This an advert I received today. Interesting and useful stuff. TravisK5HTB
New products at SOTABEAMS
Testing, testing, 1234...
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Jez Siddons of Peak Electronics (left) welcomes
SOTABEAMS as a new distributor of their test equipment
Test Equipment for the Shack
Useful and clever
Peak Electronics make a range of very clever hand held test equipment. We
recently bought their LCR45 automatic inductance, capacitance and resistance
meter for use in our factory. I was so impressed with it that I contacted Peak
electronics with a view to stocking it. They agreed and I drove over to collect
some stock. They are a local company specialising in the handheld test
equipment market.
The LCR45 is worth of a little further description. It's a fully automatic
meter, so unlike many others you don't need to calibrate it each time you use
it and neither do you need to tell it what the component under test is.
For the radio amateur the LCR45 is likely to become an indispensable item in
the shack. I have discovered that as I have got older the writing on components
gets fainter and smaller. The LCR45 makes deciding if the capacitor is a 103 or
104 quick and easy! When measuring inductors it shows the series resistance too
- handy for Q estimates. For the more advanced amateur it shows the impedance
in complex form with the test frequency stated; handy for use with a Smith
chart.
We have been using ours to pre-align tuned circuits and it has already paid for
itself in time saved. Another use we have found is testing feeders on antennas.
We just clip the meter across the antenna plug and read the capacitance. It's
clever enough not only to tell us if there is a short but at which end. If
there is a short in the plug it reads as a low resistance, if the cable is open
at the far end it reads like a capacitor, finally if there is a short at the
far end it reads like an inductor. Thus in one quick test it can indicate and
locate a fault! I think it would be possible to use it to measure the length of
coax cable but I have yet to try that.
I have also noticed that its pulsed test signal is handy for a quick test of HF
receivers. It has several selectable test frequencies so you can use it as an
audio generator for testing amplifiers too. It has another use at audio
frequencies as it can measure speaker impedance - useful for selecting the best
ear-buds for minimalist radios.
Also of great use in the shack is the DCA55 semiconductor analyser. Again it's
fully automatic and looks set to save me ages searching for pin-outs on the
internet. It analyses FETs and BJTs with ease giving an hfe reading as part of
its analysis. I think my days of trying to read the faint writing on
transistors by getting the sun to glint off them may be over.
These are just two of the range of instruments that we have in stock. Each one
seems to be a real gem! Check them all out in our new test equipment section.
For a while I am offering free worldwide shipping on these instruments.
NEW ANTENNA TRAPS
I have redesigned our antenna traps and I think that I have come up with a
really useful new product. The new traps are amazingly simple to use, and very
light. ...and they are cheap too! Find out all about them here.
20 Watt and 100 Watt Traps 7 - 30 MHz
What else is new?
Dust caps for BNC, PL259 and N plugs. Handy!
Military green antenna wire. Made specially for us.
Bungee bargain packs.
...and more!
73 Richard G3CWI
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Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 3JA · United Kingdom
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