Covid19 shutdown causing loss of lab/tool assets

[Chuck H]

So thirty bucks less per piece of "The Nevets Collection"? That could be thousands of dollars.

Good point!

[nevetslab]

Recovered assets now at home

Friday I spent the day extracting equipment from the lockers and moving them into my upstairs apartment. I had time for two trips before cutting the rental Dodge Ram Crew-cab pickup I rented from Enterprise for $41. Took the time to capture fresh images on the Apple iPhone5, then began the process of moving stuff out of the way to get the first load out. My second trip was to extract all of my photography gear out, along with most of the small bench instruments I had tucked away in the space underneath my former bunk bed (retasked as a loft for upper storage, with the shelves below previously packed with photography gear, darkroom gear and small bench instruments). I'll still have to come back to extract my technical library, though I know I won't have the space for all of that in my one-room apartment.....but will do what I can.

Some of the gear brought back:



My LeCroy 7200A Digital Scope (color display), which needs to sit on my Tektronix K217 wide scope cart, still in the lockers with the older 7200 Monachrome display....neither of them now power up, so that should be an interesting adventure in restoration. The 7200A is based around a Intel 486 CPU, while the 7200 is a 68000 CPU system. Last time I saw the 7200A work, it's image size had shrunk to about 1/3 of the normal image, then prior to moving out of Gardena, neither instrument lit up. I think I paid $1500 for that scope...the most I've paid for any used lab instrument.

The Wandel & Goltermann SPM-19, PS-19 & SG-4 Display make up a 25MHz Spectrum Analyzer/Tracking Generator. Those who recall details of the role Jodie Foster played in the movie Contact (Dr. Eleanor), who in one of the scenes in the lab searching for different noisy star clusters, there was that same SPM-19 tuned narrowband wave analyzer that she was using. That set of three instruments are a beautiful set of instruments, but, within a small shop bench, just are way too big and not suitable for everyday use. The HP 3581A is a low bandwidth instrument (5-50kHz) with a bit higher resolution...a metered version of the HP 3580A Spectrum Analyzer, which I do have sitting atop my Tek 7633 Storage Scope in my shop.

The HP 7090A Digital Plotter is both an analog and digital interface box, uses the plotter transport of their 7475A 6-pen plotter. Both my HP 3580A, 3581A Spectrum/Wave Analyzers talk to it great, as does the Wavetek Model 98 1MHz Synthesized Power Oscillator for Bode Plots. Not shown in this batch of gear, but in the next batch is the HP 3575A Gain/Phase Meter, which with the Wavetek Model 98 yields great Gain/Phase plots with 80dB dynamic range.

That HP 4470A Transistor Noise Analyzer is HP's approach to the instruments Quan Tech produced (I have two versions of their Model 310 Xstr Noise Analyzers up in my loft in one of the lockers). They come in handy in screening out the quietest semiconductors of a selected device type in qty for use in discrete amplifier circuits. The Quan Tech had the added features of discrete meters for 10Hz, 100Hz, 1kHz, 10kHz & 100kHz noise bands, while this HP instrument, you have to dial them up in 10-30-100-300Hz......30k-100KHz spot frequencies.

That LeCroy 9112 Arbitrary Waveform Generator never had the companion Keyboard until last summer, when I looked to see if any had surfaced and be affordable...finally found one for $60 + shpg, though until now, haven't had the two together to see that it's now a working set. There's a pair of AA-size NiCd batteries in the rear panel of the 9112, which by now are probably dead from disuse. In the past, it being one of many of my instruments talk via HP-IB to a controller computer to set up the waveforms and run the instrument. Once programmed, the keypad can call up any of the programs as well as the normal functions that we're used to having via control knobs. It's a 12-bit resolution 2-channel generator (72dB dynamic range with regards to signal purity).

