SERIOUS PIECE OF TEST EQUIPMENT

[Stellasstillarat]

I recently received this picture from my friend mike of Mike'sradiorepair@gmail.com

He recently acquired it and although I've yet to research it I'm sure some of you are familiar with it.
Very impressive looking.. And at 65 lbs I'm sure if one would only need one piece of test equipment this might be it.
i eventually will research it and it's functions.
I thought you'd like to check it out.

 

[807losangeles]

I have not used one, and I know little about it other than: They like to die, and they are nearly impossible to fix. I've been offered dead ones for $20 several times, and always passed.

I have one of these:

http://www.amtronix.com/hp8924c60.htm

It only weighs 62 lbs.

Its got a spectrum analyzer/tracking generator, you can use it as an all-mode receiver AND transmitter, and supposedly you can even send texts to a CDMA phone with it.

If you can get a working one for $700 or less, you're getting a good deal. Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have picked up a non-working one for around $200. The typical thing that causes these not to power up is one ten-cent cap and 15 minutes of work, which is mainly dealing with about 40 little screws. They are very well documented by lots of hobby hackers out there.

807

 

[Stellasstillarat]

Thanks for the info. One thing I know about mike. If it's broken or breaks , no matter what the issues, he can and will repair it.
I'm sure if he bought it it's something that will make his job easier.

He does have a Google plus page at mikes radio repair. He just began posting pics and videos of some of the equipment he's worked and working on. Once again thanks for the info.I original posted the picture because it looked like a really well built piece of testing equipment with more test options than I thought possible... I will be researching the item and it's usage and features.

I have not used one, and I know little about it other than: They like to die, and they are nearly impossible to fix. I've been offered dead ones for $20 several times, and always passed.

I have one of these:

http://www.amtronix.com/hp8924c60.htm

It only weighs 62 lbs.

Its got a spectrum analyzer/tracking generator, you can use it as an all-mode receiver AND transmitter, and supposedly you can even send texts to a CDMA phone with it.

If you can get a working one for $700 or less, you're getting a good deal. Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have picked up a non-working one for around $200. The typical thing that causes these not to power up is one ten-cent cap and 15 minutes of work, which is mainly dealing with about 40 little screws. They are very well documented by lots of hobby hackers out there.

807

 

[rabbiporkchop]

I recently received this picture from my friend mike of Mike'sradiorepair@gmail.com

He recently acquired it and although I've yet to research it I'm sure some of you are familiar with it.
Very impressive looking.. And at 65 lbs I'm sure if one would only need one piece of test equipment this might be it.
i eventually will research it and it's functions.
I thought you'd like to check it out.View attachment 15966

It looks useless without a scope.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

It looks useless without a scope.

Not useless. Just less usefull.

 

[Stellasstillarat]

This is Mike's bench. The "useless" piece of equipment in question belongs to the man who works at and owns this bench.

I'd go with what the captain suggested. Which I would take to mean it will be of some use without a scope but most likly works to it's highest potential in combonation with the use of a scope.

The likely hood of someone purchesing a model number 4040 Stabilock communications Funkmissplatz test center without owning a scope in the first place would be like buying a six cylinder mustang with the intentions of running it in the 24 hours at lemans. It's gonna go around the track but without a 800 hp, producing turbo charger under the hood and the countless other modifications, it's for all intense and purpose, pointless.

I challenge any golden screwdriver to own such a complete work bench never the less known how to properly use and put this high caliber equipment to the use for which it was intended.

Just because someone owns a scope, voltage/amp meter and a 45 year old ef Johnson cb radio test center doesn't make him a tec. I think the lable tec gets thrown around way to easily.

Therer are tinckerers, golden screwdrivers, then there's thoses who know more then tinkerers and golden screwdrivers combined but still shouldd not be concidered a tec.

I don't know how many years one needs to have of hands on exspeariance not to mention the books charts and years of schooling It takes in order to be a "licensed" tec.

The tec who any company like yaesu, icom, ameritron and the company's that employ the people who get sent out to diagnose and repair a radio station's 50.000 watt transmitter at 4 am when it begins acting up or completely fails.

Now I'm not intentionally putting any one person down so I won't use his name and I'm just using this person as an example of the many so called tec's. I've watched quite a few youtube video's of this guy who builds, modifies repairs cb, hf transcivers and amplifiers in his discombobulated garage/work station. With wires and cables going in every direction. And video camera tapes himself doing repairs while chain smoking cigarettes at the same time he's sticking his fingers and blowing smoke directly into someones opened equipment while placing his half empty bottle of open soda on the same 4 x 4 piece of plywood he refers to his bench. And hundreds of people refer to him as one of the best tec's in the business. I wouldn't trust this guy with a single piece of radio gear no matter how small or simple the needed repair. Yet this guy's praised as one or the greatest tec's out there.

