Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

No, no, no... you're looking at it all wrong. What you're really doing is just playing with Adult LEGOs. 

I guess so. There was a compelling time to market, at least...

Playing with options for a 8.33KHz spacing air band rx. Probably is best to simply throw a TV rx SDR at it, and run it from some small computer. And put another one next to it for ADS-B.

[SingleBitError]

Welcome SBE.
Crazy place here and other than what gear you have we also need to know if you lube wheel nuts ! 

What gear do I have? I really should find out. I counted 7 stacks of varying size in the "queue". Maybe a project for the upcoming holiday.

The only thing I lube wheel nuts with it the 6 inches of snow and slush I dropped them in.

[TERRA Operative]

The Chinesium BT module has been installed with a more permanent power supply than the USB power bank I bodged in. The bank and the module failed some kind of negotiation, with the bank turning itself off at random.

It's not a case of the power bank turning off due to sensing insufficient load is it?
I know some power banks will monitor the load so when your phone finished charging the power bank turns off automatically to save batteries.
Can be a pain in the arse when powering low-power devices below the turn-off threshold.

Might be time to take off the 'maker' hat and put on the 'hacker' hat to modify the current sense circuitry to work at lower power levels, or disable it entirely.

[GreyWoolfe]

Until here, I had never heard of using anti seize for the lug nuts.  The shop where I have been taking my company vans for 17 years doesn't use anti seize either.  Thankfully, I don't live in the rust belt being in Florida.  Also never had a rim seize to the rotor.  I don't have a truck though, I have a cargo van (Dodge Grand Caravan size) and a Santa Fe.  I used to have to use breaker bars to get lug nuts off and keep a 4' piece of pipe, a big 3/4" socket wrench and an impact 3/4 to 1/2" reducer for that.  Now, I rotate my own tires and my 500 ft/lb Earthquake stubby 1/2" rattler removes my lug nuts just fine as I torque to spec.  Now, if I go for tires or road hazard warranty work, I remind them to please torque to spec.  I would love to have a big boy battery impact gun but can't really justify the price.  For flats on the road which, thankfully, hasn't happened in years, both Mrs. GreyWoolfe and I have a AAA gold membership that I have had for a couple of decades.

Yeah, not to pick on you, but with all the big zip-guns and oversized persuaders, etc, we were talking real trucks, not passenger vehicles (which your van still is). Quite honestly, for those the best tool really is a credit card and AAA.

Nevr-Sieze, etc are most often used as a substitute wherever there is exposure to the elements and a fastener spec calls for lightly oiled threads. The big diff is that it stays put, even on exposed threads, preventing rust and galling.

For most consumer automotive, a thin swipe of the stuff on the stud is more than enough, as it is almost impossible to not get a little bit on the cone, and that is all that is needed to prevent galling against the rim.

My own experience has been that if the threads are showing wear/galling, it is also likely the lug is already stretched/weak and prone to breakage. I've never broken a new or healthy-looking lug after applying Nevr-Sieze, only ones that were in questionable condition already. Adding any form of lubrication on a lugnut definitely does allow it to be tightened further than dry; sometimes as much as 1/4 turn it more. My tactic is usually to set my wrench to the lowest number of the range In the specification if I have any doubt, then check them again after a day or three of driving.

Some of the big trucks actually specify Nevr-Sieze, particularly those with captive washers under the nut seem likelier to have this.  The torque charts on the wall in the Brockway garage I worked at skinning Cats had this penciled in next to certain makes.

mnem
 

No worries, don't feel like you're picking on me.  I was thinking trucks as in pickup trucks not BFTs.

[vk6zgo]

Not sure what you mean by "low price" but I have a few

The 9906 + case,  which powers on but is otherwise untested, went for £22.  I'm still upset that I didn't make an offer.

I'm willing to pay a little more  but the real issue is dealing with  post-Brexit  tax and customs paperwork.

