[sdiy] HP Counter Recommendation?

[Tim Ressel]

Glen,

For the money you're talking you may not get a choice.
The good news is lemons are few and far between with
the old HP gear. I just got a 5328A for real cheap
because it has a bad digit on the display, which I can
fix. The 5316 is a good little counter as well. You
want to look for a box that has scope-like controls on
the input. The 5382, for example, has minimal input
features. I like to have more options on the input.

One suggestion I have for any box you get: if you have
access to any known good gear (or a cal lab!) have
your box checked for basic accuracy. It'll take 2
minutes and let you know your timebase is doing its
job.

--tr




--- Glen <mclilith at charter.net> wrote:
> I've been thinking of getting one of those HP
> frequency counters that I see
> on eBay. However, I'm not that familiar with the
> different models. I
> wouldn't want to unknowingly get a model that was
> considered a "lemon" for
> some reason.
> 
> I want one of the "Universal" counters. I'm not
> interested in GHz
> bandwidths or anything like that. I just want an
> accurate and precision
> instrument for signals under 100 MHz. In fact, I
> would use the counter
> mostly in or near the audio range. In such cases,  I
> expect I would be
> using period measurement more than actual frequency
> measurement, for the
> added precision that would provide. Being able to do
> frequency ratio
> measurements would also be a nice feature to have.
> 
> So which models of HP Universal Counters should I be
> considering? I should
> also mention that my budget is really small. I
> absolutely couldn't afford
> to spend more than $100 at the moment. (Yes, I
> realize how small that
> amount is compared to new HP gear prices, but I'm
> looking for an older eBay
> bargain here.)
> 
> 
> thanks for any advice,
> Glen Berry
> 
> 


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com