[Elecraft] Recommendations for Multimeters

[Stuart Rohre]

Re pc interface for a DMM.  Most DMMs are used to avoid having to get out
the big guns of a computer controlled measurement system.  They are portable
and quick, to troubleshoot and solve your problem without recourse to other
instrumentation except perhaps a signal source.  Thus, 99 44/100 per cent of
DMM work can be done without hooking to a PC.  PC interface is mainly for
when you are wanting to catalog production line repetitive measurements of
the same voltage or current from many different devices of the same type or
a few types.

The more complete the meter the better.  It should have mainly wide coverage
of AC and DC voltages, current and resistance.  Other nice to have features
are diode test, transistor gain tests, and measurements like capacitor
value.  Nice to have but added easily as outboard test boards is inductance
measurement. Decibel readout and ability to reference 0 dB are nice to haves
for much audio work.  A bar graph or auxiliary analog meter are needed for
peaking and nulling ease of measure.
73, Stuart K5KVH