Category Archives: Test Equipment

The Hewlett-Packard 5451A Fourier Analyzer

Posted on July 27, 2015 by jwk

1972: the year launching the Space Shuttle program, the completion of the monument at Stone Mountain, Watergate, the first female FBI agents to join the force….and the new HP 5451A Fourier Analyzer, bringing unparalleled performance to the worlds of acoustic … Continue reading →

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Extracting Screenshots from the HP 3585A Spectrum Analyzer

Posted on April 22, 2015 by jwk

I’ve posted a few times about my HP 3585A spectrum analyzers over the past several months, and after chipping away at the problem I’ve finally solved the screenshots issue! It boiled down to a bad GPIB cable for my National … Continue reading →

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Fun with the HP 3585A Spectrum Analyzer

Posted on March 2, 2015 by jwk

I spent some time playing around with one of my HP 3585A spectrum analyzers over the weekend to get a feel for its capabilities. While it’s only good from 20 Hz – 40 MHz, it’s a very capable tool within … Continue reading →

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Screenshots from HP 3585A Spectrum Analyzer via GPIB?

Posted on January 24, 2015 by jwk

I’m wondering if anyone reading this might have some experience and could chime in. I’m trying to make my HP 3585A spectrum analyzer talk to my Windows XP laptop over GPIB (488.1) with a National Instruments PCMCIA-GPIB card. I’ve been … Continue reading →

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HP 143A Wide Screen Oscilloscope Mainframe Restoration – Part 2

Posted on October 15, 2014 by jwk

Part 1 I’m continuing to work on getting my HP 143A ocsilloscope mainframe fixed up as a dual-trace X-Y display. A lot of the time has been spent on reading and researching, but I’ve picked up an important tool that will … Continue reading →

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Project Epsilon: Linear Regulated Power Supply from Spare Parts

Posted on October 14, 2014 by jwk

Belgian engineering student Gert-Jan built a great looking, and functional, linear regulated power supply for a test bench from an old radio transformer and a handful of supporting parts. This is a pretty nice looking adaptation of the common LM317-based … Continue reading →

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What do you get from a $25 multimeter?

Posted on October 4, 2014 by jwk

Fred Clift wrote over on his blog about why it’s worthwhile to pick a more expensive multimeter. He’s comparing a $200 Fluke to a $6 Harbor Freight multimeter, which really is a no-brainer. I’m not sure the Harbor Freight model … Continue reading →

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New Toy: HP 130C Oscilloscope

Posted on September 29, 2014 by jwk

I’ve been looking for a nice balanced input oscilloscope to use as a bench audio scope for a bit, and I do enjoy some vintage test equipment…so I recently ended up with an HP 130C oscilloscope. This early ’60s tube … Continue reading →

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Test Equipment Round-Up – September 20th, 2014

Posted on September 20, 2014 by jwk

I always keep an eye on eBay for plug-ins for my HP 143 oscilloscope and even if they don’t turn up, it’s always interesting to see what else is in the category. Some of these are pretty interesting – there’s definitely … Continue reading →

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New Toy: LogiMetrics 921A RF Signal Generator – Refurbished by KISS Electronics

Posted on September 17, 2014 by jwk

I just had an unexpected run-in with Murphy’s Law and found myself needing a modulated signal generator in short order. Bad news when my modulated signal generators decided to die right when I went to perform an alignment! My Leader Standard … Continue reading →

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