Have been doing electonic repair since 1949 so have accumulated every piece of test gear imaginable. Have more than one of most. In some instances you need more than the basics, but if you have a good vtvm, signal generator, both audio and RF, Scope and lot's of schematic knowledge, you can solve almost any problem. 73,Boyd, W0BUW
--- On Sun, 9/23/12, David Moisan <dmoisan@davidmoisan.org> wrote:
From: David Moisan <dmoisan@davidmoisan.org>
Subject: RE: [Amateur-repairs] Poll: Which test equipment do you use in your radio repairs?
To: "Amateur-repairs@yahoogroups.com" <Amateur-repairs@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, September 23, 2012, 11:19 AM
I have a Triplett 2035, a pocket DMM with a lot of features, including C and Hz (20 MHz!!). It's not a "full" meter as it has non-detachable leads, but it's my favorite DMM and I use it for everything.
My scope is an elderly HP 1722 that works-but I wish I had a new Rigol, I so want to own a digital scope-I've played with these at trade shows more times than I can count.
One item of test equipment I want to point out is one that most on the list probably haven't heard of: the Bus Pirate. Many, if not most, modern radios in the past 15 years don't only use microcontrollers (not to surprise anyone), but also employ some kind of serial protocol to interconnect the CPU to things like display and memory. I2C and SPI are two protocols commonly in use, as well as the oldy-old RS232.
The Bus Pirate connects to your PC through USB and lets you connect to one of these serial buses. It's intended for microcontroller hacking, but with modern ham radios the distinction is minute, to say the least.
www.dangerousprototypes.com<http://www.dangerousprototypes.com> developed this, and they link to assembled Bus Pirates, which run about $40. Well worth the money if you work on more recent rigs.
Other than that, I rely on my huge collection of miniature screwdrivers, and my almost-as-huge collection of droplights, flashlights, worklights, and anything else I use to see with.
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