Look forward to hearing about the BW; I did a club presentation recently on building a simple test bench using inexpensive eBay/other supplier test gear for the beginner. This would be a good teaching vehicle for soldering and offer up a basic limited capability scope to get the feel for how one works...just have to keep in mind the limited capability. Thanks for sharing! 73 - Dino KL0S
Actually I picked some examples I found mostly on eBay and tried to cover the range of test gear from DMMs, signal generators, component testers, USB scopes, power & frequency meters, etc. I may actually get some of this stuff to actually build a modern "Ten Buck Test Bench" like Vern "The Radio Mechanic" has done with vintage gear on his channel. There's a good presentation by Steve K1RF that I used for a basis for my pitch (do a search for "Low-Cost Test Equipment You Can Buy on eBay").
The power meter is actually pretty good...I characterized it vs. the bench stuff and it's close and considering the cost you just can't beat it for relative measurements. I also re-characterized it after changing the input Z from 100 to 50 ohms and the shape of the curve didn't change just a tiny bit of power offset all along the curve. I do have a nifty little frequency counter/power meter/dummy load that is worth a look as well (search for GY561).
can't wait for the characterization of this little DSO. ......... ;-)
When I bought mine, I went for the SMD pre-installed option. But it is quite a useful scope if you don't need precision.
Look forward to hearing about the BW; I did a club presentation recently on building a simple test bench using inexpensive eBay/other supplier test gear for the beginner. This would be a good teaching vehicle for soldering and offer up a basic limited capability scope to get the feel for how one works...just have to keep in mind the limited capability. Thanks for sharing! 73 - Dino KL0S
i'd be curious to see what items you picked for the bench
Actually I picked some examples I found mostly on eBay and tried to cover the range of test gear from DMMs, signal generators, component testers, USB scopes, power & frequency meters, etc. I may actually get some of this stuff to actually build a modern "Ten Buck Test Bench" like Vern "The Radio Mechanic" has done with vintage gear on his channel. There's a good presentation by Steve K1RF that I used for a basis for my pitch (do a search for "Low-Cost Test Equipment You Can Buy on eBay").
nice presentation. Now I want to buy some of those things like the return loss bridge and power meter module.
The power meter is actually pretty good...I characterized it vs. the bench stuff and it's close and considering the cost you just can't beat it for relative measurements. I also re-characterized it after changing the input Z from 100 to 50 ohms and the shape of the curve didn't change just a tiny bit of power offset all along the curve. I do have a nifty little frequency counter/power meter/dummy load that is worth a look as well (search for GY561).
that gy561 looks sweet. I designed fancy power meters at Wavetek in the olden days.