For tax and customs there are a number of solutions, but it has been my experience that YMMV. If you want details, feel free to PM me but I think prices may be a bit above what you're looking for. FYI: I sold a number of these for 160€ + shipping (options M 55 10 04T). Price can be a bit lower but 22£ is erh...

Option 10 and the temperature controlled oscillator would be nice to have. Need to think about it.       



£22 was really cheap. I was surprised the seller accepted the offer.  The  auction had 5 more days to run.

Sometimes you just want rid of stuff. If someone were to show up here with only 10 bucks in their pocket they could have both scope carts taking up space in my garage. As it is I'm going to offer them to the Facebook Old Tek group for $25/ea or take both for $40. The only caveat is that I WON'T ship. Pick up only.

Let's see.....

Coupla grand from here to the USA, Immigration looking a bit "fisheyed" at me only visiting for a short while.

After they have finished, pay a bit more to get to your place, have a chat, pick them up, reverse the procedure.

Land in Oz, maybe go into quarantine, finish that, only to find "Border Farce" have ripped the carts apart, looking for drugs.

Wait for them to admit their blunder, pick up the cart bits, get home, reassemble.

 Almost, but not quite, worth it!

[vk6zgo]

The first thing that boggled my mind is that the face plate says the output is 52 ohms ?! Yes 52 not 50 !  So you need 52ohms coaxial cables and plug that into a 52 ohm load/scope, if that even exists ?! I guess there must exist 52/50 ohms adapters ?!  Still, why not make the oput 50ohms to begin with ?! how pervert is it to make a 52 ohms output ?!    WHY ?! 

Is it a " thing " to be 52 ohms in the test and measurements arena maybe, at that time anyway ? What's so special about 52 ohms that you can't do with traditional 50 ohms ? I am genuinely curious, I am sure I will learn something...

Back in the day, the "official " impedance for coax of that type was 52 ohms.
Over time, it became "normalised" to 50 ohms, which is amusing, as 52 ohms was, itself, a "normalisation" of 51.5 ohms.
Marconi, in the UK, still used 51.5 ohms as their standard.

Oh, OK.... so manufacturers took their time in the early days, to converge all to 50ohms...
Since we are alwyas told that teh world / signal integrity will collapse if the impedance is not match throughout... output, in put, cables, connectors.... I guess back there was also, just might, partially.... some incentive for manufacturers to have their own particular value of " 50 " ohms, to motivate customers to buy not one piece of gear from them.... but all of it, and charge through the roof for it. Kinda the Apple ecosystem with proprietary everything.

So basically non-50ohms stuff is normally only Vintage gear then... so it should be kept in mind if one is being vry critical about signal shape/integrity.... that maybe the distortion of his signal is nothing to do with the vintage signal generator say, nor the scope he is looking at it with.. but simply a slight impedance mismatch ! IOW.... guy needs to know what he is doing, shocking ! 

The figure of 50 is entirely arbitrary. If you want to maximize the safe power handling of an air spaced coaxial cable it wants an impedance of around 30 . If you want to minimise the attenuation of an air spaced coaxial cable you want a characteristic impedance  of 77 . However, there is also the issue that you need to match impedance between cables, connectors and so on to maximise power transfer efficiency and minimise reflections. So if you don't want to have impedance matching networks or transformers everywhere you need a compromise 'standard' impedance  - 50 sits happily half way between maximum power handling (30 ) and minimum attenuation (77 ) and is quite close to the minimum attenuation characteristic impedance for cables with non-air dielectrics (\$\epsilon_r\$ ~ 2.25). So that's how we got 50 for general purpose equipment and 75 for RF stuff (the latter minimising losses from attenuation, which matters if you're talking about an antenna down cable). It's easy to see that on something like a big transmitter you'd use 30 hardline between the transmitter and its antenna (and matching network) to minimise the physical size of that hardline.

