Transformer Ratio Meter

[tiv48]

Nothing wrong with that soldering good work.
Rob T

[AlanBeckett]

I think the price for that H1 is a bit ambitious and it isn't one of their best, although the Square Wave is useful.
The 81A is the Brick Outhouse of the Range although they don't turn up very often.

   

I fear if you just want an af Generator then the Chinese PCBs are probably the smallest, cheapest and most convenient answer although you'd probably need to add an Amplifier.

Much the same comments could probably be applied to simple 'scopes although there's plenty of 20MHz say Bandwidth ones on eBay at sensible prices, just pick one not far away and try it before parting with your Cash.

I like the 'Spotty' Board as it's much less prone to errors than Stripboard.

Good luck.

Alan

[Refugee]

Mine is also a big one. It is a Marconi TF1101 and is as big bold and heavy as the Advance 81A Alan has. Mine was 25 quid and part restored. I finished it off and it is a nice instrument. They are big though.

[AlanBeckett]

A splendid Beast
I can't remember what I paid for my 81A, but I do remember that when the Seller found out where I lived he dropped it off FOC as he was visiting relatives locally.
It needed a bit of fettling - Hunts Caps - but that was all.

Alan

[Radio Fixer]

The soldering is good Nick and I don't always get all the res the same way round

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

Seems you have Private Messaging disabled Nick so I cant send you a reply.

You asked about a scope but it was a sig gen, so a little confused there.  And it seems you have one of those?

If you were interested in it the start bid is perhaps as much as it should go for, as others have said they are often £15 to £25 at BVWS auctions, and you can see them, but that one does look in nice condition whereas often they aren't.  However, a tenner here and there doesn't bother me.  If I want it, how long will it be before I see another one?  Too old to wait sometimes ...  
If I was bidding I would e-mail first and ask if it can be really well packed as I hate dented / broken items, shipping cost with a good pack, is fair.

I would steer clear of all those huge heavy boat anchors, they were made for development labs and probably left out all the time.  The smaller units are friendly to get out of a cupboard, don't have a large footprint and certainly my bench is tiny (4ft x 2ft 6) so a major asset. And they are perfectly adequate for home work particularly if you come across a frequency counter, another item for the list .
Not so important for AF work as they are normally accurate but good if you pick up an RF unit which sometimes can be a little off.  A counter allows a little tweaking or just reassurance that all is well.

Here's pics of my restored Advance RF genie ...

   
   
   

Not much in the box, but a neat construction with a well designed attenuator

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

Just noticed it has some wrong knobs which I wouldn't like ...

gary

[Yorkie]

For a simple signal generator the Tech 20D and Heathkit RF1U, both originally aimed at hobbyists,  take some beating.

Simple valved generators, nice and compact. They often come up on e-bay and at swapmeets, usually for about £25 - £30.

The much larger  Advance Generators have painted front panels with screen printed lettering which deteriorates over the years, so they often look the worse for wear externally. However, internally they usually look pristine, just as they did when they left the factory. Quite hard to get the case off as the RF shielding of the front and back is a very tight fit. Much larger than say the RF1 or TE20D, but excellent gennies often available quite cheaply.

The manuals for the TE20D and RF1 are here:

http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/forum/...p?aid=9581

http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/forum/...p?tid=2772

There are some pics of a TE20D that I used to have below.

For an analogue scope, the Hameg range take some beating. Something like a 203-7 which I have is ideal for hobbyists. It has a built-in component tester, and in its day was the largest selling scope in Europe, used extensively in colleges, schools and universities, so they often come up, for around £50. The manuals are freely available for download at Hameg's website. I'm a simple soul, and hence, have an aversion to complex equipment which goes far beyond my needs, often has irreplaceable parts such as custom chips and may have had a hard life in a workshop setting.

(The scope in the pics are of my Hameg 203-7 - the 1 GHz frequency counter was home built: the PW 'Robin' by the late Mike Rowe of 'Sussex' valve tester fame).

The item of test gear that I sent you Nick wasn't a signal generator (used for RF/IF alignment) - it was  a signal injector/tracer that I'd made for you for fault tracing, based on a Velleman K7000 Signal Injector/Tracer kit. You use the injector to check if a signal is getting through the various stages of the set, and the tracer (basically, a small amplifier),  to check for stations. e.g., if you inject a signal at the volume control slider of a radio and here nothing from the speaker, the audio stages are suspect. If you then apply the tracer to the slider of the volume control and can hear and tune in stations, that confirms that the RF/IF stages are working.  Conversely, if you inject a signal at the V.C and get a loud tome from the speaker, but hear nothing on the tracer, that indicates that the audio stages are working, but there's a fault in the IF/RF stages.

No doubt it's packed away for the house move Nick, along with the instructions on how to use it.

Your day will come - when you unpack it, to remind you what it looks like, it's the last pic below!:-)

Have fun

[Refugee]

A splendid Beast
I can't remember what I paid for my 81A, but I do remember that when the Seller found out where I lived he dropped it off FOC as he was visiting relatives locally.
It needed a bit of fettling - Hunts Caps - but that was all.

Alan

I re-stuffed the caps in mine to keep the big silver cans on the chassis.
The restore thread is on line.
http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/forum/...p?tid=4688

[pwdrive]

If someone is going to do radio servicing/restoration and/or homebrew radio builds I would say a variable frequency RF sig gen is more of a priority than a variable frequency AF sig gen in the test gear stakes, that and a couple of multimeters, a decent analogue one and a reasonable or cheapo digital one.

Lawrence.