FA: Some nice HP gear from my home lab....

J

John Miles

Guest
I'm looking to clear out some clean, working equipment at the end of a
couple of long-term personal projects. This shortened URL will take you
to eBay's "View Seller's Items" page for my account:

http://snipurl.com/ls89

Highlights include the nicest HP 8566B spectrum analyzer out of several
that I've owned; an HP 8662A with OEM manuals and brand-new PS filter
caps; and an HP 5345A counter with enough spares and accessories to
satisfy any ECL computing buff.

Most of these items include manuals, and all of them will be sold with
3-day buyer inspection periods. Local pickup in Seattle OK. Even if
you're not in the market, several of the listings include some
interesting HP Journal .PDFs and other literature. Check 'em out!

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
John Miles wrote...
I'm looking to clear out some clean, working equipment at the end
of a couple of long-term personal projects. This shortened URL
will take you to eBay's "View Seller's Items" page for my account:
http://snipurl.com/ls89

Highlights include the nicest HP 8566B spectrum analyzer out of several
that I've owned; an HP 8662A with OEM manuals and brand-new PS filter
caps; and an HP 5345A counter with enough spares and accessories to
satisfy any ECL computing buff.

Most of these items include manuals, and all of them will be sold with
3-day buyer inspection periods. Local pickup in Seattle OK. Even
if you're not in the market, several of the listings include some
interesting HP Journal .PDFs and other literature. Check 'em out!
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Click to expand...
Shit, John, you're selling your stuff!??!! What's going on?


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
"Winfield Hill" <Winfield_member@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:dqt5su01t19@drn.newsguy.com...
John Miles wrote...

I'm looking to clear out some clean, working equipment at the end
of a couple of long-term personal projects. This shortened URL
will take you to eBay's "View Seller's Items" page for my account:
http://snipurl.com/ls89

Highlights include the nicest HP 8566B spectrum analyzer out of several
that I've owned; an HP 8662A with OEM manuals and brand-new PS filter
caps; and an HP 5345A counter with enough spares and accessories to
satisfy any ECL computing buff.

Most of these items include manuals, and all of them will be sold with
3-day buyer inspection periods. Local pickup in Seattle OK. Even
if you're not in the market, several of the listings include some
interesting HP Journal .PDFs and other literature. Check 'em out!
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx

Shit, John, you're selling your stuff!??!! What's going on?


--
Thanks,
- Win
Click to expand...
There can only be one answer....a new girl friend!
Harry
 
In article <dqt5su01t19@drn.newsguy.com>, Winfield_member@newsguy.com
says...
Shit, John, you're selling your stuff!??!! What's going on?
Click to expand...
Short answer: I treat eBay like a giant storage locker, where they pay
to keep my stuff while I'm not using it. :)

Long answer: my usual M.O. is to undertake long-term personal projects
in batches of two or three, which often take years at a time. I've
recently reached a point in one of those cycles where I'm happy with the
results and content to call it all "done" for the time being.

My next big thing is purely software-based, in an entirely-unrelated
field. I've already put a lot of work into this project, and it's
become apparent that I'm going to have to focus on it to the exclusion
of pretty much everything else if I'm ever going to finish it. Because
I've got at least another year of software work ahead, it doesn't make
sense for me to pay to store a lot of hardware that someone else could
be using towards productive/fun ends.

I'm not the least bit happy about giving up some of that gear,
particularly the 8566B. But if I keep it around, I will play with it.
Historically, that's been a fairly-serious (almost addiction-level)
personal problem. It gets in the way of other long-term goals, so I
have to take positive, hard-to-undo steps to move ahead.

Watch Gandalf trying to convince Bilbo to give up his favorite toy, and
you'll get the idea...

