, looking at the cut edge with a loupe, was 10 layers. Didn't even faze my Metcal, and it's one of the wimpy SP-200s.

Perhaps you need to get a man's soldering iron (But not so manly as to constitute being South African.). 

[xrunner]

Thank you all so much for the kind words.

Best of luck my friend.

*****

Tests from the bench: hp 437B power meter with hp 8481A sensor

Item 3: Measuring the output of an Agilent 8648A Sig Gen

Connected sensor directly to sig gen. At 100 MHz, checked 0.0 dBm and -30 dBm (lowest calibrated range of the sensor). 8648A stated output accuracy is +/- 1.0 dB. Results good.

Other checks up to 1.0 GHz proved just as good.

[med6753]

Thank you all so much for the kind words.  I have a lot of people supporting me on this and so far I am happy to say that even though it started off rough, my mental state is much better.  I have great doctors, the best in the area taking care of me so I know that the outcome will be successful.

Excellent - they'll see you through kicking this thing's rear.  We're all pulling for you.

Absolutely, me too. And I thought I had troubles.

[SilverSolder]

[...]
From that are we to take it that you regard your A$$ as some kind of money-maker? 

Well, we all probably sit on ours most of the day, in front of a computer or bench, so yes...  it kind of is a money-maker! 

[med6753]

PSU re-cap for the Type 422 is complete.



Successful power up and the reference voltage checked. Should be -12.00VDC and measures -12.01VDC. Can't ask for better than that. No adjustment required. I can now complete the final calibration/compensation.

[beanflying]

Non Trivial. So much copper in the PCB.....

My count, looking at the cut edge with a loupe, was 10 layers. Didn't even faze my Metcal, and it's one of the wimpy SP-200s.

Perhaps you need to get a man's soldering iron (But not so manly as to constitute being South African.). 

The new JBC is the correct tool but my initial collection of tips was aimed at SMD and small stuff. The bit of use I have had with it already and I will phase out my older gear and look for a better sesoldering gun than the Aoyue. If I was doing more I would likely get out the Dremel and cut some more as it would put less stress on the pins and drop the thermal mass a heap too.

[mnementh]

As someone who has spent a few years with the odd bowel problem here and there I’d agree on that one.

Ideally I’d like to replace everything from the neck down with something robotic instead 

Why am I picturing something like this...? 

mnem
"Kill all humans...you meat sacks had your chance!"

[mnementh]

It was removed a decade ago, so I'm used to it. Given that my PSA was 24, doing nothing was not a long term option.

I could have had removal via daVinci "robot" or external beam radiotherapy (not protons). I dithered while researching it, and chose surgery based on side effects. I decided that since glider pilots has mechanisms for dealing with peeing while flying, clearly that was tolerable - whereas bowel problems wouldn't be.

My PSA is 8.5 and my Gleeson score is 8.  The Proton beam radiotherapy side effects are minimal and it is much more efficient at what it does.  I am hoping for minimal and that they go away after treatment if I have any side effects at all, which is the preferred outcome.  So far, I am not having the typical side effects of the hormone therapy except for the 1st weekend after the loading dose so I will be guardedly optimistic on no side effects of the radiotherapy.

Proton beam was a research technique when I was done. My understanding is that it is indeed less destructive, since they choose tHe proton's energy so that it judders to a halt and deposits all the energy in the prostate, not on the "way in" nor "way out.

Good luck

yeep.  Best of luck from here as well, brother.

mnem
I prepared Explosive Runes today...

[mnementh]

Keeping with the TEA. I bought the lcr meter I always wanted, but could never afford. It looks almost brand new. This year was big for me TEA wise, just never posted it.

Noice! Now give us some pictures of it nekkid!!!

mnem

[mnementh]

Non Trivial. So much copper in the PCB.....

My count, looking at the cut edge with a loupe, was 10 layers. Didn't even faze my Metcal, and it's one of the wimpy SP-200s.

Perhaps you need to get a man's soldering iron (But not so manly as to constitute being South African). 

For those of us with Metcal in the future, or locked away hostage against some government's beaurocracy... I found that mine came apart very easily using the "apply lots of flux & leaded solder, heat, pry a tiny bit, then move onto the next pin" method.

Difference in my case was I added preheating with my hot air gun, and handled the thing with gloves so I didn't stick to the PCB. Not enough heat to get the OXCO hot... but raising the temp of the PCB just 20-40° makes a huge difference in how easily it all desolders. Even a hair dryer can deliver enough heat to help.

mnem
 

[Vgkid]

Keeping with the TEA. I bought the lcr meter I always wanted, but could never afford. It looks almost brand new.
This year was big for me TEA wise, just never posted it.

Hoo really nice. And you got the bnc adapter

Even came with the original kelvin clips.

[Robert763]

Had to do some on-site work today. Can't go into details but looking for a EMI issue. Have a plot of the emission from the lab. Set up SA with frequency, span etc same as lab. Switch on and there it is the same spectra. Spend several hours looking at stuff only to find it's coming from a bit of kit that wasn't in the lab test.  what's the chance of it being the same pattern?
Not just me, other people looked and said "that's the signal" 
No TEA for me today.

