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Hello Tom, I wasn't aware of this unit either. I bought this from a seller that I also purchased an Agilent 1670G logic analyzer from. After a quick search I found the unit listed in the 1990 Tektronix catalog, read about its specifications and features then made the purchase. It was a VERY good deal compared to the 577 and other curve tracers listed in the catalog. Since doing the video I have also tested the print function and it also works just fine. It may be limited to 100v collector voltage, but it will provide up to 100 watts of power and should be more than enough for my lab. I hear you on getting things shipped overseas, I have some vendors I work with in the Netherlands, the shipping alone is sometimes more than the replacement part. Thanks for watching, hope you find something local to your area.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b Hi Craig, that's good news that printing is working 👍 Here in the Czech Republic, it is a big problem to get testing equipment for reasonable money, 550 USD is a great price for a tracker, but it is more than a third of my monthly income. I used to own a Huntron 2000 tracker, but I lost all the equipment I had acquired in a lifetime when my workshop was completely robbed. I could buy a non-functional model 576 for approx. 670,- USD without tax, customs and shipping, but after adding it up, I came to a price of around 2,200,- USD and that was absolutely unbearable for me - today only an amateur. In addition, some models from the 57x series had big problems with the HV transformer (I think they are transformers in the brown version), so there is a big risk that you will buy an almost irreparable device for that crazy money. I know another model that is similar to yours, but it is a Sony/Tektronix license with the model designation 370, if I remember correctly it is produced in versions - 370 / 370A / 370B - I even found it functional for sale for absolutely (for me ) absurd price of 18000 USD. While looking for a new tracker, I came across an individually modified model 577 that had an additional interface for communicating with a computer for data storage via USB. If my information is correct, the 576 was not originally intended for direct sale, but was developed solely for the development and service needs of Tektronix and later somehow found its way into the market. In the range of 1500V, it supplies a current of only 100mA, but at 15V it is able to generate up to 10A. Currently, the best available in trackers is Huntron's Model 3200S with two independent A+B inputs with G1/G2 and two IDC-64 sockets allowing up to 128 direct connection combinations. Nice day 🙂 Tom

With all the HP, Agilent, Tektronix and Fluke gear that I have, I have only run into a capacitor issue twice. An HP 3437A and an HP 5328A that had a power supply over volt failure. While I was taking the 5328A apart, I discovered that the main power supply filter caps were only now just barely starting to show signs of leakage around the terminals. Prior to that the 5328A was working just fine. That's pretty good run for something that was built in the late 70's to early 80's. I have yet to run into an issue where there was leakage that resulted in trace or some other board damage. Most of the equipment that I have had been serviced in the last 5 to 10 years, however I do inspect the filter caps and check the power supply voltages on the units that have missing, broken or old anti-tamper service stickers. Thanks for watching!

@@CraigPetersen12f36b one exception are the RIFA caps. These have almost always a cracked case and usually have to be replaced.

Thanks for the offer. I originally wanted to find a HP 8920A or Motorola R2600 series communications analyzer, but they were either priced higher than what I was willing to pay for, had seen rough service or had a number of faults. So I settled on purchasing discrete instruments instead of buying an all-in-one solution. I may re-visit the issue down the road, but so far I'm satisfied with the current setup. Thanks for watching!

Yeah, I thought about doing that since now I have the proper risers so I can get to all the test points on the cards. But since I have two functioning 3335A's the parts unit will just stay that, a parts unit. Other than the cabinet, missing hardware and the malfunctioning card I swapped out, the rest of the unit, front panel, CPU, attenuator, power supply, frequency reference are all still good. Thanks for watching!

I paid about $550.00 for this unit. 576 and 577 model curve tracers usually fetch $600+ for non-working and over $1000 for working units, however these units can produce test voltages of up to 1500v. This one goes to 100v which is fine for me. I really like the units compactness, another is the ability to store as many as 12 presets and print screen captures. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching! I'm certainly going to be able to take advantage of this unit, way more versatile than the cheap component testers I have been using.

Typical current draw for a stock AT-6666 running full power on FM is about 7.5 amps. I don't recommend using the cigarette lighter plug for anything over 5 amps. The center contact can have fairly high contact resistance and may present issues for you. I use the "Littlefuse add a circuit" pigtail and draw power right from the fuse box that's inside the cab of the vehicle. In any case, I would recommend a 10 amp fuse. I use a 50 watt 2 meter rig in my mobile and have had no issues. Thanks for watching!

@@CraigPetersen12f36b Thank you for the response!

Well arn't we the "hot house orchid"... But seriously. We understand you Jedi! A 576 was clearly created by the gods I would trade the future generation's youth to possess one (especially since it's of no use to me:). Cheers young Jedi 🖖Live long & prosper

Mos cert, the 571 looks like a better choice for people with more urban apartment sized benches :)

@@splitprissm9339 speak for yourself! I'm in Philly and I'll always make room for my 576 😂

Hope it helped, it took me a week or two to track down all the software I needed to install. While National Instruments no longer supports Windows versions earlier than 8, you can still download all their older software from their FTP site. download.ni.com/

Glad it helped, I have only come across this issue once or twice over the 4 to 5 years I have been purchasing used gear. At first, I thought it was a cold solder connection but was relieved that it was just a lose jam nut.

Thanks for watching. I haven't serviced this unit yet and it is still on my "to be repaired shelf". I was just thinking about this unit the other day, I was able to find a N step loop card for a good price and swapped it out with the card that I suspected may have some sort of fault. Unfortunately, it didn't change and was still displaying the same issues. I also suspect that the fault may be in the summation loop since there are two VCO's on this board and one of them may not be locking properly. I was able to finally find some riser cards for this instrument and I am just waiting for them to arrive.