It took me almost a year to find Mike. It's difficult to not only find a person who you can trust won't dig around in your equipment looking for the cause of the problem but, will most likley know what the proplem and the way he will repair it just by the verbal explanation you'll give him of the issue.
That's what mike does and he's proven it with every repair he's done on my equipment and, the hundreds if not thousands or pieces of gear he's repaired and continues to do so everyday.

I don't know what captain kilowatts storey is but by reading the answers , advice and communications equipment postings he leaves on a daily basis there's no doubt in my mind his background must be one in the field of communications equipment repair and or fabrication. Did CW do this as his career and for a living i don't know for sure bt either way i would have no problem trusting him with absolutely any repair no matter how large.
I would be surprised if he wasnt a tec as to me the knowlage he puts fourth on this site speaks volumes. From what i gather C/K basically only work on his equipment. besides all the free technical advice he dispenses almost daily. I'm accually not sure if I made the point I was going for which was there's much less true technicians out here then there's those who front and are little more than tinckerers.

I guess what id like to get across is for those who can't repair there own equipment like myself, once you find one who's professional and is indeed aab true technician don't let him det s Wyoming. You may never find exactly what you were always looking for and may never find another especially when it comes to tube equipment. Their a dying breed. Literally.

 

[Robb]

More impressed with the specs of Hewlett-Packard or 'Hp' equipment. They have been the true industry standard for decades. Re-named as 'Agilent' now. Own a Hp sig/gen and a freq counter. And Fluke. And Tektronix.

Doesn't have to be a all-in-one unit that has several tests; but that doeas make it convenient. But not necessary.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

More impressed with the specs of Hewlett-Packard or 'Hp' equipment. They have been the true industry standard for decades. Re-named as 'Agilent' now. Own a Hp sig/gen and a freq counter. And Fluke. And Tektronix.

Doesn't have to be a all-in-one unit that has several tests; but that doeas make it convenient. But not necessary.

And besides when one piece of gear breaks down you are not completely screwed and can still keep going with the rest of the gear. i never did like putting all my eggs in one basket but I will admit an all-in-one would be nice especially if you have some extra individual pieces of gear as backups.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I don't know what captain kilowatts storey is but by reading the answers , advice and communications equipment postings he leaves on a daily basis there's no doubt in my mind his background must be one in the field of communications equipment repair and or fabrication. Did CW do this as his career and for a living i don't know for sure bt either way i would have no problem trusting him with absolutely any repair no matter how large.
I would be surprised if he wasnt a tec as to me the knowlage he puts fourth on this site speaks volumes. From what i gather C/K basically only work on his equipment. besides all the free technical advice he dispenses almost daily. I'm accually not sure if I made the point I was going for which was there's much less true technicians out here then there's those who front and are little more than tinckerers.

I am by no means a super tech and to be honest I know very little about most CB/export radios as far as mods etc simply because I never had an interest in them. I like nice clean well performing stock radios and not over modulated peak and tweeked stuff. My background comes from a couple years technical school followed by 22 years in the engineering dept of a commercial AM/FM broadcasting station where we ran a small network of AM stations as well as two FM stations. I did all sorts of stuff as related to audio and RF servicing from making microphone cables for the news department to servicing the main transmitters when they failed. In later years our six stations were bought out by Maritime Broadcasting Systems and became part of a 26 station undertaking including a 500 watt shortwave station CHNX which has since gone off the air.I left that business 10 years ago.

 

[BettysNephew]

In my particular city there are many techs and engineers that are highly capable. However most of them are working on classified government defense systems and aircraft guidance and instrumentation at Rockwell Collins. We are fortunate to have quite a few retired folks from that company that were around when Collins still built amateur gear and still do repairs for us locals. My wife works for a division of the company and I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the ham shack that still exists at the main plant. There is gear in there to die for.

 

[Tallman]

Get it calibrated by a LAB that is NBS traceable.

 

[807losangeles]

My background comes from a couple years technical school followed by 22 years in the engineering dept of a commercial AM/FM broadcasting station .

Then, there a those of us who would really like to break into an RF-related technical career, but it just hasn't happened yet. In the mean time, there is plenty to tinker with and learn from. There's a medical term for the clinical condition where you aren't capable of learning anything new. Its called death.