[mnementh]

Welll... at least you gained empirical evidence that your SA, and its operator, function within expected parameters.

mnem
"To certain definitions of the term..."

[factory]

Note 2: Told some of my ham friends I got this power meter (they know what I do over here, some have visited). I said it isn't a "Ham" thing like MFJ stuff it's legit lab equipment and wasn't made for "casual" ham radio use. But it certainly can be used for that hobby if I wanted to. One of them asked me how much power it could measure. I said, well the sensor can measure from -30 dBm to +20 dBm without attenuation. He said that +20 dBm sounded like a lot of power.

I said - don't get one. That's me - saving power sensors for posterity - one day at a time. 

You actually let some of those Hobos in your house? Did you have to fumigate afterwards? 

I'm one of those hobos!

More on topic, & onto non ham matters, back in the day, for the lower powered analog TV sites (around 2kW), we used a HP410c & a special pickup "tee" (can't remember the hp part number of that), read the RMS value of the RF, then calculated the Power with a calculator (a hp one, of course!).

This translated OK as "sync tip power", as the 410c probe is a "sample & hold" type of detector.
As there are no amplitude variations on the Sound carrier, for that, it gave average power.

I have a 410c, & have been looking for the "tee", but I think, even if I get one, the setup might be too insensitive for ham power levels.

For higher power sites, the default was a water cooled load------knowing the flow rate & temperature rise, we could calculate the average power, then knowing the amplitude of the syncs, we could further calculate "sync tip power".

We did have one of the HP RF level meters which was good for lower level stuff, but it got little use, as a spec an could get us to around 1dB accuracy.

The tee is either hp 455A or later part no. 11042A, here are a pair I bought to go with my 410B/C voltmeters and a 458A (aka 11043A), BTW all these parts are listed in the 410C manual.


David

[Specmaster]

Mildenhall Osprey on a training exercise practised landing yesterday at Cambridge Addenbrookes Helipad and on take off the wash from its twin rotors destroyed the helipad  , something that our Heli-Med copters don't do 

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/addenbrookes-hospital-helipad-damage-helicopter-20444102

[bd139]

Well we know who’s getting the bill for that 

Bet they’re not going to be allowed to do training flights there now...

[AVGresponding]

As someone who has spent a few years with the odd bowel problem here and there I’d agree on that one.

Ideally I’d like to replace everything from the neck down with something robotic instead 

As someone who has spent a few years with the odd bowel problem here and there I’d agree on that one.

Ideally I’d like to replace everything from the neck down with something robotic instead 

Why am I picturing something like this...? 

mnem
"Kill all humans...you meat sacks had your chance!"

I was thinking more along these lines:

[mnementh]

I was going for "funny" not "Horrifying truth"... 

mnem
 

[bd139]

As someone who has spent a few years with the odd bowel problem here and there I’d agree on that one.

Ideally I’d like to replace everything from the neck down with something robotic instead 

Why am I picturing something like this...? 

mnem
"Kill all humans...you meat sacks had your chance!"

I did actually picture bender in my head on that one 

[mnementh]

Mildenhall Osprey on a training exercise practised landing yesterday at Cambridge Addenbrookes Helipad and on take off the wash from its twin rotors destroyed the helipad  , something that our Heli-Med copters don't do 

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/addenbrookes-hospital-helipad-damage-helicopter-20444102

Huh?!? Carnage...? It's a temp helipad that doesn't appear was ever properly anchored. Am I missing something here?

Isn't that something USAF flight engineers should know better than to try and take off with that from a temp heli landing site? Or is this hospital actually using that as a permanent helipad?

No matter who's at fault... clearly a failure in the command structure and communications channels.

mnem
"Hold onto your butts..."

[bd139]

Mildenhall Osprey on a training exercise practised landing yesterday at Cambridge Addenbrookes Helipad and on take off the wash from its twin rotors destroyed the helipad  , something that our Heli-Med copters don't do 

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/addenbrookes-hospital-helipad-damage-helicopter-20444102

Huh?!? Carnage...? It's a temp helipad that doesn't appear was ever properly anchored. Am I missing something here?

Isn't that something USAF flight engineers should know better than to try and take off from a temp heli landing site? Or is this hospital actually using that as a permanent helipad?

No matter who's at fault... clearly a failure in the command structure and communications channels.

mnem
"Hold into your butts..."

No what happened was there wasn’t an entry in the procedure manual that told them this wasn’t a bad idea. This will go to a review board who will add a procedure to an obscure manual that will be distributed globally. Pilots will be given change notes to read for their existing knowledge. This will immediately be ignored or forgotten and will happen almost immediately again. At that point someone will be dragged up in front of a review board about why they didn’t follow procedure. They will be retrained and will know that issue for sure next time.

What actually never appears in this process is common sense or initiative. Which is also why if you want an easy to crack target start looking at defence sector targets as they are administered procedurally rather than skilfully because anyone with an ounce of skill is making a shit load more beer money somewhere else.

[mnementh]

Still doesn't alter the fact that temp helipad wasn't anchored properly. Part of my firefighter training showed Coast Guard setting up something similar... every section of that interlocking grid was anchored with augering tent-peg things. 

And what you describe definitely falls under "No matter who's at fault... clearly a failure in the command structure and communications channels. "

mnem