The Fluke 2190A Digital Thermometer with it's companion 10-Ch scanner and battery pack was sitting on the shelf with all the photo gear, so I grabbed it, being small enough to bring home. Brought the box of both J-type and K-type thermocouples back, thought for my modest needs these days, it's a luxury to have....also being more of R & D than maintenance work. That's the last of that packaging style of Fluke instruments I kept, having sold the other ones years ago.

The HP 6920B Meter Calibrator, while not having high resolution, does provide up to 1000V 60Hz AC or DC, and up to 10A of current for basic meter calibration work. There's some other calibration gear that are shown in the next collection. I did bring back my HP 463A Precision AC Amplifier, which is capable of 100VAC/5W, with a bandwidth of 1MHz, if memory serves. It needs switch contact maintenance, but was a beauty that HP produced in the early 70's. There's also that HP 467A Power Amplifier, which is a combination 0-20VDC and a Power Amp with gain from X1, X2, X5 & X10, with a peak output of 20V P-P, good for 500mW. Limited use, but found it at a swap meet cheap and couldn't resist it. That HP 6181B DC Current Source hasn't had much use, but handy in an R & D Lab when you need that sort of thing. The HP 204D was the best of their small oscillators produced in that series, always works, small and very portable. Square Wave output on the rear for sync or Square Wave source.

More to come.

[big_teee]

It is pretty gear, but all looks real heavy!
T

[nevetslab]

More Gear in the Nevetslab Collection in Storage

Friday, it feels like I barely broke the surface of extracting gear from my lockers. It felt odd being behind the wheel of a new Dodge Ram Crew-cab Pickup Truck driving down the sparsely-full freeway thru Downtown LA to the lockers near the Interstate 110 and 405 in Torrance. I pulled out my Roland TD-10 V-Sessions Drum Kit and loaded it in, which I had packed up in TD-30 boxes I grabbed from CenterStaging (we have a Roland Artist Relations office at our complex and someone had one day unpacked a new TD-30 kit, so, I naturally grabbed all the boxes for the day I'd have to sell/ship the TD-10 set. No box for the drum rack, which is different for the TD-30 from my TD-10 kit. Moving that out of the truck and into the small garage storage locker here at the apartment required a neighbor's help and patience....just barely got the rack into the locker. My controller for the kit is at my shop for use with the Porter-Davies Powered Drum Stool/Amplifier system I often have to service. Paid $3300 for that kit....not sure what I'll get for it these days, though well before this Covid19 crisis, I had seen them selling in the mid-$1000 range. Barely enough to cover my monthly expenses, though I don't even want to think what it's cost me to keep all this gear in storage.

Some additional images of gear tucked away in the main locker:



That's the wider Tektronix K217 Scope Cart which works great for the large scopes like the LeCroy 7200A. Next to that is an EDC MV116 DC Voltage Standard, with two Tektronix calibration instruments below...the Standard Amplitude Calibrator (which was standard feature on their older 500 series scopes), and the Type 184 Time Mark Generator for time-base calibration. In the next image, sitting below those Tek instruments is a 5-bay Power Supply rack made by Preston Scientific...four of their Model MOD-X101 0-50VDC @ 0-500mA, and one Model 101 0-30VDC @ 500mA. Older-looking instruments, but beautifully constructed. I've used those for decades for general purpose shop/lab use.

The vertical stack of gear sitting underneath the Neutrik RT1M & RT2 Rapid Test Audio Analyzers is an Analogic 6100 Waveform Analyzer with a 650 Interface Plugin installed, which talks to the Model 650 Preamp. That combination yields a 16-bit resolution 1MHz BW 4-Ch Digital Scope, which works beautiful for Sound & Vibration work Ultrasonic work (Marine Acoustics), having all the refinements of digital scopes, with 96dB dynamic range in the FFT mode or Analog/time modes. Most Digital scopes are 8-bit resolution, though by now, 12 bit may be commonplace....I haven't looked lately. I've always preferred the resolution of fine CRT's for waveform purity visually. In that same cluster of gear are Analogic D1000 2-Ch Preamps, which work as standalone preamps, or in partnership with the Analogic 620 Plugin, to provide 20MHz 8-bit resolution scope use with the Analogic 6000 series mainframe. Their 6100 mainframes take a different plugin..620-1, as the plugins aren't compatible between the two mainframe series.

