[Elecraft] OT - Testing Ferrite Beads using common tools

[Tom Hammond]

Hi folks:

This a pretty off topic, but I hope someone might be able to shed some 
light upon this question.

A couple years ago, at the Dayton HamVention, in a fit of greed, I 
purchased a number of ferrite beads which, although they were NOT the FB- 
73-2401 beads I usually buy, they WERE "advertised" (by the seller) as 
being mix 73. These beads have a somewhat larger inside diameter, making it 
easier to slip them over slightly larger diameter coax (e.g. RG-8X, etc.). 
And the price was REALLY GOOD (hence the previous reference to 'greed').

I am now at the point of wanting to use these beads, but I'd like to 
confirm that they might work at HF. I don't have a lot of sophisticated 
test equipment, BUT I do have a sign gen, 100 MHz scope, an MFJ-259B 
Antenna SWR Analyzer, and the more commonly available 'shack-type' 
tools  at my discretion.

Does anyone happen to know of a way to do some cursory testing on these 
beads (possibly using the MFJ-259) to tell if they might offer a decent 
impedance at HF? And if, how?

Since some of our OT threads seem to linger MUCH longer than they should, 
please reply to me OFF-REFLECTOR and if I can confirm that a particular 
procedure works as advertised, and it repeatable, I'll summarize it (giving 
full credit to whomever offered it), and post it back to the reflector.

73,

Tom   N0SS