Went to the local DeAnza College Hamfest a couple of weeks ago. First one of the year.
A guy was selling the Fluke freq counter for $15. Asked him if it worked, and he said that the self test was working, but he never did try it past that. So I played the bargaining game and offered him $10. He said 'deal'.
After getting it home, it would work for a little while and then it would just show all zeros.
Oh well; just $10 - so what should I expect?
Well, I had a piece of Fluke gear here and I wasn't going to give up on it without a huge fight.
Grrrr.
Opened it up and began to poke around a bit.
The input board had been removed and re-installed improperly, as one of the the five pins that it was supposed to slide into was not in its place. Apparently someone had been in here before and was also trying to fix it. So I set that straight first. Still, no workee.
Called up Fluke Corp, and they said they no longer offer ANY support for it whatsoever. So, I was on my own here. Did find a service manual for it.
Found a piece of loose solder stuck on the board and cleaned it off; it was touching two traces. Also re-soldered a number of joints that were just a little iffy. Including and especially the flexible ribbon cable that had no less than three joints completely open where it joined to the main board.
Fired up the soldering iron once again and made short work of them.
Now it works! There is a chip of plastic broken off and missing from the left corner - just above the probe input - as far as the cosmetic looks goes. So what - right? It can still read down to .1hz; I never will need to use it that far down anyway. It can do all of the resolution that one would ever need. But having another freq counter to use for radio alignments is welcome. Not to mention, it's a Fluke!
Now, if I could just find a cool deal on a Fluke Spectrum Analyzer.
Hmmm . . .
A guy was selling the Fluke freq counter for $15. Asked him if it worked, and he said that the self test was working, but he never did try it past that. So I played the bargaining game and offered him $10. He said 'deal'.
After getting it home, it would work for a little while and then it would just show all zeros.
Oh well; just $10 - so what should I expect?
Well, I had a piece of Fluke gear here and I wasn't going to give up on it without a huge fight.
Grrrr.
Opened it up and began to poke around a bit.
The input board had been removed and re-installed improperly, as one of the the five pins that it was supposed to slide into was not in its place. Apparently someone had been in here before and was also trying to fix it. So I set that straight first. Still, no workee.
Called up Fluke Corp, and they said they no longer offer ANY support for it whatsoever. So, I was on my own here. Did find a service manual for it.
Found a piece of loose solder stuck on the board and cleaned it off; it was touching two traces. Also re-soldered a number of joints that were just a little iffy. Including and especially the flexible ribbon cable that had no less than three joints completely open where it joined to the main board.
Fired up the soldering iron once again and made short work of them.
Now it works! There is a chip of plastic broken off and missing from the left corner - just above the probe input - as far as the cosmetic looks goes. So what - right? It can still read down to .1hz; I never will need to use it that far down anyway. It can do all of the resolution that one would ever need. But having another freq counter to use for radio alignments is welcome. Not to mention, it's a Fluke!
Now, if I could just find a cool deal on a Fluke Spectrum Analyzer.
Hmmm . . .
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