Power handling or attenuation aren't everything, voltage breakdown rating come into it, too, which limits the reduction of physical size.
Big transmitters use 50 ohm, or in the past 51.5 ohm  or 52 ohm coax (some used 600 ohm open wire).

Analog & digital video uses 75 ohm, as did TV receivers, & the various signal processing & IF stages in microwave links.

A few percent either side of 50 doesn't make a big difference in how effective a compromise it is, and a small mismatch between a 50 cable and a 51 connector is not going to make a whole heap of difference either in terms of power transfer efficiency or reflections.

If one encounters a situation where it's justified either by reflected power levels or by the required precision then you can either put matching transformers or get really fussy about connector/cable impedance.

Evidentially, the EEs involved both in PMG/Telecom Aust, & AWA, thought it worthwhile.

Thinking about it, I think the 51.5 ohm figure was the British standard, where as 52 ohms was used in the USA.

Germany used 61 ohms----go figure!
It is the ideal value for 1/4 wavelength matching sections between 75 ohms & 50 ohms.

[vk6zgo]

Yeah, not to pick on you, but with all the big zip-guns and oversized persuaders, etc, we were talking real trucks, not passenger vehicles (which your van still is). Quite honestly, for those the best tool really is a credit card and AAA.

Yeah, I'm quite sure the West Oz equivalent (the RACWA) will be "Johnny on the spot" when I get a flat tyre, the nearest town is 300km away, with no cell phone coverage, & it's 49C out on the road!

My own experience has been that if the threads are showing wear/galling, it is also likely the lug is already stretched/weak and prone
mnem
 

[mnementh]

Well, you're the one who chose to be born 300km past nowhere.   

For the rest of us poor passenger-vehicle-driving slobs, the "your best tool is a credit card" argument still does generally hold true. 

mnem
too much blood... in caffeine circulatory system... must... have... coffeeeeeee...

[Ice-Tea]

Gave myself a treat

[capt bullshot]

Gave myself a treat

(Attachment Link)

Good stuff

[med6753]

No TE today. Domestic day in the Man cave. Laundry, grocery shopping, sweeping/vacuuming, change bed sheets, etc. Get it all done in one day which leaves the rest of the week for you guessed it. 

Next up on the agenda tomorrow is the Type 547 with the bum +350V supply. I suspect that 10uf/450V (C709A) has gone leaky. A quick ripple check will confirm that. It just so happens I have one on hand. If that's not it then we'll dive in deeper. It's not a complex circuit but have to be ever mindful that it's killer voltages. 

 

[med6753]

Welcome SBE.
Crazy place here and other than what gear you have we also need to know if you lube wheel nuts ! 

What gear do I have? I really should find out. I counted 7 stacks of varying size in the "queue". Maybe a project for the upcoming holiday.

The only thing I lube wheel nuts with it the 6 inches of snow and slush I dropped them in.

Well, post up. What you got?

[Andrew_Debbie]

Gave myself a treat

Nice.  Jealous.     I have the "budget"  97 52 38 and a very old Stripax.

[mansaxel]

It's not a case of the power bank turning off due to sensing insufficient load is it?
I know some power banks will monitor the load so when your phone finished charging the power bank turns off automatically to save batteries.
Can be a pain in the arse when powering low-power devices below the turn-off threshold.

Might be time to take off the 'maker' hat and put on the 'hacker' hat to modify the current sense circuitry to work at lower power levels, or disable it entirely.

I put a bucking RF jammer module fed from 24V (Main Bus C) in its place. Am very satisfied with the result, even if the 24V is via a pair of croc-clip leads right now (I had to make dinner yesterday too). "Lessening the bodges", so to speak.

[mansaxel]

Gave myself a treat

That crimper is a thing of wonder. I put it on the wish-list, and it appeared.

