Thought I would throw this into a general email since neither of these require their own write-up.

I recently purchased another Racal-Dana 1992 off eBay as non-working for $60. Having one of these already, I knew not a whole lot could be wrong, and it was most likely the primary oscillator having come loose from the main board (the CPU in the Racal-Dana uses the Counter reference Oscillator for it’s own crystal). Anyway, on receiving it, I saw that indeed, it didn’t work. Opening it up, the oscillator was firmly seated, and I could see the 10Mhz out at the standard output BNC. Looking around the unit, I saw that the IC for the display (in a socket at the back of the display/button board) was unseated slightly. I pushed it back in, and powered up the unit, and it worked! Easiest fix ever. On to eBay it goes!

The second item was a real find. I routinely visit a local computer “thrift” shop for random bits and bobs, and there laying on the bottom of a shelf was an HP 6624a (http://www.home.agilent.com/en/pd-836785-pn-6624A/system-power-supply-40w-4-outputs). Obviously marked HP, so it’s older, but it was only $10! All it had on it was a sticker saying “turned on, display showed information”. Clearly, whomever priced this must have thought it was a UPS, or old Server, or something, because even cheap ones on eBay go for several hundred dollars. Getting the unit home, I powered it up and spot checked the outputs, and they all work great! It’s not the greatest precision power supply I’ve ever seen, but it is 4 sensing outputs, and according to the manual can sink as much current as it generates, so the uses would be pretty high. That said, I don’t need anything this big, nor could I find a place to put it. So, on eBay it goes. I hope to get enough to just buy a Rigol Bench PSU (DP832) that is mV and mA accurate. =)

Update: Sale of the Racal-Dana took 2 days, and was enough to purchase a programmable load (to help test the HP 6624a), and a GPIB to USB adapter (also be good for testing it, as well as normal lab use). So, hooray!