When I retired from Sony
I kept my tools which included a headband magnifier and a few
different tweezers only one of which I consistently used.

Does your former boss know about this? Is there a reward for turning
you in? If you're going to pilfer the tools, at least take something
expensive.


I actually asked permission. It is because I have always been
fair and honest that I am known as 'Fairly Honest Irv'.
I couldn't take any test equipment or the Fluke 77, but
I luckily picked one up for $25 at a flea market.

My standard precaution is to buy extra parts. The parts are cheap. My
time is not. I use metal egg trays for parts storage. However, I
also tend to tip those over or bury them in junk. My latest trick is
using semi-sticky window shelf paper to hold parts. That works great
after I remove the flies, bugs, and glue eating banana slugs.

I use the sticky tape method too! Now If I could just find where
it put it!


Agreed. When I started in engineering, it was 99.9% engineering and
0.01% politics. 15 years or so later, it was 99.9% politics and 0.01%
engineering. Productivity was about the same in both cases. Now that
I'm officially in the repair biz, my guess is about 33% repair, 33%
paper shuffling, and 33% customer ego support.

GRIN

One nice thing about ham radio is that if I announce that I'm working
on a project, and I procrastinate enough, then one of the local hams
will eventually do it for me. See Tom Sawyer white washing a fence
for details on how it works.

That's pretty common here in town. If an antenna is being
raised, even digging the hole for a tower, there is usually a
good turnout of the younger more able hams. Some say
that hams aren't like they used to be, but for the most part
I find them a good crowd.

Not really. As I previously ranted, only certain people seem to blow
up the diodes. If you haven't blown any diodes by now, you're
probably safe. Just don't loan it to any of your friends, especially
on Field Day[1]. What seems to kill the analyzers is the act of
plugging in and unplugging a PL-259 to the unit. The PL-259 is unique
in that the center pin makes contact before the ground. This is
what's commonly known as a lousy idea. If you've built up a static
charge with your clothes and shoes, and are holding the shield, you'll
discharge yourself through the center pin and directly into the
diodes. That's my guess(tm) as to what's happening. I now make it a
habit of touching the center pin to case ground, before plugging in.
No clue if it helps, but it seems like a good idea. The N connector
on the MFJ-269B should not have this problem, but they seem to blow up
anyway, probably due to a different failure mechanism.

I wouldn't even loan it to my mother, had she been a ham,
but I've carried it to a few hams but did the testing myself.
It cost more than most of my rigs!

Irv VE6BP

[1] Hint: Measure the DC voltage on the traditional Field Day
balloon supported long wire antenna, especially if there's some wind.
If the DVM doesn't explode, you're still not safe.

When I was still a pretty green ham, I heard a snapping noise
one night -- found it coming from the tuner! Wouldn't touch it
till it stopped! I eventually learned about wind static.