Index of Technical Information and Modifications for Test Equipment

Back to Home Technical Information, Construction Information and Modifications on, of and for Test Equipment
Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

The contents of this page, like most here at www.repeater-builder.com, are totally dependent on donations of information.

If you have a manual that we do not have, please consider scanning it and sending it in. We can get it scanned if you do not have access to a scanner. Donations of additional material to this page (or any page on this web site) are always welcome.
If you have a useful trick that others would like to know, please write it up and email it in.
Repeater-Builder has lots of unused server space.

Manufacturers Manuals and Data Sheets:

Agilent - see HP / Agilent below.

Automated Industrial Electronics Corp Model 2TSG-1 Two Tone Generator Instruction Manual 986 KB PDF made from over 20 separate page scan files front panel photo
As a result of a request made in a comment thread on the repeater-builder mailing list John Kernkamp WB4YJT scanned his manual, took a front panel photo and emailed both to me.
This is a unit that can generate two clean audio tones from 10 Hz to 9.999 Khz, and send tone A or a two-tone A-B sequence with variable delay, duration and level. It was a very popular service monitor add-on for doing CTCSS generation, tone burst, single tone, or two-tone pagers. While they call it an "instruction manual" it contains all available documentaton including service info and schematics.

Boonton 92BD Instruction Manual 7.2 MB PDF
Boonton 92BD Probe Information 9.3 KB PDF

Motorola S1339A RF MilliVoltmeter Instruction Manual 4.6 MB PDF Donated by A. Nony Mous
It's actually the Boonton 92E manual, but the Moto S1339 was a relabeled Boonton 92E, so it works just fine.

Bird Electronics Corp. Products, including the Thruline™ and Termaline™ Wattmeters.

Coaxial Dynamics Inc (Coaxial, or CDI, at http://www.coaxial.com) makes Bird clone products, such as wattmeters, elements, and dummy loads. Their elements are interchangeable with Bird equivalents (same sizes, ranges, etc) and at one time they were a bit less-expensive than Bird's. Their 81000 meter is functionally equivalent to the classic Bird 43 meter, however it has a much bigger case and a much bigger mirrored-scale meter, great for us older folks who have problems reading the small Bird meter. You may see similar-looking meters for sale, with brands like Sola, Sola Basic, or Dielectric. This product line was bought out by CDI.

CT Systems - see Wavetek

Cushman Electronics Information about communications test equipment manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s by Cushman.

DSI 5600A Frequency Counter 2.83 MB PDF Donated by A. Nony Mous
DSI was a small company in San Diego California that made excellent equipment, but has folded. They made several products, at this time this counter is the only one we have any manuals on.

The Heath / Heathkit HM-2102 VHF Wattmeter 1.4 MB PDF This is the forward-and-reverse power meter that covers 50 to 160 MHz at 0-25 or 0-250 watts - it has no dummy load. The HM-102 is the equivalent for 3.5 to 30 MHz at up to 2000w, and is in the same package.

The Heathkit HM-2103 HF Dummy Load 5.2 MB PDF Heath had two compact dry dummy loads. This is the HF version, which can handle 1kw for one minute, derating to 175w continuous duty. The front panel overtemperature indicator lamp is powered by a 9v battery which has been forgotten about and leaked in every one I've seen at hamfests. BTW, the original design didn't have a fan, but several have been seen at hamfests with a muffin fan mounted on the end of the cabinet. One had the thermal switch attached to the fan and a big red neon lamp.

The Heathkit HN-31 "Cantenna" Dummy Load 15 KB PDF
Note that many of the cantennas are getting to be 40 and 50 years old, and if you buy a used one you may not know it's history... it may heve been overheated at some point. In the early days Heath used military surplus 50 and 52 ohm resistors to make them. Later they had resistors specifically made at 50.0 ohms for the kit. Over the last few years it's been noticed that the resistors are no longer 50.0 to 52.0 ohms... they are drifting. If you get weird SWR readings on your cantenna you might want to measure the resistor. One had drifted upwards to 60.5 ohms... The owner salvaged it by dismantling the RF head and wiring in a line cord and a pigtail AC outlet temporarily. The pigtail had an electric heater plugged into it to limit the current. Applying 120vAC across the series combination of the electric heater and the cantenna resistor (still in the oil) resulted in about 140-150 watts dissipation in the cantenna. He kept this up for two months,a nd the "cooking" of the cantenna resistor brought the value back to about 53-55 ohms - much better! And the electric heat helped keep the ham shack warm during the winter !