Next to that image is the ESI 296 Impedance Bridge (120Hz/1kHz), which I had in the BGW Systems Engineering Lab for years. I have the cable-extended 4-terminal Kelvin component fixture, as well as a custom-built 4-terminal Kelvin adjustable span fixture for Radial lead components, plus another for plugging in the Keithley 4-Terminal Kelvin clips.

The next image shows some of my Tektronix scopes...backups for my prime 7834 Storage Mainframe and the 7633 Storage Mainframe that I have in my shop. Sitting atop the 7834 as a unique Dual Beam Storage Scope they produced in the late 60's...the 5031. My first really nice Tek Scope was an R5031 Dual Beam 1MHz Scope, each channel having differential 10uV-10V sensitivity vertical amps along with Current Probe inputs. It's essentially a non-plug-in 7000 series scope, for those familiar with their 7000 series. Another beautiful audio range instrument, which in XY mode, with a Wavetek 185 Log-Lin Sweep Function Generator and an HP 3575A Gain/Phase meter, you get a low-bandwidth Network Analzyer or frequency response analyzer for working with EQ, Filters, Room Acoustics with the precision microphones & preamps (the Wavetek 185's signal can be warbled with constant bandwidth in it's frequency sweep, so I made liberal use of the 5031 storage scopes over the years. That non-rack version (I have a couple R5031's) will come back home, it needing power supply work, but it saw very little use prior to my buying it years ago. Another favorite that I'm hoping to hang on to. But, I also have the R5031's, as well as the non-storage version the R5030 which I have tucked away here at home in a road case. Great shop scope!

The last two images is an interesting box I picked up a TRW Radio Amateur's Technical Swap Meet years ago...an Optimation PA15 Power Amplifier. It needs to be put back into operational service. Small box 2U-Half-Rack size box, VERY HEAVY. I've never had the covers off, but there must be a sizable power and output xfmr inside, based on the switchable Impedance Taps for the output. Meter range covers 0-300mA & 0-160VAC. Mostly for calibration use, and other non-speaker applications in the physics lab, but, something I couldn't resist buying when I found it, paid $15 for it. I forgot to throw it into the truck last Friday, but will bring that home. Not seen, but tucked away is another Optimation product...a 4-digit 0-100kHz Low Distortion Oscillator, not unlike the 4-digit Krohn-Hite Oscillators. I'll get photos of it, once I find it.

More to come.

[nevetslab]

My body, two days later, will attest to that!

[nevetslab]

Got most of the Technical Library moved home

Yesterday, I rented a pickup truck again and drove down to the lockers, with the task of extracting as much of the Technical Library crates from the main locker. By the time I had pulled out nearly all of the blue milk crates used for containing all of the instrument Operators/Service manuals in my inventory, along with technical books, catalogs and such, the back of the smaller pickup truck was full. There's still more books on the shelves in the locker, as well as in boxes, but I had to leave those until the next trip. I also was able to extract my HP Network Analyzer System (HP 3330B/3570A) and H Spectrum Analyzer System (HP 3330B/3571A), along with one of my Tektronix R5031 Dual Beam Storage scopes as a display for either of these systems. I also extracted my Bafco 916AXH & 916A Frequency Response Analyzers.

I had forgotten how heavy each of those manual/book crates were. Around the same weight as a case of copier paper (10 packs of 250 sheets?). Felt like at least 50 lbs. It didn't take long to load the truck at the lockers, since I had access to one of the many large dollies at the facility, but getting them out of the pickup onto the small hand truck I inherited from my Dad's estate and then up the flight of stairs, while moving the dolly up and down the stairs separately, it took from 1PM until 7PM, having to stop constantly to catch my breath & regain my strength. By 3PM, it was clear I wasn't making a second trip to the lockers, so I just paced myself, while hauling all that upstairs nearly wiped me out.

