RadioBanter - Test gear

N9NEO wrote:
A net aquaintance asked me what he needs for test gear to dial in a
boatanchor. He told me he had a signal generator, vtvm, and a toob
tester. I thought a scope might be a good addition to his bench and
recommend a used BK. They seem to be a good buy and plenty guys have
them and service info I think is easy to get. I have Tek 465 but I
don;t think that is a good scope for basic bench. Too complicated and
prone to fail and so forth.

I would like to hear comments on my recomendation for scope and also
if there is some other piece of gear he should have.

73
NEO

A scope may be overkill for a simple alignment, but they ARE fun to
play with for more exacting diagnostics.

I use a few, depending: A Supreme my grandfather used in his shack.
(Bought a NOS CRT a few years ago. At the WWII price.) It's not at all
accurate, or even calibrated, with an ungraduated screen, but as a
qualitative tool, it's fine. I use a Pocketscope for general work on the
bench. A 100Mhz dual trace by Monsanto for serious diagnostics, and a
Tek 453 when I need more vesatile triggering/delay sweep. Truthfully, I
could get away with the Tek alone. But I have a fondness for toys.

For most boatanchor alignments, I use WWV as a frequency standard,
calibrate my signal generator to it, and with a VTVM, pretty much get it
done. It's possible to use a scope as a more precise voltmeter for
zeroing in an exact position of a trimmer or a slug, but a careful hand,
a good eye and a little practice can get you there with only a
voltmeter. And remember, you don't need a lot of highly calibrated
instruments, here, you're only going for peaks and minima.

I rarely need a sweep generator, or a marker generator unless I'm
doing some FM work.

So, your recommendations are pretty much spot on.