[Elecraft] Tool/Equipment ?s...

[Mychael Morohovich AA3WF]

John Clifford KD7KGX asked, "... I see the occasional grid dip meter offered
on eBay.  Why would I want  one, and what would it do for me?"
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At the encouragement of Ron AC7AC I purchased a Heath grid dip oscillator
off Ebay awhile back. While being a somewhat fussy and imprecise piece of
equipment of yesteryear, at least by the standards of today's test
equipment, I have found the GDO to be quite useful in the shack, and fun to
use besides.

Lessee, I have used my GDO to ascertain unknown capacitance and  inductance
values,  the resonant frequencies of L/C tanks, and the relative Q of
circuits. It can be used to find parasitic oscillations, for neutralizing a
circuit, as a field strength meter and for interference free antenna
matching by determining the presence of standing waves. Essentially being a
variable HF oscillator it can be used as a signal or marker generator. It is
also useful for checking the frequency of other oscillators and HF RF
sources.

Granted that these are all jobs that can be more easily and accurately
performed with more modern equipment (if you have a suitcase full of
specialized test equipment), but in most cases I have found that the wily
GDO is capable of performing a multitude of tasks at an acceptable level of
accuracy for most of today's HF radio work.  So, if the price is right,
consider picking up an example of this interesting piece of history.

One final bit of advice: make sure that you pick up one that comes with its
interchangeable coil set intact. The coils can be duplicated if you have
examples on hand from which to work, but that isn't always practical.

Mychael AA3WF
K2#1025
FISTS# 8284