As I had learned before, stacking these milk crates on their sides for library shelf use, they don't stack so well, plus the added combined weight tends to stress the crates, plus the stability worsens as the stack height grows. I only had the space for two columns wide of the larger Blue crates, but had three of the narrower crates, which I partially tucked behind the HP Network Printer/cabinet. When I was thru, I planted a Manfroto Autopole cammed in between the floor & ceiling, with a mafer clamp parked at the center top corners of the top crates, forcing them all the way back, so now the library stack is stable. Earthquake proofing, just in case. The two larger boxes filled with all my Music Studio manuals and more lab manuals got loaded into two of the five drawers of a large filing cabinet next to my lab bench in the living room area. Nothing in the apartment is domestic, apart from the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

I thought I'd have time yesterday to partially unpack my smaller locker, so I could extract my JBL 2390 HF horn/lens cabinets and move them to the other locker, now having more floor space again. Those have been my favorite sounding HF horns, with the serpentine folded lens taking that beaming out and giving a much softer edge to the compression horn/drivers. They're all I have left from my band's sound system, having hoped over the years I'd get around to building a pair of Augsperger Studio Monitors with them. Not likely at this point in my life. Equipped with JBL 2441 Alnico 4" VC drivers. Hopefully they still have financial value.



Bafco 816aXH Frequency Response Analyzer.pdf

After pulling out the Bafco 916AXH in my locker, I found my HP 3591A/3594A Wave/Spectrum Analyzer. While it didn't have a CRT, and normally used a storage scope in XY mode, along with an XY plotter, it had much higher range than my HP 3580A Spectrum Analyzer, whose top end is 50khz, vs the 3591A's 620kHz top end. I'll be putting that up for sale cheap, as it needs work. I have all the manuals for it, plus one or two spare 3594A Sweeping Local Oscillators. The 3591A has a Balanced Input with a number of controls for selecting impedance/matching, which the HP 3590A is unbalanced input. I've attached an HP Journal article detailing it's characteristics. Great box, though retired it for the Bruel & Kjaer 2010/1902 Analyzer/Distortion Unit.

HP 1968 Journal-HP3590A.pdf

Getting up this morning certainly took more effort than usual. At least the smaller Toyota pickup was much easier to maneuver in my small apt parking lot than that Dodge Ram pickup was. Got it dropped off and came back, then captured more photos for my records.

[nickb]

Sounds like one tough day. Where did you get all this equipment from?

[trobbins]

Perhaps some equipment needing repair will move in to someones hands that can enjoy the process of fixing and then the practical use of the equipment - in some ways the equipment can outlast us all. I've just fixed a HP 3325A generator to 99% - at least most issues are power supply, electrolytic cap, or able to be signal tracked to a brickwall failed part, and HP vintage equipment has the advantage of leaded parts, good manuals, and well laid out internals, although they often used bleeding edge methods which in the 3325A case has meant some ferreting back through many stages. Anyway, like vintage guitar amps, a lot of vintage HP-like gear can have an afterlife.

I have one local guy who has saved stacks (as in library stacks) of equipment manuals from defunct companies. Slowly some of them may be scanned and distributed on-line for the betterment of everyone, compared to parcel posting them out on loan. I just fixed a Systron Donner counter thanks to one of those manuals, and helped the cause by scanning the manual. And I just PM'd a guy on diyaudio for a scan of a service manual he has - he says he had emailed that manual to 61 people over the last decade - the world can be a small place in some ways.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Sounds like one tough day. Where did you get all this equipment from?