[Vince]

OH, a nice glowing Tek I contemplate... a lovely type 502A, in good nick, not a rust bucket, local pickup only but "only" 200kms from me, mostly highway so still kinda reasonable. My own 502A is not in as good a shape, and suffered massive damage at the back of the cabinet, it fell on the ground I am sure, rear top left corner of the cabinet took a bit hit, it's bent. Fixable I reckon, but still it's work... this other one is much better...

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipements_industriels/2082756903.htm

Problem : guy wants 100 Euros for it (120 USD or something). Not through the roof, but still a bit high especially as I don't even know if it works, and need to pay for the trip...
Would offer the guy 75 Euros but I won't bother because... that's the problem here.... he writes :

" COMPLETE, for parts only, because I know the main transformer is used as an output transformer on tube audio amplifiers "

WTF ?! 

So basically he is hoping some audiophool will give him the 100 Euros no question asked, just to rip the transformer off of it....
That means he will never accept to lower the price nor try to power it up to see if it works. He is hoping to get 100 Euros, no offers, and won't bother trying to power it up.

I hate people. I am starting to understand Papy Smurf... people are ugly, worthless, they should not be allowed to be born to begin with, too much trouble afterward....

OH !!!

BREAKING NEWS !!!

I said I messaged the guy anyway, a long message saying I despised his 100 Euros audiophool transformer argument, and offered him 75 Euros instead, with the intention to restore the scope not tear it apart, and local pickup as he required in his ad description.

Normally the usual answer to this kind of message is either fuck you, or no response at all.

WRONG : the guy replied a one liner saying just " OK for 75 Euros if you come to pick it up".

WHAT ?!    I sure did not expect THAT !!! 

So I replied OK let's meet, gimme your address... no reply. Now almost 48H later still no reply.. I thought OK as often happens in this situation, someone else must have offered him the full 100 Euros / asking price in the meantime, and he gave it to him instead. I am used to that...

But no ! An hour ago he sent me another message, saying "Hey, did you get my last message where I gave you my address ?! " .

NO !!! No I did not get it ! Turns out this critical message never got to me ! The messaging system on this ad website never delivered it to me ! Does not show up in the "chat" window ! 
A friend did tell me some time ago how their messaging system is unreliable and some messages never get to their destination but... it never happened to me ! Now it has ! 

I just had the guy over the phone... turns out he is a real nice guy contrary to what his ad led me to believe ! A retired electronics teacher/engineer from a reputed engineering school here. We talked electronics and old Tek scopes for a bit...
He used to have 20 glowing Tek scopes, just like I do now, but years ago he got rid of most of them as he lost interest gradually.
Now only has a few 560 series scopes left (he has an ad currently for these as well), and that 502A.... but not for long !

Soon it will be MINE !  Appointment set for tomorrow 14H or so.
2+ hour drive, 90% motorway, should be about tolerable.

Can't wait, feeling so excited, it will be my X-mas gift to myself, a 25kg treat !! 

[Specmaster]

@Vince, don't too quick to blame the ad site, I've seen that trick before on other sites, hoping that you'll come back and ask for the address and then the seller sometimes says that he has a better offer.

[med6753]

OH !!!

BREAKING NEWS !!!

I said I messaged the guy anyway, a long message saying I despised his 100 Euros audiophool transformer argument, and offered him 75 Euros instead, with the intention to restore the scope not tear it apart, and local pickup as he required in his ad description.

Normally the usual answer to this kind of message is either fuck you, or no response at all.

WRONG : the guy replied a one liner saying just " OK for 75 Euros if you come to pick it up".

WHAT ?!    I sure did not expect THAT !!! 

So I replied OK let's meet, gimme your address... no reply. Now almost 48H later still no reply.. I thought OK as often happens in this situation, someone else must have offered him the full 100 Euros / asking price in the meantime, and he gave it to him instead. I am used to that...

But no ! An hour ago he sent me another message, saying "Hey, did you get my last message where I gave you my address ?! " .

