Hi Allison,
Unless I win the lotto (and probably not even then) there won't be a day when I spend a kilobuck on a radio. There might be a day when I buy a Spectrum analyzer (or make one). But there have been times when I did plod through the steps to make the graphical presentations of filter curves and etc. For a while I had a homebrew sweeper but it was assembled with duct tape and chewing gum and eventually fell apart :) I'm considering converting an old Heathkit sweeper to solid state using real terminals and solder:)
In my early teens I built a V-O-M in a cigar box with all scrap parts. There was no range or function switch. I plugged-unplugged series and shunt resistors in a couple of old tube sockets for the functions and ranges. I used it for three or four years. Bragging? No way. I'm trying to encourage others (is that hopeless?). If I could do it *anybody* can. It really isn't rocket science.
73,
Bill KU8H
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On 09/04/2018 11:11 AM, ajparent1/KB1GMX wrote:
On Mon, Sep 3, 2018 at 08:10 PM, Mark M wrote:
On 9/3/18 6:42 PM, Kees T wrote:
...
If "in the old days", enough people had access to Rigol DSA815-TG
(Spectrum Analyzer and Tracking Generator) test equipment, NONE of us
would have successfully built anything to get on the air and we'd all be
"appliance operators".
nasty to quote a quote.... But hell why not. I need to vent a little.
Seriously? before I had an SA at all, I did measurements. Things got
built to a high standard
that I set and reflected industry standards I was well acquainted with.
The only thing the
RIgol or my other HP8568B did for me is make those measurements easier.
What I don't get is people will spend a kilobuck or more on a radio but
same for a piece
of instrumentation "ACK! terrible expensive" is what I hear. I also
described how to
use a radio and attenuators to do it and that was "too haard!" and "you
can't use that"
to do this. Hey its your foot, shooting it is fine by me. I also
don't recommend it as
there is no need to.
The old joke is its not rocket science has a grain of truth. It is not,
its methods and
procedures and application of basic tools and a little putting ones back
into it.
If you got into ham radio to learn, well get to it. Want to lean how ask!
I figure about 75% of what written here goes in the bit bucket anyway
except
when someone has a problem is then suddenly HELP! Hey we here have been
all along and the web version has archives.
We should wire up the wiki as there is a great amount of knowledge and none
of its handy or there.
Allison
Every day, is there just one magik fix?
--
bark less - wag more