If you live in the right part of the world, jam up to the notorious Skunk Works, plus Jet Propulsion Laboratory, TRW and lots of other hi tech companies, then you hit the garage sales & flea markets, also surplus shops, well that's where Nevets has been. A lot of the sources have dried up now. Hopefully a new generation of boffins will benefit from Nevets and others like him selling off their collections. It's a similar scene a ways further north in Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, also in the aerospace and computer development zone near Seattle.

[nevetslab]

Sounds like one tough day. Where did you get all this equipment from?

As Leo had suggested, living in Los Angeles, there has been numerous surplus equipment dealers and the Radio Amateur Technical Swap Meets every month for decades. That was, of course, before the days of ebay. Post-ebay, all the premium sellers at the two major swap meets move onto ebay and raised their prices. Over the decades of collecting/using in the engineering labs of BGW Systems, Cherokee Recording Studios, Westlake Recording Studios, Marshall Electronics (MXL Mics), it's just been one of those passions along with acquiring tools all my life. Now, it's beginning to feel like a serious noose around my neck.

I am looking to give shit away at this point just to get it out of the lockers, though when I run out of funds to keep the monthly rents paid on the two lockers, the legal fees that will follow with certainly put the screws to me.

[nevetslab]

Perhaps some equipment needing repair will move in to someones hands that can enjoy the process of fixing and then the practical use of the equipment - in some ways the equipment can outlast us all. I've just fixed a HP 3325A generator to 99% - at least most issues are power supply, electrolytic cap, or able to be signal tracked to a brickwall failed part, and HP vintage equipment has the advantage of leaded parts, good manuals, and well laid out internals, although they often used bleeding edge methods which in the 3325A case has meant some ferreting back through many stages. Anyway, like vintage guitar amps, a lot of vintage HP-like gear can have an afterlife.

I have one local guy who has saved stacks (as in library stacks) of equipment manuals from defunct companies. Slowly some of them may be scanned and distributed on-line for the betterment of everyone, compared to parcel posting them out on loan. I just fixed a Systron Donner counter thanks to one of those manuals, and helped the cause by scanning the manual. And I just PM'd a guy on diyaudio for a scan of a service manual he has - he says he had emailed that manual to 61 people over the last decade - the world can be a small place in some ways.

When I had the time and keys to BGW Systems, where there was a beautiful Xerox color copier, I was running off copies of manuals. Now, I could do well with a B-size high resolution scanner, as nearly all of my manuals are originals.

And, like vintage guitar amps, so much of the gear I've acquired is premium quality, built to last, and have been repairing them as required/time permitting, to keep them running. I never did spring for an HP 3325A, though have used them along the way. I went the route with a Wavetek 95 Arb/Synthesizer, along with LeCroy 9112 Arb/Generator. I did bring my LeCroy 7200A home, which has stopped working, so hopefully I'll be able to restore it to full operational status. It needs a Tek Scope Cart (have two in that wide format in storage)....one may end up home.....thought about bringing that home on the second trip yesterday, not knowing hauling the library assets would completely wear me out.

I did find my General Radio 1650B, so now I have a GR 1650A I can give away, if anyone is interested. I'll post that on the Flea Market soon, though the photos may be 'stock' photos, since both bridges are still in storage. The ESI 296 Bridge is also up for grabs, though I'd at least like a few bucks for it. My GenRad 1658 DigiBridge will suffice.

I still have to contact local and nearby states equipment brokers to see if any of them are interested in picking up what's available.

[nickb]

As Leo had suggested, living in Los Angeles, there has been numerous surplus equipment dealers and the Radio Amateur Technical Swap Meets every month for decades. That was, of course, before the days of ebay. Post-ebay, all the premium sellers at the two major swap meets move onto ebay and raised their prices. Over the decades of collecting/using in the engineering labs of BGW Systems, Cherokee Recording Studios, Westlake Recording Studios, Marshall Electronics (MXL Mics), it's just been one of those passions along with acquiring tools all my life. Now, it's beginning to feel like a serious noose around my neck.