NO !!! No I did not get it ! Turns out this critical message never got to me ! The messaging system on this ad website never delivered it to me ! Does not show up in the "chat" window ! 
A friend did tell me some time ago how their messaging system is unreliable and some messages never get to their destination but... it never happened to me ! Now it has ! 

I just had the guy over the phone... turns out he is a real nice guy contrary to what his ad led me to believe ! A retired electronics teacher/engineer from a reputed engineering school here. We talked electronics and old Tek scopes for a bit...
He used to have 20 glowing Tek scopes, just like I do now, but years ago he got rid of most of them as he lost interest gradually.
Now only has a few 560 series scopes left (he has an ad currently for these as well), and that 502A.... but not for long !

Soon it will be MINE !  Appointment set for tomorrow 14H or so.
2+ hour drive, 90% motorway, should be about tolerable.

Can't wait, feeling so excited, it will be my X-mas gift to myself, a 25kg treat !! 

And you were fussing....there you go.  See, there is a small percentage of people who aren't assholes. 2 weeks ago I had that unique pleasure at that thrift store when I picked up this massive haul. Sometimes you get lucky. You got lucky. Now go get it and we demand pictures when you get back.     

[xrunner]

Can't wait, feeling so excited, it will be my X-mas gift to myself, a 25kg treat !! 

That's great Vince. The bonus is you can take the sides off, power it up, and you will have the best Xmas lights available! 

[25 CPS]

OH, a nice glowing Tek I contemplate... a lovely type 502A, in good nick, not a rust bucket, local pickup only but "only" 200kms from me, mostly highway so still kinda reasonable. My own 502A is not in as good a shape, and suffered massive damage at the back of the cabinet, it fell on the ground I am sure, rear top left corner of the cabinet took a bit hit, it's bent. Fixable I reckon, but still it's work... this other one is much better...

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipements_industriels/2082756903.htm

Problem : guy wants 100 Euros for it (120 USD or something). Not through the roof, but still a bit high especially as I don't even know if it works, and need to pay for the trip...
Would offer the guy 75 Euros but I won't bother because... that's the problem here.... he writes :

" COMPLETE, for parts only, because I know the main transformer is used as an output transformer on tube audio amplifiers "

WTF ?! 

So basically he is hoping some audiophool will give him the 100 Euros no question asked, just to rip the transformer off of it....
That means he will never accept to lower the price nor try to power it up to see if it works. He is hoping to get 100 Euros, no offers, and won't bother trying to power it up.

I hate people. I am starting to understand Papy Smurf... people are ugly, worthless, they should not be allowed to be born to begin with, too much trouble afterward....

OH !!!

BREAKING NEWS !!!

I said I messaged the guy anyway, a long message saying I despised his 100 Euros audiophool transformer argument, and offered him 75 Euros instead, with the intention to restore the scope not tear it apart, and local pickup as he required in his ad description.

Normally the usual answer to this kind of message is either fuck you, or no response at all.

WRONG : the guy replied a one liner saying just " OK for 75 Euros if you come to pick it up".

WHAT ?!    I sure did not expect THAT !!! 

So I replied OK let's meet, gimme your address... no reply. Now almost 48H later still no reply.. I thought OK as often happens in this situation, someone else must have offered him the full 100 Euros / asking price in the meantime, and he gave it to him instead. I am used to that...

But no ! An hour ago he sent me another message, saying "Hey, did you get my last message where I gave you my address ?! " .

NO !!! No I did not get it ! Turns out this critical message never got to me ! The messaging system on this ad website never delivered it to me ! Does not show up in the "chat" window ! 
A friend did tell me some time ago how their messaging system is unreliable and some messages never get to their destination but... it never happened to me ! Now it has ! 

