The biggest differences that I've seen between the expensive and cheap DMM's are:
1 - Speed. Cheap DMM chips take a second or two to produce a reading. Expensive ones are almost instantaneous. That's only a small nuisance unless you are trying to find a 'peak' or 'null' in the reading while making an adjustment. A cheap DMM requires a lot of patience when doing that and you're required to wait a couple of seconds for the display to 'update'. Personally, I prefer my 'scope or an old fashioned "VOM" with a d'Arsonval meter movement when doing adjustments that require finding a peak or null in a voltage level. 2 - Accuracy. The accuracy of cheap DMM's is really quite good, but the cheaper ones usually display fewer digits. Still, we almost never need to know that a voltage is say 9.2215 volts - 9.1 or 9.2 is FB 99.9% of the time. 3 - Ruggedness. My fluke has bounced off of a steel deck of several ships from a height of several feet without a scratch, much less a problem. I'd be surprised if some of the cheap ones could withstand such treatment. Still, what DMM *deserves* to be treated that way? (Careless me...) Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- I got one of these soldering stations from Circuit Specialists when I started on my K2 and it works great. The DMM is very good too. I don't notice any difference between it and a $200+ Fluke. 73/ Bob - W5BIG _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
