[R-390] re: test gear for your R390A

[Cecil Acuff]

Greetings,

        The O'Scope is a very handy tool at times.  I have found the 
spectrum analyzer to be a most handy tool when looking for weird problems 
especially in crystal oscillators.  Typically expensive though...they are 
coming down in price for older models that HP makes.  They drift around a 
bit until warmed up much like our beloved radio's but that's OK.  I just 
power it all up and come back in an hour and go to work.  It's nice to be 
able to see the purity of a signal and do comparative level checks.  I've 
found by using the spectrum analyzer I can do a better and quicker job of 
aligning all the crystal oscillator trimmers in the R-390/URR's I've done. 
Easy to see the peaks and the harmonics to make sure the right one is being 
peaked.

Anyway it works for me.....If you end up with 5 or 6 hundred dollars that 
you want to spend on a nice piece of test gear for the bench take a look at 
one of the older used HP analyzers.....if you get one that goes down to 
cover the 455 KC IF you can do sweep alignments of the IF if your generator 
is capable...That's another subject.....

Cecil...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W. Li" <wli98122 at yahoo.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 11:28 PM
Subject: [R-390] re: test gear for your R390A


> Some time ago, there was a query re test gear to get
> started. Really all you need is the Y2K manual, a
> URM-type RF generator and a stable simple VTVM. But I
> love scopes, so today at Boeing Surplus there was this
> very clean Tek 2215 that I snapped up. I guess that
> one can not too many scopes... lots of fun!
>
> In the shack I have a Costco roll-about plastic 48
> inch high "tower" with nine transparent drawers
> ostensibly for clothes, that now has my small parts
> and tubes. Attached a three hook hat rack on the back
> that now holds my cables and scope probes for real
> easy access. It parks out of the way in a corner until
> it's needed.
>
> W. Li
> Mercer Island, WA
>
>
>
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