I just had the guy over the phone... turns out he is a real nice guy contrary to what his ad led me to believe ! A retired electronics teacher/engineer from a reputed engineering school here. We talked electronics and old Tek scopes for a bit...
He used to have 20 glowing Tek scopes, just like I do now, but years ago he got rid of most of them as he lost interest gradually.
Now only has a few 560 series scopes left (he has an ad currently for these as well), and that 502A.... but not for long !

Soon it will be MINE !  Appointment set for tomorrow 14H or so.
2+ hour drive, 90% motorway, should be about tolerable.

Can't wait, feeling so excited, it will be my X-mas gift to myself, a 25kg treat !! 

Sounds good!  Is that 200km one way, or is that the full trip there and back to get the scope?

Seeing European time and distance figures for long trips always takes me back to when I was a kid.  I remember when some of our UK relatives visited.  They flew to Montreal and stayed with my grandparents there and then the the whole bunch of them drove down to Toronto to visit us.  Apparently my grandfather unfolded a map of Ontario and Quebec on the kitchen table and showed them in the middle of the map the driving route between Montreal and Toronto and apparently they totally misjudged the scale of the map and thought it would be a short drive!  A bit over 500km and 6 hours on the road later, they arrived at our house...

Let us know how it goes with the scope!

[Vince]

OH !!!

BREAKING NEWS !!!

I said I messaged the guy anyway, a long message saying I despised his 100 Euros audiophool transformer argument, and offered him 75 Euros instead, with the intention to restore the scope not tear it apart, and local pickup as he required in his ad description.

Normally the usual answer to this kind of message is either fuck you, or no response at all.

WRONG : the guy replied a one liner saying just " OK for 75 Euros if you come to pick it up".

[...]

Soon it will be MINE !  Appointment set for tomorrow 14H or so.
2+ hour drive, 90% motorway, should be about tolerable.

Can't wait, feeling so excited, it will be my X-mas gift to myself, a 25kg treat !! 

Sounds good!  Is that 200km one way, or is that the full trip there and back to get the scope?

He lives 200kms away from me, so total trip will be 400kms.
Did 900kms with a good bit of crap roads, to get my 575 curver tracer last summer... so 400kms of motorway for this 502A sounds much better in comparison...

Yes distances in Canada or the USA are a bit of a bummer ! Grand-ma living in Los-Angeles is unlikely to ever see her grand-kids living in New York ! She better gets to grips with computers and "zoom" meetings ! 

I guess that's why the yanks in the old days invented big barges with ultra soft suspension, king sized plush seats, cruise control and oversized high torque/low-revving low power huge V8 engines.... so you can cruise comfortably crops-country/cross states, keeping your but, legs  and ears unhurt...

[med6753]

He lives 200kms away from me, so total trip will be 400kms.
Did 900kms with a good bit of crap roads, to get my 575 curver tracer last summer... so 400kms of motorway for this 502A sounds much better in comparison...

Yes distances in Canada or the USA are a bit of a bummer ! Grand-ma living in Los-Angeles is unlikely to ever see her grand-kids living in New York ! She better gets to grips with computers and "zoom" meetings ! 

I guess that's why the yanks in the old days invented big barges with ultra soft suspension, king sized plush seats, cruise control and oversized high torque/low-revving low power huge V8 engines.... so you can cruise comfortably crops-country/cross states, keeping your but, legs  and ears unhurt...

200kms is a decent road trip. 2.5 hours or so. Mine 2 weeks ago was 3 hours.

!994: LA to Grand Canyon. I-40 across the Mojave Desert. 95 MPH in an A/C'ed Honda Accord. Hours and hours of nothing but sand and cactus.

3 years ago bringing the Honda CR-V from Colorado to here. 1850 miles/2.5 days. Nothing but flat across Nebraska and Iowa. Corn fields, wind farms, cows. And at rest stops/restaurants corn fed blue eyed/blond wimmens the size of heifers.  I never, ever, want to do that trip again. 

