test equipment

[Dan Bick]

Picked up an Icom 02AT and

charger in good working order at the Superior

hamfest for $20.

Icom's tech manual has full

alignment procedure if you

have this equipment:

freq counter

signal generator

AC multivoltmeter

RF voltmeter

RF wattmeter

AC oscillator

Oscilloscope Rigol?

FM deviation meter

Directional Coupler

Ampermeter

dummy load

DC var power supply 5-15 VDC

Any recommendations for the

above equipment? Thinking

some gear should be quality

like a Rigol Oscope while others

use features from gear like

a nano-vna.

Thanks for your expertise and

advice.

Dan, N0HAM

[Harry Johnson]

I'm fairly new to hamming in this era -- but I have followed it my whole life and worked in electronics.

Unless you're having trouble or getting bad signal reports, I'd be inclined to leave it alone. Your equipment list  includes some pretty exotic stuff ( FM deviation meter and RF voltmeter for instance). Rigol scopes are OK -- but if they actually want you to check the output, you'll need one that's spec'd for at least 200 Mhz.

You MIGHT  read through the procedure and see if there's anything that looks easy enough to do and could be an important thing to check. It's just that if that's a factory setup, the would have the means to take it apart and fixtures to hold things in place and connect securely. I'm betting that the thing is pretty jam packed inside.

Some of the more experienced folks might have tips as to how you could check the basic Rx and Tx. I'd suggest at least calling in to a couple of the 2 meter nets (Mnarts on Monday@7pm and 3Mnet on Tuesday@8:30  for example) and asking for a signal report. If you sound good and you can hear them, that's a pretty good start.

Good Luck and 73,

Harry KF0MAB

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[Phil Lefever]

As Harry says, if it seems to work, leave it be. The perfect is the enemy of the just fine. It is just an HT afterall, even after all these years I bet it still outperforms a new Baofeng ;)

I have an HP 8924C station monitor which would essentially be all you'd need for all that testing. Basically in one box you get a spectrum analyzer with tracking RF generator, full AF tone generation with modulation and demodulation ability, deviation and SINAD testing. It is able to operate full duplex to test a repeater all up at once too. 30Mhz-1Ghz. It has an internal load for power measurement also. It is a bit of a Swiss Army knife for RF I bought at a local hamfest years ago for $800. The rub with these older instruments is they are getting long in the tooth and accuracy and reliability will become more and more questionable with time. My unit is from 1998 and originally sold for about $45,000! I was going to replace it with a modern Siglent spectrum analyzer, but they are only the spectrum analyzer. You have to buy more to get close to the functionality. So much for a modern/trustworthy instrument that is portable.

If you are looking to build a bench get a good DMM and a modern digital scope to start out. Some of the new MSO scopes are worthy as they have generators built in. I like the Siglent brand over Rigol but both are likely equal, I just happen to own a couple of the Siglent pieces. The rest you can pick up as you need them. I was an experimenting ham for many years with nothing but a DMM and an old analog scope.

73

Phil, KBØNES

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[Bob Liesen]

Dan,

 What are you asking for?  Suggested prices or...?

Bob WB0POQ

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[David Donaldson]

Dan,

 

There is no reason to play with alignment on a unit that is operating.  Unless you experience issues, don't touch it.  The 02AT is a very reliable work horse and unless there is an component failure the alignment need not be touched.  There are simple tests of sensitivity and an on air check will tell you that you have a good unit. 

I would say congrats on getting a good deal on a great handheld.  I spent much of my early years working on portable and pagers before I got my EE degree and went into wireless systems engineering.

If you have questions give me a call.

Dave

 

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David Donaldson,
wb7dru\Air Force MARS
Howard Lake, MN
612-618-2210

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