I am looking to give shit away at this point just to get it out of the lockers, though when I run out of funds to keep the monthly rents paid on the two lockers, the legal fees that will follow with certainly put the screws to me.

I once went to a local Radio Amateur's swap meet here the South West in England just to see. I'll not mention the name. What is total pile of overpriced garbage they had and not very friendly. Clearly in a different class from where you are. As a kid I went along to the local RA club meetings (in Aberdeen) and they were a great bunch of guys, were very encouraging and held regular surplus auctions where I got many a bargain.

[Jonathan9192]

Hi from Germany,

I saw your post just now and I hope that I am not too late.
Owning a LeCroy 7200A myself, I am especially interested in the various LeCroy items (oscilloscopes, manuals, the AFG and probably anything else not listed here yet).
It would be a honor for me to give your LeCroy gear a new home and make the documents publicly available, as I happen to have access to a scanner capable of comfortably
scanning large numbers of pages in decent quality (at least much better that what is currently provided by LeCroy itself).

Please let me know what you think about this.

Best regards,
Jonathan Schilling

[bsco]

Well, within Glendale, if any of us were unable to pay the rent, we wouldn't be evicted, but, we would have a 6 month grace period for each month rent isn't paid, and would have to pay it back. I haven't yet spoken with Storage, Etc regarding their locker rental fees. At best, it would be similar to that, or, at worst, you don't pay, you loose. As that rent now cost me $460 a month to keep the lockers, I'm so close to bankruptcy, I have to do something. For all I know, Covid19 will take care of that and I become a statistic. Hope not, but, I am 70 yrs old. California hasn't yet become like NY, but only time will tell, and the good LORD's grace.

That is sad.....man...you have some wack of gear.....you will fill more than one basement apartment....hopefully everything will work out for you......

[nevetslab]

Hi from Germany,

I saw your post just now and I hope that I am not too late.
Owning a LeCroy 7200A myself, I am especially interested in the various LeCroy items (oscilloscopes, manuals, the AFG and probably anything else not listed here yet).
It would be a honor for me to give your LeCroy gear a new home and make the documents publicly available, as I happen to have access to a scanner capable of comfortably
scanning large numbers of pages in decent quality (at least much better that what is currently provided by LeCroy itself).

Please let me know what you think about this.

Best regards,
Jonathan Schilling

NO....not too late. In fact, all of the equipment I put up for sale or give-away in MEF's flea Market within the Parking Lot forum are still there (accessible only to MEF members). I haven't yet gotten any further than attempting power-up on the LeCroy 7200A, finding I do have the front panel Power Switch illuminate, but the FAN's don't run. So, next move is opening up the unit, unplugging boards and reseating everything to see if it's just contacts (wishful thinking). I do have the service manual for it. May just be a power supply issue, though it could also be the video card. if it's the EPROM that contains the BIOS to run the system that as died, or things like that, then I'm in trouble. The 7200 instrument is still in my lockers, as is the 9100 AFG. I did finally pick up the remote control keyboard for the 9112 AFG, but haven't tried powering it up. I've misplaced the manual for it, along with my copy of EASYWAVE (I think that's their software). I have an older Win 98 computer with a National Instruments IEEE-488 interface card in that machine to run these instruments. I'll have to make another run to the lockers to find that, along with the box full of HP-IB cables.

The 9100 I'll give away. Even if I can get the older 68000 based 7200 back up and running would be cool, though when I first had that 7200A up and running, with an IBM keyboard connected to it, sitting on the scope cart drawer below the instrument to talk to it, and a LaserJet to print out screen shots.....I was impressed. Very cool scope. But, WHAT A BOAT ANCHOR. Definitely has to live on that Tek K217 scope cart. I haven't brought that home yet.

Shipping to Germany, as well as tariffs would be the biggest issues, I suspect.

Cheers,

Steven