Sinad Alignment For Optimum Performance 354 KB PDF
This is the writeup that got Helper started - it's a quite readable explanation of the the theory behind SINAD measurement. What's left of Helper Industries is now owned by Zetron.

Helper Industries Catalog 1.43 MB PDF
I believe that this PDF is of the last catalog that Helper released.

Helper Instruments Sinadder Model S-101 Photo 508 KB PDF file This is the manual for the original small sloping-front "Sinadder" unit from the late 1970s (after they came out with the Sinadder II this became known as the "Sinadder I"), complete with parts layouts and schematics. Despite the age, it's still a very useful test bench instrument.

Helper Instruments Sinadder 3 Photo 1 Photo 2 457 Kb PDF file Donated by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY This is the manual for the later flat-front Sinadder model 3.

Helper Instruments Sinadder Model SL-105 with optional CML-1 3.4 MB PDF file This is the manual for the "Sinadder Linear 5", complete with parts layouts and schematics. Despite the age, it's still a very useful test bench instrument.

Helper Instruments "Lineman" model LM-103 This unit is used to test the leased phone lines used to control remotely located base stations. The manual that was scanned was well-worn but it's the best we could do. 683 Kb PDF file. What is left of Helper is now owned by Zetron.

HP / Agilent Information and modifications for test equipment manufactured by Agilent, better known as the old Hewlett Packard Test Equipment group.

IFR / Aeroflex Information and modifications for test equipment manufactured by Instrument Flight Research corp, better known as IFR, now a part of Aeroflex.

Lampkin Type 107B Digital Frequency Meter and Type 107C Communication Service Monitor Operation and service manual 4.1 MB PDF Compliments of Greg Miller, K2GTM.
This 159 page manual is dated October 1972.

Marconi Marconi is an English company and their equipment is not found too often in the USA. There is a Canadian Marconi company and their mobile radios were fairly popular for a while.

Motorola Moto has made their own test equipment or private-labeled other manufacturers (like Measurements Corp. or Boonton) since the late 1940s. They've also worked with other companies to design specialized equipment, like the telephone line test set that was co-designed with Triplett and made by them, but sold by both.

Ramsey "COM3" service monitor owners manual 3.54 MB PDF courtesy of A. Nony Mous

Simpson 160, 165, 215, 255, 260, 261 and 270 series VOMs (offsite link to http://www.simpson260.com)
Data sheets, schematics, owners manuals, operating instructions, sales brochures, and more.

Tektronix Information about test equipment manufactured by Tektronix, best known for their oscilloscopes.

Triplett Corp has a number of current and older manuals on their web site. See http://www.triplett.com/manuals.php.
Tripplett is located at 850 Perimeter Road, Manchester, New Hampshire 03103 (USA).
Toll free phone is at 1-800-METERS-1 (800-638-3771)

Triplett 630 Series 5 VOM manual Donated by John Riddell VE3AMZ

Triplett 630 PL and PLK VOM instruction manual Donated by John Riddell VE3AMZ

Triplett 850 instruction manual Donated by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

Wavetek and CT Systems Information about test equipment manufactured by Wavetek (service monitors and signal generators).
Over the years Wavetek bought several companies, including CT Systems.

Construction and Modification Articles:

A Poor Ham's Deviation Meter A theory and practice article on measuring deviation of FM transmitters, by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK

Build Youself a Service Monitor ? Well, sort of. By Tom Alldread VA7TA A simple deviation monitor circuit used with a scanner receiver.

Poor Man's Spectrum Analyzer A Spectrum Analyzer / Tracking Generator Kit by Science Workshop (offsite link)
If anyone wants to write a review article after acquiring one we'll put it on this page.

Other info:

A lot of equipment, including many HP and IFR and Motorola spectrum analyzers and service monitors, have an RF fuse, in the output connector. The original manufacturer is Littelfuse Corp, and they named it a "PicoFuse". Other companies now make a similar and interchangeable product. Two forms are made: one is axial about the size and shape of a 1/4 watt or 1/8 watt resistor, the other is a small cylindrical plug in element a little smaller than a pencil eraser.
The name "PicoFuse" is a LittelFuse corporate trademark, but has become synonymous with the fast acting fuse in either shape.

