[ARC5] Crystal tester.

[N4ch at aol.com]

Regarding crystal testers: a lot of you PROBABLY have one in  your shack, 
and don't know it.   Many years ago, I was faced with the  same need, and 
discovered that many garden-variety grid dip meters will work  just fine (and 
you can either look at the meter for an activity indication, or  simply place 
the GDO and "test" crystal near a short length of wire, connected  to the 
antenna jack of a (calibrated) general-coverage receiver.    Many such GDOs 
(such as the old Knight-Kit ones) have a FT-243 socket as the  connector that 
accepts the plug-in coil; simply plug this style crystal in to  test.   
It's a fairly simple procedure to make up a "test adapter" (to  accept 
virtually ANY case-style crystal); simply open up a "junker" FT-243  crystal, and 
use the holder (with two short lengths of flexible wire and 2 small  alligator 
clips) to make an adapter.    In the case of testing  FT-243 crystals, 
simply plug the crystal into the socket, instead of a coil.  Over the past few 
years, I have typically used a Kenwood DM-81 (a  battery-operated solid-state 
dip meter........whose companion coils also "fit"  the FT-243 pin 
outline)........works fine as a "go-no go" tester.    Meter will not move unless 
there's oscillation, and if U want to know what  frequency U are on, simply look 
for activity on a nearby  receiver........safe, simple, and easy.   Works 
great on most every  crystal I've tried, 1-50 MHz or so.
 
73, Herman, N4CH.
 
 
 
In a message dated 6/11/2016 8:07:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
hwhall at compuserve.com writes:

There's many solid state tester designs around that let you  check those 
xtals you run across at hamfests, etc., before you decide to buy.  Make them 
with gator clips to accommodate the various pin  types.



Wayne
WB4OGM 


-----Original  Message-----
From: Rich Post <kb8tad at gmail.com>
To: Ken Gordon  <kgordon2006 at frontier.com>
Cc: ARC-5 List  <Arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sat, Jun 11, 2016 5:58 pm
Subject:  Re: [ARC5] Crystal tester.


 
 
 
 
The military used this one (TS-39B/ TSM-1) and likely some other crystal  
testers
<http://www.ohio.edu/people/postr/bapix/TS-39B.htm>


You  can also simply plug a crystal into a grid dip meter in place of a 
coil and  check the freq on a counter. 


A third method is shown in the  third picture down, using a sig generator, 
scope and counter. 
<http://www.ohio.edu/people/postr/bapix/SigGenFun.htm>


Rich  KB8TAD

On Sat, Jun 11, 2016 at 6:56 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon  
<_kgordon2006 at frontier.com_ (mailto:kgordon2006 at frontier.com) > wrote:


Wayne:


The  military had a good crystal-test unit, but I cannot remember its  
nomenclature.


--  --  


Ken  W7EKB


 (http://www.qsl.net/donate.html) 








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