Interesting, I just sold mine at a hamfest last week and no longer have the unit. You may want to look at the BFO circuit and check that it has been adjusted properly. This may be the reason it appears to be receiving on the wrong side band. Thanks for watching.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b Thanks for the suggestion Craig, I noticed an adjustment in the tuning instructions where you have to select the second of two peaks when aligning the radio so that might be it.

This meter is only designed to measure continuous carrier signals. It will measure a modulated signal but the readings will be erratic. The only HP power meter that I know of that is designed to measure PEP power is the HP 8900C. This meter is an older analog style and takes older power sensors that can be difficult to find. Thanks for watching.

Good Morning, I purchased the filters off of eBay, the prices were about $125.00 or so each, about what they were new. These filters made a big difference on crowded bands and have breathed new life into my 706MkIIG. I have the CR-282 high stability option but have not installed that option yet. The last module I plan on installing is the speech module that announces operating frequency and mode.

I do remember hearing something about this back in my early days but cannot recall anything recent. Yeasu made many variations of this rig so I would imagine you could eventually find something. Thanks for watching.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b I've thought about using a super capacitor instead of a battery but since I don't use it that often I don't see a good reason to modify it. I have an Icom 290a that has the same issue.

Yes, the first 10% of the scale is ungraduated for this reason. The service manual states that the meter movement will typically rest within the first 20% to 50% of this ungraduated region when operating correctly. Thanks for watching.

I didn't have a powered speaker on hand that I could hook up for this demonstration. Thanks for watching.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b I'm just now learning and getting into testing equipment so at the time of that question I genuinely didn't know whether that had audio out or not - I've learned a lot in the past week!! thank you for being a part of that journey

Thanks for watching, for what it is I was pretty impressed with the performance of the radio. The only faults I can point out with mine is that the rotary encoder is bouncy, likely a bad encoder, and that the IF filter is too wide for SSB. 73.

I have used this radio several times on 10 meters. Worked several stations back east out of the mobile. Would get unsolicited comments on how well the audio sounded. The only issues with the radio I have is the rotary encoder is a bit bouncy and the receive is a bit too wide on SSB for my tastes. I added the near impossible to find CTCSS tone encoder so I can try some 10 meter repeater contacts with it. But overall, for the money, it's a very good radio. Thanks for watching, 73.

From what I have read the A version has some extra measurement capability that the non-A version has. Other than that, they are essentially the same.

You are correct, I just copied what was produced from HTBasic to see how the command syntax was structured. A lot of the HP-IB command documentation I've read is not very clear sometimes. I was curious as to why an EOI statement was not used at the end of the capture. I have seen this instrument used to send a rewind command to a HP 9 track tape machine and an EOI command was used in that demonstration. Anyway, thanks for watching and the shout out from across the pond!

Yeah, being able to halt or slow down the HP-IB transactions really helps out.

I have been keeping an ongoing search for various riser cards. I have a few instruments that require them for servicing, I understand the engineers desire to make things RF tight but it sure makes it a hassle to service them. I did find a N loop board and I'm waiting for it to arrive, we'll see if the new old board works or not. If not, I'll wait till I can get the riser cards I need and go from there. There are a few vendors on eBay that I have been getting boards from and I have been having really good luck with them. It's all about timing on eBay, I have been able to get some extremely good bargains on occasion. Thanks for watching!

Yeah, these older digital scopes can have issues when trying to display complex waveforms. I bought this one out of curiosity, however it excels at pulse capture and it has no issue printing with my HP 7475A plotter or HP 2225A Thinkjet printer. Thanks for watching!

Yes, you can set the instrument to trigger from another source, or manually from the front panel. This allows you to provide a single programmable output pulse width from 5nS to 160mS with a delay from 0nS to 160mS. I have been having a blast exploring this instrument. I have other pulse generators that can do this (HP 8013B), but not with the accuracy the HP 5359A provides. You can also set the instrument to provide two pulses of a given width spaced by the period interval keyed in from the keypad. These can also be triggered externally or from the front panel as well. Thanks for watching!

Very good @@CraigPetersen12f36b . Thanks for the informative post. I must get one of these. I love old HP stuff!

Interesting.... Usually, this issue is caused by changing the individual memories default frequency on any given band. I have noticed with this radio if you go from channelized mode to frequency mode and change the default frequency and go back to channelized mode, the new frequency information is retained for that given channel. Something like this may be the issue with your friend's radio, normally a factory reset restores the radio back to normal. If a factory reset fails, then there is apparently something else wrong with the radio. Hope this helps, thanks for watching.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b I will screenshot this and pass along . Thanks 🙏

Thanks. I have had one or two over the years and sold them before I found out how versatile they were. Back then I had a 42S and didn't need an additional calculator. I'm currently on the look out for the HP-IL to HP-IB interface so I can experiment with instrument control via the 41CX.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b that would be a great video. As a hobbyist I struggle along with the programming of hp-ib I can do the basic reading. Thanks for the great videos.

Thanks! It's taken a good 4+ years, lots of budgeting and lots of patients waiting for the right deal at the right time. It can be quite the adventure.

Yeah, certainly not an instrument I'll be making daily use of. But it will be useful for confidence checks during the service intervals with my HP 5370B and 5335A. Prior to that I was using the HP 3325A. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for chiming in Joe, been a while for sure. Glad to see you're enjoying the videos, I'll be posting some more in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

@@CraigPetersen12f36b Did you get that JS1000?

Yeah I have seen a few of those, still a very nice level generator. Thanks for watching!