Saturday, December 15, 2018

New Gear Here!

After watching the FedEx progress of my new/used test gear, and seeing it "stuck" in Henderson, CO after taking 4 hours to get there from Commerce City, CO, I figured since the shippers didn't pay for "Saturday Delivery", I'd get it Monday.

Surprise, Surprise! Heard my wife downstairs talking to the delivery guy about 0930, and got dressed and went down to see this on the front porch.


Got the them inside.....




They were both "Foamed In Place", and excellent way to ship fragile items. This is the signal generator. The top section of the foam is off to the left.



And the spectrum analyzer was just as clean and nice as the eBay pix indicated.



So, out with the old.......



And in with the "new"......



I plugged the generator in and let the oven for the time base warm up, and after an hour or so to warm up and stabilize, my counter read within 8Hz of what the generator was set to. The counter had a 'fresh' calibration when I bought it umpteen years ago, and it's nice to see it that close to a good quality generator with a 'fresh' calibration.

The spectrum analyzer also agrees with the generator, both in frequency and amplitude, so the spec a also looks to be on-the-money.

With these accurate, high-quality instruments, I should be able to make any measurements I need to repair/adjust/modify just about any piece of radio gear, or other test equipment, that comes through here.

I've got an RF Sweep Generator and a Function Generator that are "INOP" at the moment, so these will be used to get those two items back on-line. I probably don't need the RF Sweeper as I think I can set this generator up to sweep, but it's a piece of "classic" HP gear that I bought for a specific purpose (swept I.F. Stage Alignment), so I'd like to get it running again.

Now to get that bench cleaned up, and this mess of a "workshop" organized!

8 comments:

  1. I was going to ask who the seller is, to keep an eye out for another good spec an.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey dr Jim, that is some nice gear!

    Now I know that your extensive plan for your station and work area got 'delayed', but I think you can improve on what you've got for very little effort or money...

    In my garage I set up one section of the medium duty "pallet racking" or "warehouse style" shelf unit. It's available from Lowes or Costco, I got the Lowes one, which is a bit more money than the Costco one, and they don't look to be compatible...

    It's the system with "ladder" style verticals and cross beams that drop into the ladders.

    I got the 24" by 6ft ladders, and 6 beams six feet long.

    This let me set up a work area with a top shelf (at 6ft), a work top at 3 ft(using the hollow core door), and open area underneath. You can install the cross bars at the back for the bottom and leave an open area for your feet and chair. This gives a nice semi-enclosed work area, and you can put a strip light under the top shelf to light the workbench. The result is almost like a lab table/work cell with the overhead light and shelf.

    Super sturdy, "contained", with shelf above.

    You could even have a roll down window shade across the front to hide your desk or work in progress. I added a file cabinet under the worktop as storage too.

    It keeps everything in one place, is expandable, and is super strong.

    nick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure what I'm going to be doing down there, other than it's going to be CHEEP.

      I think I'll get some wider doors to give me a little more workbench depth, and a third saw horse to go in the middle of the door.

      Delete
  3. Always nice when things actually show up and are as advertised!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, and I didn't expect them to get here until Monday.

      They both match the photos, are super clean, and perform "per specs", so I'm a happy camper!

      Delete

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