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The Need to Measure Things. When talking antennas -- OK to say Mine is bigger than Yours!

Back in the day when ham radio was a technical hobby and not all appliance operations, hams measured things! We measured voltage, current, resistance and those with a Nano VNA a crystal filter response curve. 

There were some industry standards like the analog Simpson Model 260 or a DVM from John Fluke up there in Mount Lake Terrace in WA state. But now we use the postal or shipper services in place of test instruments. Your ICOM IC7300 is acting up -- off it goes to WA state or the Yaesu FTdx10 is wonky -- off to Southern California.

But what if you were bold and daring enough to take the case off the IC7300 and check for voltages on a terminal block -- what would you use? A more fundamental question is why you would be so emboldened?

That last question has an easy answer -- you just got fired from your tenured government job (a DOGE initiative) yesterday your 401K went in the toilet, and you just paid $15 for a dozen of eggs. So, what else could possibly go wrong? Well, I didn't mention that your mistress is pregnant -- but hey Elon has 13 kids and openly encourages more babies. 

A tour through Lauren Sanchez's Boy Friend's emporium was most revealing. There is a whole array of low-cost test instruments with good ratings from several thousand customers and some are less than $20 and even some less than $10. The very large grouping in the median are units in the $30 to $50 range and then of course the John Fluke stuff in the >$200 range.





Next is an analog meter costing less than $25 with 800 ratings for an average of 4.4 out of 5. I have one analog meter and like it because it is not always updating the LCD. This also is good for measuring DC voltages up to 1000 VDC for working on those old boat anchors.


Take a tour through Amazon and you too will be amazed at the low entry cost to get a pretty good meter.

Them that know can make it go.

73's
Pete N6QW

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