807

 

[rabbiporkchop]

Just outta curiosity who's this guy Mike? I'd like to buy another Magnum s9 and pay Mike to tune it and compare it side by side with my other Magnum s9 just to see who the better technician is.. I'm always looking for a better technician I just haven't found one yet.

This is Mike's bench. The "useless" piece of equipment in question belongs to the man who works at and owns this bench.

I'd go with what the captain suggested. Which I would take to mean it will be of some use without a scope but most likly works to it's highest potential in combonation with the use of a scope.

The likely hood of someone purchesing a model number 4040 Stabilock communications Funkmissplatz test center without owning a scope in the first place would be like buying a six cylinder mustang with the intentions of running it in the 24 hours at lemans. It's gonna go around the track but without a 800 hp, producing turbo charger under the hood and the countless other modifications, it's for all intense and purpose, pointless.

I challenge any golden screwdriver to own such a complete work bench never the less known how to properly use and put this high caliber equipment to the use for which it was intended.

Just because someone owns a scope, voltage/amp meter and a 45 year old ef Johnson cb radio test center doesn't make him a tec. I think the lable tec gets thrown around way to easily.

Therer are tinckerers, golden screwdrivers, then there's thoses who know more then tinkerers and golden screwdrivers combined but still shouldd not be concidered a tec.

I don't know how many years one needs to have of hands on exspeariance not to mention the books charts and years of schooling It takes in order to be a "licensed" tec.

The tec who any company like yaesu, icom, ameritron and the company's that employ the people who get sent out to diagnose and repair a radio station's 50.000 watt transmitter at 4 am when it begins acting up or completely fails.

Now I'm not intentionally putting any one person down so I won't use his name and I'm just using this person as an example of the many so called tec's. I've watched quite a few youtube video's of this guy who builds, modifies repairs cb, hf transcivers and amplifiers in his discombobulated garage/work station. With wires and cables going in every direction. And video camera tapes himself doing repairs while chain smoking cigarettes at the same time he's sticking his fingers and blowing smoke directly into someones opened equipment while placing his half empty bottle of open soda on the same 4 x 4 piece of plywood he refers to his bench. And hundreds of people refer to him as one of the best tec's in the business. I wouldn't trust this guy with a single piece of radio gear no matter how small or simple the needed repair. Yet this guy's praised as one or the greatest tec's out there.

It took me almost a year to find Mike. It's difficult to not only find a person who you can trust won't dig around in your equipment looking for the cause of the problem but, will most likley know what the proplem and the way he will repair it just by the verbal explanation you'll give him of the issue.
That's what mike does and he's proven it with every repair he's done on my equipment and, the hundreds if not thousands or pieces of gear he's repaired and continues to do so everyday.

I don't know what captain kilowatts storey is but by reading the answers , advice and communications equipment postings he leaves on a daily basis there's no doubt in my mind his background must be one in the field of communications equipment repair and or fabrication. Did CW do this as his career and for a living i don't know for sure bt either way i would have no problem trusting him with absolutely any repair no matter how large.
I would be surprised if he wasnt a tec as to me the knowlage he puts fourth on this site speaks volumes. From what i gather C/K basically only work on his equipment. besides all the free technical advice he dispenses almost daily. I'm accually not sure if I made the point I was going for which was there's much less true technicians out here then there's those who front and are little more than tinckerers.

I guess what id like to get across is for those who can't repair there own equipment like myself, once you find one who's professional and is indeed aab true technician don't let him det s Wyoming. You may never find exactly what you were always looking for and may never find another especially when it comes to tube equipment. Their a dying breed. Literally. View attachment 16103

 

[M0GVZ]

Marconi 2955 is what I used to use until it packed up beyond repair.

 

[222DBFL]

Haven't used a tech in a long time. Last real one I remember was about 15-20 years ago and he was old then. Had a mobile home and another trailer behind it. The back one was the workshop and it had a mountain of old radios on both sides with just enough room to get to work bench. Man talk about a bunch of radios. He was repairing and modding radios for 30-40 years when I met him. He had books he wrote all mods for radios and was one hell of a tech. His name was Charlie and he went by Snake, on the radio. Around the Daytona Beach area this is/was. Back around late 90's, early 2000-2003 is when I used him. Great dude but unfortunately he got too old. It's truly is a dying breed and with radios being SMT more and more, there are truly less and less real techs to work on the radios the correct way. Whoever said there are a lot of Golden Screwdrivers out there is right, and they'll take your money happily and do about 20-30 min worth of work and call it done. Cap, resistor and turn some VR pots and spread some coils. Man oh man have I seen my share of those traveling from Michigan to FL!!