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
John Miles wrote:
I'm looking to clear out some clean, working equipment at the end of a
couple of long-term personal projects. This shortened URL will take you
to eBay's "View Seller's Items" page for my account:

http://snipurl.com/ls89

Highlights include the nicest HP 8566B spectrum analyzer out of several
that I've owned; an HP 8662A with OEM manuals and brand-new PS filter
caps; and an HP 5345A counter with enough spares and accessories to
satisfy any ECL computing buff.

Most of these items include manuals, and all of them will be sold with
3-day buyer inspection periods. Local pickup in Seattle OK. Even if
you're not in the market, several of the listings include some
interesting HP Journal .PDFs and other literature. Check 'em out!

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
I'm tempted on that TEK 485. I have a working (but UGLY) 454 scope
Click to expand...
and the 485 is sortof it's smarter brother. The shipping charges from
your neck of the woods is a killer though (long distance cross country
to FL). I'm not sure if my 454 has the p11 phospher or P2 or P31, would
the option be stamped on the nameplate?
 
In article <hdyAf.2428$5O2.881@bignews4.bellsouth.net>,
wa2mzeNOTTHIS@bellsouth.net says...

I'm tempted on that TEK 485. I have a working (but UGLY) 454 scope
and the 485 is sortof it's smarter brother. The shipping charges from
your neck of the woods is a killer though (long distance cross country
to FL). I'm not sure if my 454 has the p11 phospher or P2 or P31, would
the option be stamped on the nameplate?
Click to expand...
I believe that all the 454s had P31 phosphors, going by personal
observation and Sphere Research's CRT listings. That's what's in my
'backup' 454 (which isn't for sale).

To some extent it's like trying to prove that no crows are white,
though. Tek made some oddball scopes in small quantities over the
years, so you can't be too sure what's out there.

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
John Miles wrote...
My next big thing is purely software-based, in an
entirely-unrelated field.
Click to expand...
We were afraid of that: the dark side, you know.

I'm not the least bit happy about giving up some of that
gear, particularly the 8566B.
Click to expand...
A real jewel, already up to $3700, with six days to go.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7583597242


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
In article <dqumn30hll@drn.newsguy.com>, Winfield_member@newsguy.com
says...

A real jewel, already up to $3700, with six days to go.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7583597242
Click to expand...
Look on the bright side... maybe all of the other bidders will cancel
their bids or get tossed by eBay for various reasons, and you'll get it
for $1.00. :)

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
John Miles wrote...
Winfield Hill says...

A real jewel, already up to $3700, with six days to go.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7583597242

Look on the bright side... maybe all of the other bidders will cancel
their bids or get tossed by eBay for various reasons, and you'll get
it for $1.00. :)
Click to expand...
That would be the day. What's the right price for your 8566B with
manuals, etc.? I see Nick at Ridge Equipment has one up for $9k,
but I doubt he'll sell it. Looking at the last 30 days, I see one
fellow who had two "untested" units, accepting $3100 "best offers"
for each, and another guy who got a $2700 "buy-it-now" sale for his
"untested" unit with a "dim screen". All three "untested" units had
photos indicating reasonable physical condition and some kind of
apparently-proper display operation. There's another one, "as is"
with a dark-screen photo, starting at $6499, with no bidders.


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
In article <dqvutg0okj@drn.newsguy.com>, Winfield_member@newsguy.com
says...
That would be the day. What's the right price for your 8566B with
manuals, etc.? I see Nick at Ridge Equipment has one up for $9k,
but I doubt he'll sell it. Looking at the last 30 days, I see one
fellow who had two "untested" units, accepting $3100 "best offers"
for each, and another guy who got a $2700 "buy-it-now" sale for his
"untested" unit with a "dim screen". All three "untested" units had
photos indicating reasonable physical condition and some kind of
apparently-proper display operation. There's another one, "as is"
with a dark-screen photo, starting at $6499, with no bidders.
Click to expand...
It's tough to say. At the end of the day it's worth whatever the
second-highest bidder thinks it's worth. Ordinarily, I'd wait for all
those others to sell or otherwise disappear from the field before
putting one up for sale, but I think this one will out-compete the
others without any trouble... at least among buyers who know what
they're looking for. A dim CRT is not a good thing on these units,
because the focus is the first thing to go. By the time the emission is
down, you don't get a very clean image.

