I collect and restore antique vacuum tube electronics (i.e. "boatanchors") and vintage solid-state gear. I’m mostly interested in post-war test equipment, communication receivers, and consumer radios.
This page only has the most recent posts, but you can view a full index of my posts to Antique Electronics and Vintage Solid State.
Steve Strong’s chassis stands
I’ve been happy to have a set of Steve Strong’s chassis stands,
… both the large and the small stands.
However, there’s one thing that’s annoyed me about them: when you remove the pins to rotate the stand to a new position, sometimes one of the pins will roll off the bench and skitter across the floor to some obscure spot. …
Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope
Does anyone have a manual or a schematic for the Harvey Radio Laboratories (AKA Har-Cam) Model 205 TS Visual Alignment Signal Generator (sweep generator)? Or any information on the companion Model 188 TS Oscilloscope?
…NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report
I attended the New England Vintage Electronics Exposition #6 in Windham, New Hampshire, on Sunday, March 5, 2023.
I had a great time. I enjoyed seeing some old buddies and making some new acquaintances. …
MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022
I had a great time at the MIT Flea today. I bought a season pass, but family events kept coming up (and also the spring Kutztown show), so today was my first flea of the season. August is usually pretty slow, but there were lots of people attending the flea today.
…
HP 456A AC Current Probe
I wanted a simple project to take a break from working on my RCA WV-98C VTVMs. I’ve had a Hewlett Packard 456A AC Current Probe sitting around for a while.
The 456A is a clip-on AC current probe. It is comprised of a clip-on probe and a current-to-voltage amplifier and converter. …
HP 413A Null Meter restoration
I’m getting closer to having a reasonable calibration setup, so I now need a null meter for comparisons between my lab voltage standards and my HP 6920B Meter Calibrator.
So, I thought I’d restore my HP 413A Null Meter. …
MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards
I obtained these resistance standards from the MIT lab clean-out a number of years ago.
They are marked “MEAS LAB”, which I presume stands for “Measurement Laboratory”. This is the 2,000,000 Ohm standard.
…Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard
I’m upgrading my lab standards. Up until now, I’ve just depended on an old and long out of calibration HP 3468A as my lab standard.
I’m constructing a series of resistance standards. Here’s the 100K Ω standard.
…HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter
My friend Andy Wallace gave me some test equipment back in the early 1990’s, ...
… and this HP 3456A was among them.
At power on, it would fail self-test #4 with an overload indication (“OL"), so I set it aside, fearing that it would be difficult to find and fix the fault. …
DuMont 405 VTVM
I’ve been on the lookout for a DuMont 405 VTVM since Mike Kent posted about it on the Antique Radio Forum.
In 1957, DuMont introduced their “400 Series” of test equipment, including the Type 405 VTVM.
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