[Cerebus]

He lives 200kms away from me, so total trip will be 400kms.
Did 900kms with a good bit of crap roads, to get my 575 curver tracer last summer... so 400kms of motorway for this 502A sounds much better in comparison...

Yes distances in Canada or the USA are a bit of a bummer ! Grand-ma living in Los-Angeles is unlikely to ever see her grand-kids living in New York ! She better gets to grips with computers and "zoom" meetings ! 

I guess that's why the yanks in the old days invented big barges with ultra soft suspension, king sized plush seats, cruise control and oversized high torque/low-revving low power huge V8 engines.... so you can cruise comfortably crops-country/cross states, keeping your but, legs  and ears unhurt...

200kms is a decent road trip. 2.5 hours or so. Mine 2 weeks ago was 3 hours.

!994: LA to Grand Canyon. I-40 across the Mojave Desert. 95 MPH in an A/C'ed Honda Accord. Hours and hours of nothing but sand and cactus.

3 years ago bringing the Honda CR-V from Colorado to here. 1850 miles/2.5 days. Nothing but flat across Nebraska and Iowa. Corn fields, wind farms, cows. And at rest stops/restaurants corn fed blue eyed/blond wimmens the size of heifers.  I never, ever, want to do that trip again. 

Now you see, if your forebears had been good little boys and girls and stayed behind the 1763 Proclamation Line and left the real Americans in peace on the other side of it like King George told you to, then there would have been no Colorado, or Iowa, or Nebraska and hence no need to make such a long trip. See where not doing as you're told gets you? It might seem like fun at the time but being naughty little boys and girls has consequences, like stupidly long road trips – and you couldn't even have a proper cup of tea at the end of it. 

[med6753]

Now you see, if your forebears had been good little boys and girls and stayed behind the 1763 Proclamation Line and left the real Americans in peace on the other side of it like King George told you to, then there would have been no Colorado, or Iowa, or Nebraska and hence no need to make such a long trip. See where not doing as you're told gets you? It might seem like fun at the time but being naughty little boys and girls has consequences, like stupidly long road trips – and you couldn't even have a proper cup of tea at the end of it. 

 

[Specmaster]

He lives 200kms away from me, so total trip will be 400kms.
Did 900kms with a good bit of crap roads, to get my 575 curver tracer last summer... so 400kms of motorway for this 502A sounds much better in comparison...

Yes distances in Canada or the USA are a bit of a bummer ! Grand-ma living in Los-Angeles is unlikely to ever see her grand-kids living in New York ! She better gets to grips with computers and "zoom" meetings ! 

I guess that's why the yanks in the old days invented big barges with ultra soft suspension, king sized plush seats, cruise control and oversized high torque/low-revving low power huge V8 engines.... so you can cruise comfortably crops-country/cross states, keeping your but, legs  and ears unhurt...

200kms is a decent road trip. 2.5 hours or so. Mine 2 weeks ago was 3 hours.

!994: LA to Grand Canyon. I-40 across the Mojave Desert. 95 MPH in an A/C'ed Honda Accord. Hours and hours of nothing but sand and cactus.

3 years ago bringing the Honda CR-V from Colorado to here. 1850 miles/2.5 days. Nothing but flat across Nebraska and Iowa. Corn fields, wind farms, cows. And at rest stops/restaurants corn fed blue eyed/blond wimmens the size of heifers.  I never, ever, want to do that trip again. 

Now you see, if your forebears had been good little boys and girls and stayed behind the 1763 Proclamation Line and left the real Americans in peace on the other side of it like King George told you to, then there would have been no Colorado, or Iowa, or Nebraska and hence no need to make such a long trip. See where not doing as you're told gets you? It might seem like fun at the time but being naughty little boys and girls has consequences, like stupidly long road trips – and you couldn't even have a proper cup of tea at the end of it. 

Yeh but thats only because they threw the tea like naughty boys and girls into Boston Harbour. They should have embraced it just like we have McDonalds, TGI Fridays, KFC etc