At any rate, a $9K starting bid on an 8566B with a DOA-only guarantee is
just a waste of a listing fee, and everybody's time to boot. Much
better to start low and encourage people to look at the item on its
merits. I'd be surprised if mine doesn't land in the $6K-$7K
neighborhood. $8K-$9K is a high but still-fair price, if someone has
the cash on hand and has been waiting for the right one.

That particular 8566B from Ridge does look clean, but it has some
serious phase-noise peaking going on. (Compare his CRT image with the
same shot in my auction, particularly taking the different reference
levels into account.) Even if you paid $9K for his, you'd still want to
open it up and poke around the first-LO synthesizer with an ESR meter.
Something -- probably something cheap but difficult to find -- is
packing up and getting ready to go out to lunch in that one.

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
 
On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:34:22 -0800, John Miles
<jmiles@pop.removethistomailme.net> wrote:

In article <dqvutg0okj@drn.newsguy.com>, Winfield_member@newsguy.com
says...
That would be the day. What's the right price for your 8566B with
manuals, etc.? I see Nick at Ridge Equipment has one up for $9k,
but I doubt he'll sell it. Looking at the last 30 days, I see one
fellow who had two "untested" units, accepting $3100 "best offers"
for each, and another guy who got a $2700 "buy-it-now" sale for his
"untested" unit with a "dim screen". All three "untested" units had
photos indicating reasonable physical condition and some kind of
apparently-proper display operation. There's another one, "as is"
with a dark-screen photo, starting at $6499, with no bidders.

It's tough to say. At the end of the day it's worth whatever the
second-highest bidder thinks it's worth. Ordinarily, I'd wait for all
those others to sell or otherwise disappear from the field before
putting one up for sale, but I think this one will out-compete the
others without any trouble... at least among buyers who know what
they're looking for. A dim CRT is not a good thing on these units,
because the focus is the first thing to go. By the time the emission is
down, you don't get a very clean image.

At any rate, a $9K starting bid on an 8566B with a DOA-only guarantee is
just a waste of a listing fee, and everybody's time to boot. Much
better to start low and encourage people to look at the item on its
merits. I'd be surprised if mine doesn't land in the $6K-$7K
neighborhood. $8K-$9K is a high but still-fair price, if someone has
the cash on hand and has been waiting for the right one.
Click to expand...
So, am I right? John was not surprized (price) and Win is now the owner?

Yikes. This means I have something besides political opinions in common
with Win. We both have SA's that John M used to own and spent many hours
fixing up for us.
 
John Miles wrote:
I'm looking to clear out some clean, working equipment at the end of a
couple of long-term personal projects. This shortened URL will take you
to eBay's "View Seller's Items" page for my account:

http://snipurl.com/ls89

Highlights include the nicest HP 8566B spectrum analyzer out of several
that I've owned; an HP 8662A with OEM manuals and brand-new PS filter
caps; and an HP 5345A counter with enough spares and accessories to
satisfy any ECL computing buff.

Most of these items include manuals, and all of them will be sold with
3-day buyer inspection periods. Local pickup in Seattle OK. Even if
you're not in the market, several of the listings include some
interesting HP Journal .PDFs and other literature. Check 'em out!

-- jm

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
As a relative novice electronic nerd what type of work did you
Click to expand...
do with this equipment, as a hobby?
 
I can't vouchesafe John's decision to give up his treasured gear,
but I can say John's loss is my gain. John's 8566B is a beautiful
machine and several of us are having lots of fun with it. My tech
is making a new rack for it (and several other machines, together
far too big to fit on a bench), then I'll add an ethernet-to-GPIB
network connection, software, and it'll be ready for prime time.
 
