[Test-Equipment] HP8555A dial belt: a solution?

[Jose V. Gavila]

Hello my friends,

I have three 8555A units in different working condition (two of them are 
almost fully working). But what is common to all three is that dial belts 
are close to break. I have found some info about repairing them but need 
some modifications to the units. Of course, replacement belts are made of 
pure unobtanium...

So yesterday I found (bought, really) a "solution"... well, once I tell you 
you will see the reason for the ""

Dial is just an approximate indication of center frequency and, if broken, 
unit continues working. It would be great back in 70s there were digital 
indications on 141T mainframes, but it is not the case... so, what about an 
external frequency indication?. Yes, you can put a frequency counter in one 
of the LOs of the 8555A, but you need to manually calculate which frequency 
it corresponds...

So my "solution" is no less than a HP8445B preselector fitted with Option 
003. You guessed it, Option 003 adds center frequency display :-)!. I found 
a unit with Option 003 and also Option 002 (manual tracking) and, of 
course, could't resist buying it.

Well, as you can see it is not a great "solution" (and somewhat expensive!) 
but, when dial breaks or slips, you just have no clue of where in the dial 
scale you are located. So a digital indication will be of some help!

Regards,

JOSE
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