One source for the fuses is Jameco, others are Digikey and Mouser. Click here for a PDF on the axial fuses (which usually have a solid color body in green, yellow, orange or gold). They're available from 1/16 amp through 5 amps. They come in fast-blow and slow-blow, you want the fastest they have.
Look for the LittelFuse 373/TR5 series if you need the round 8.5mm diameter plug-in style. They are available in 40ma (yes, milliamps) through 6.5 amps. The most common size that I have found in RF test gear (like service monitors) is the 1/16 amp.

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This page initially created 30-March-2009 by splitting all of the Cushman, HP and IFR information away from the Other Manufacturers page. Other brands were added later.

This web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.

	Agilent - see HP / Agilent below.
	Automated Industrial Electronics Corp Model 2TSG-1 Two Tone Generator Instruction Manual 986 KB PDF made from over 20 separate page scan files front panel photo As a result of a request made in a comment thread on the repeater-builder mailing list John Kernkamp WB4YJT scanned his manual, took a front panel photo and emailed both to me. This is a unit that can generate two clean audio tones from 10 Hz to 9.999 Khz, and send tone A or a two-tone A-B sequence with variable delay, duration and level. It was a very popular service monitor add-on for doing CTCSS generation, tone burst, single tone, or two-tone pagers. While they call it an "instruction manual" it contains all available documentaton including service info and schematics.
	Boonton 92BD Instruction Manual 7.2 MB PDF Boonton 92BD Probe Information 9.3 KB PDF
	Motorola S1339A RF MilliVoltmeter Instruction Manual 4.6 MB PDF Donated by A. Nony Mous It's actually the Boonton 92E manual, but the Moto S1339 was a relabeled Boonton 92E, so it works just fine.
	Bird Electronics Corp. Products, including the Thruline™ and Termaline™ Wattmeters.
	Coaxial Dynamics Inc (Coaxial, or CDI, at http://www.coaxial.com) makes Bird clone products, such as wattmeters, elements, and dummy loads. Their elements are interchangeable with Bird equivalents (same sizes, ranges, etc) and at one time they were a bit less-expensive than Bird's. Their 81000 meter is functionally equivalent to the classic Bird 43 meter, however it has a much bigger case and a much bigger mirrored-scale meter, great for us older folks who have problems reading the small Bird meter. You may see similar-looking meters for sale, with brands like Sola, Sola Basic, or Dielectric. This product line was bought out by CDI.
	CT Systems - see Wavetek
	Cushman Electronics Information about communications test equipment manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s by Cushman.
	DSI 5600A Frequency Counter 2.83 MB PDF Donated by A. Nony Mous DSI was a small company in San Diego California that made excellent equipment, but has folded. They made several products, at this time this counter is the only one we have any manuals on.
	The Heath / Heathkit HM-2102 VHF Wattmeter 1.4 MB PDF This is the forward-and-reverse power meter that covers 50 to 160 MHz at 0-25 or 0-250 watts - it has no dummy load. The HM-102 is the equivalent for 3.5 to 30 MHz at up to 2000w, and is in the same package.
	The Heathkit HM-2103 HF Dummy Load 5.2 MB PDF Heath had two compact dry dummy loads. This is the HF version, which can handle 1kw for one minute, derating to 175w continuous duty. The front panel overtemperature indicator lamp is powered by a 9v battery which has been forgotten about and leaked in every one I've seen at hamfests. BTW, the original design didn't have a fan, but several have been seen at hamfests with a muffin fan mounted on the end of the cabinet. One had the thermal switch attached to the fan and a big red neon lamp.
	The Heathkit HN-31 "Cantenna" Dummy Load 15 KB PDF Note that many of the cantennas are getting to be 40 and 50 years old, and if you buy a used one you may not know it's history... it may heve been overheated at some point. In the early days Heath used military surplus 50 and 52 ohm resistors to make them. Later they had resistors specifically made at 50.0 ohms for the kit. Over the last few years it's been noticed that the resistors are no longer 50.0 to 52.0 ohms... they are drifting. If you get weird SWR readings on your cantenna you might want to measure the resistor. One had drifted upwards to 60.5 ohms... The owner salvaged it by dismantling the RF head and wiring in a line cord and a pigtail AC outlet temporarily. The pigtail had an electric heater plugged into it to limit the current. Applying 120vAC across the series combination of the electric heater and the cantenna resistor (still in the oil) resulted in about 140-150 watts dissipation in the cantenna. He kept this up for two months,a nd the "cooking" of the cantenna resistor brought the value back to about 53-55 ohms - much better! And the electric heat helped keep the ham shack warm during the winter !
