[NLRS] HP478A power sensors

[Ken Boston]

Hi all;

To you microwave gurus in the group.....

I have a couple older HP power meters; HP431A, which have probes or
sensors, if you will, model 478A bolometer or thermocouple heads, which
are good to 10 gig, and up to 10 milliwatt. (+10dBm)

I would like to upgrade to a slightly newer HP power meter, like a
HP436, which are digital readout, and have HPIB/GPIB interconnectivity
on the rear of the meter (with option 022 installed)  These meters need
a different sensor family series, the HP8480 series, like 8482A or
8483A, good to 4 or 18 gig, and +20 dBm power.

MY QUESTION IS; is there any way you can use the older sensor, 478A,
with the newer meters, like with a 'special' cable, or some kind of
conversion.  I say this, because the meter box tends to be cheap on
ebay, the probes are not cheap.  Even the old 478A's draw a good buck.
Also, a company named Tegam makes a power meter, that touts the ability
to use several legacy power sensors in their base meter, although you
give up some accuracy due to lack of temperature compensation, which
they explain away by setting up calibration in a temperature controlled
lab environment, and storing the cal.  (rather than 'balancing' out the
ambient temperature in a bridge configuration)

So some one has figured out a way to use the legacy probes in a 'new'
meter, can this be jury-rigged with the older HP probes in the
(somewhat) newer HP power meters?

Thanks Ken W9GA