Quite a few of the projects at http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx -- plus some
smaller fry that I haven't had time to document yet.
 
Glad to hear it's working well. Agreed, its size and weight is a real
problem, and not just for shipping. I'll definitely own another of
those beasts at some point, when I have more room than I do now. The
important thing is that it's in appreciative hands. :)

If you plan to use my GPIB software with it, be sure to download a
recent copy. I hosed the phase-noise app pretty badly in my last
"slipstream" update a few weeks ago, and only heard about it last week.
The version that's up there now is fine.
 
Would you be so kind as to post the url for your website? I would like to
get a copy of your software.

Thanks, K

<jmiles@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1140240731.474865.35500@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
Glad to hear it's working well. Agreed, its size and weight is a real
problem, and not just for shipping. I'll definitely own another of
those beasts at some point, when I have more room than I do now. The
important thing is that it's in appreciative hands. :)

If you plan to use my GPIB software with it, be sure to download a
recent copy. I hosed the phase-noise app pretty badly in my last
"slipstream" update a few weeks ago, and only heard about it last week.
The version that's up there now is fine.
Click to expand...
 
Would you be so kind as to post the url for your website?
I would like to get a copy of your software.
Click to expand...
See the first link at http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx/ (or download the setup
program directly at
http://www.speakeasy.org/~jmiles1/ke5fx/gpib/setup.exe ).
 
Winfield Hill wrote:
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx/ Thanks for the heads-up. That's v1.05,
the Jan 14, 2006 edition? Which program was updated to fix the
phase-noise problem? The pn program's source code says 13-Jul-05,
although the pn.cpp file date is 12-Feb-06.
Click to expand...
The broken version was 1.05, but I "slipstreamed" the fix into the same
release without updating the version stamp.

I really should've bumped the version number when I posted the fix, but
it'll be pretty obvious if your copy has the bug. It will appear to
work, but it will always start the PN sweep at 0 Hz rather than the
minimum offset you specify. That makes the sweep take much longer than
necessary, and the trace information at offsets below 10x the
analyzer's minimum RBW is meaningless.

Basically, if you downloaded it around the time I posted all those
auctions, you probably got the bad version.

I like the part where you get the "number of 1000-ns intervals
since 1-Jan-1601 UTC" :)
Click to expand...
Heh... I've wondered where Microsoft came up with that; it might have
come from the Unix world. There's a lot of weirdness in the calendar
business, and it's usually less arbitrary, but more obscure, than it
seems at first.

-- john, KE5FX
 
Winfield Hill wrote:
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx/ Thanks for the heads-up. That's v1.05,
the Jan 14, 2006 edition? Which program was updated to fix the
phase-noise problem? The pn program's source code says 13-Jul-05,
although the pn.cpp file date is 12-Feb-06.
Click to expand...
The broken version was 1.05, but I "slipstreamed" the fix into the same
release without updating the version stamp.

I really should've bumped the version number when I posted the fix, but
it'll be pretty obvious if your copy has the bug. It will appear to
work, but it will always start the PN sweep at 0 Hz rather than the
minimum offset you specify. That makes the sweep take much longer than
necessary, and the trace information at offsets below 10x the
analyzer's minimum RBW is meaningless.

Basically, if you downloaded it around the time I posted all those
auctions, you probably got the bad version.

I like the part where you get the "number of 1000-ns intervals
since 1-Jan-1601 UTC" :)
Click to expand...
Heh... I've wondered where Microsoft came up with that; it might have
come from the Unix world. There's a lot of weirdness in the calendar
business, and it's usually less arbitrary, but more obscure, than it
seems at first.

-- john, KE5FX
 
That's not my code, I should (hastily) note -- it's a comment that
reflects the fact that the Win32 GetFileTime() API returns the number
of 100-ns intervals since 1-Jan-1601, and I multiply the result by 10
to obtain a 64-bit microsecond counter. I'd assume that MS is doing
the right thing.
 
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