	Sinad Alignment For Optimum Performance 354 KB PDF This is the writeup that got Helper started - it's a quite readable explanation of the the theory behind SINAD measurement. What's left of Helper Industries is now owned by Zetron.
	Helper Industries Catalog 1.43 MB PDF I believe that this PDF is of the last catalog that Helper released.
	Helper Instruments Sinadder Model S-101 Photo 508 KB PDF file This is the manual for the original small sloping-front "Sinadder" unit from the late 1970s (after they came out with the Sinadder II this became known as the "Sinadder I"), complete with parts layouts and schematics. Despite the age, it's still a very useful test bench instrument.
	Helper Instruments Sinadder 3 Photo 1 Photo 2 457 Kb PDF file Donated by Eric Lemmon WB6FLY This is the manual for the later flat-front Sinadder model 3.
	Helper Instruments Sinadder Model SL-105 with optional CML-1 3.4 MB PDF file This is the manual for the "Sinadder Linear 5", complete with parts layouts and schematics. Despite the age, it's still a very useful test bench instrument.
	Helper Instruments "Lineman" model LM-103 This unit is used to test the leased phone lines used to control remotely located base stations. The manual that was scanned was well-worn but it's the best we could do. 683 Kb PDF file. What is left of Helper is now owned by Zetron.
	HP / Agilent Information and modifications for test equipment manufactured by Agilent, better known as the old Hewlett Packard Test Equipment group.
	IFR / Aeroflex Information and modifications for test equipment manufactured by Instrument Flight Research corp, better known as IFR, now a part of Aeroflex.
	Lampkin Type 107B Digital Frequency Meter and Type 107C Communication Service Monitor Operation and service manual 4.1 MB PDF Compliments of Greg Miller, K2GTM. This 159 page manual is dated October 1972.
	Marconi Marconi is an English company and their equipment is not found too often in the USA. There is a Canadian Marconi company and their mobile radios were fairly popular for a while.
	Motorola Moto has made their own test equipment or private-labeled other manufacturers (like Measurements Corp. or Boonton) since the late 1940s. They've also worked with other companies to design specialized equipment, like the telephone line test set that was co-designed with Triplett and made by them, but sold by both.
	Ramsey "COM3" service monitor owners manual 3.54 MB PDF courtesy of A. Nony Mous
	Simpson 160, 165, 215, 255, 260, 261 and 270 series VOMs (offsite link to http://www.simpson260.com) Data sheets, schematics, owners manuals, operating instructions, sales brochures, and more.
	Tektronix Information about test equipment manufactured by Tektronix, best known for their oscilloscopes.
	Triplett Corp has a number of current and older manuals on their web site. See http://www.triplett.com/manuals.php. Tripplett is located at 850 Perimeter Road, Manchester, New Hampshire 03103 (USA). Toll free phone is at 1-800-METERS-1 (800-638-3771)
	Triplett 630 Series 5 VOM manual Donated by John Riddell VE3AMZ
	Triplett 630 PL and PLK VOM instruction manual Donated by John Riddell VE3AMZ
	Triplett 850 instruction manual Donated by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
	Wavetek and CT Systems Information about test equipment manufactured by Wavetek (service monitors and signal generators). Over the years Wavetek bought several companies, including CT Systems.

	A Poor Ham's Deviation Meter A theory and practice article on measuring deviation of FM transmitters, by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK
	Build Youself a Service Monitor ? Well, sort of. By Tom Alldread VA7TA A simple deviation monitor circuit used with a scanner receiver.
	Poor Man's Spectrum Analyzer A Spectrum Analyzer / Tracking Generator Kit by Science Workshop (offsite link) If anyone wants to write a review article after acquiring one we'll put it on this page.