It followed me home....

[majoco]

A Hewlett Packard HP 3586A selective Level Meter. Wot the...is that, I hear you say! Well, it's a real upper class HF receiver, VLF 200Hz (yes, Hz!) to 32MHz with sensitivity down to -120dBm, say about 0.25uV. SSB only but the stability is such that ECSS is spot on. Master oscillator in an oven. Frequency display down to 1Hz. A bit flaky at the moment but I'm working on it! What do you want for less than US$100!

 

[ridgescan]

Congrats Martin! That one looks like hours of fun! I wouldn't mind seeing a video of its capabilities.

 

[majoco]

Here's a YouTube of the "B" version, not really much difference, the "A" version is for European style telephone networks (CCITT) where the "B" is for your US (Bell) network. The "C" version is a general purpose machine that has quite a few of the goodies missing - fortunately mine has the hi stability oscillator and the 3.1kHz bandpass filers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbxd-Z5jts

 

[mmckenna]

I picked up an old Rycom Selective Level Meter that runs from about 300Hz (it actually goes down to 0) up to 3.5KHz. Not as nice as the HP's, but they sure are a lot of fun to play with. I home brewed a loop antenna that covers from about 100KHz up to about 1800KHz that works well with it. I was pulling in DX am broadcast stations so well I could easily overload the receiver.

There's some interesting signals down below 150KHz.

I've been trying for the last 6 months to make some time to get it out in a remote area with the loop and a beverage antenna to see what I can really do. The AM BCB performance is really good.

 

[cmdrwill]

GREAT find.

 

[N4GIX]

Whoever sold that had no idea what it's worth. The least expensive I've found is $650.00 + $82 shipping!

 

[majoco]

It was a two hour drive to pick it up from a rather grubby old warehouse that was full of PA speakers, wiring, amps and other stage gear. The guy said he bought it in a job lot of stuff that he wanted but didn't have a clue what this box was - hence the cheap price just to get it out the door. It's got a couple of problems but hopefully nothing too serious - probably the US$100 would just buy the OCXO on Fleabay!

 

[K5MPH]

There is an Battery inside on the board that was known to leak and damage the the component's on the board hope that didn't happen to you,very nice find i have a ham friend that picked one of the C models up for 50.00 dollars a few years ago good luck on fixing it up......

 

[majoco]

A wet Sunday yesterday gave me the opportunity to get into it - the power supply voltages now on spec after cleaning the series pass transistors of a few years of gooey fluff - the display now shows all the digits after removing a rogue screw that had bitten into a track - I found a potentiometer in the junk box to replace the busted audio gain pot - the on/off switch now works after a bit of bend applied! Now all I need to do is fix the rotary encoder frequency tune control. It all works and passes the self-test routines - a very quirky device but I'm listening to Auckland MWARA as I type this!

Thanks kb5zcs - there was no battery fitted to the power supply board but there were signs that it had leaked in the past and been given a clean up - I gave the board a good scrub with isopropyl alcohol and it's sparkling now! I'll get a couple of rechargable AAA's and fit them to the board. I did have some trouble setting the 5volt rail until I read the manual - it's supposed to be 5.25volts! It's was spot on after all the years of service.

 

[majoco]

Rotary shaft encoder fixed - the tiny lamp had blown - now all good. Tunes in 0.1Hz steps or higher of course!

 

[ab3a]

I used to use those more than 25 years ago. There is a companion signal generator too. They were used for the older Frequency Division Multiplex baseband systems for telephone trunks and the like. I used them in a terrestrial microwave system.

The dynamic range is not what you might think it is. These receivers were designed for accurate representation of incoming signal strengths. As such, the signal itself reads to a resolution of 0.1 dBm. You can offset that to some Test Level Point that is your 0 dB reference.

You can also measure voice channel noise floors with C-message or psophmetric weighting.

However, as a receiver, well, it sucks. The AGC attack is slow. The audio is okay, but nothing to write home about.

There is a companion signal generator too. We used both in a 12 station ring. I would shoot a 1617 kHz signal (crossover frequency) in the middle of the baseband, and measure it from station to station, to ensure that all levels were aligned properly. I also used it to measure baseband flatness.

Those were fantastic pieces of test equipment.

If you find the signal generator, you may be able to set up a rig to test crystal filters and the like. There may also be a GPIB port on the back for controlling it. That's how I used to test baseband flatness....

 

[KC4RAF]

Martin, I know you want to get rid of that

piece of junk, so I'll pay shipping to the states for ya, that way you can get rid of it!!!

 

[majoco]

ab3a - very handy - there is BNC connector on the back - out comes a 0dBm signal at the frequency you have dialled up on the front! Great for checking filters as I just feed the signal back into the receiver and read the level! Need a 20dB attenuator right at the output BNC to keep the leakage down.

There's more to this thing than the immediately obvious.....

KC4RAF said

piece of junk, so I'll pay shipping to the states for ya, that way you can get rid of it!!!

I think it weighs about 44lbs so I reckon shipping, packing, insurance etc. would be much more than it's value! I did see somewhere US$13,000 when new.

ab3a - I haven't used GPIB for years - I probably threw all my course notes into the round filing cabinet! Yes, the socket is there and the board too....hmmm

 

[krokus]

I used these on an analog microwave multiplexer. Very nice equipment, but seems a bit out dated.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[fleef]

Was it from Savers??

A Hewlett Packard HP 3586A selective Level Meter. Wot the...is that, I hear you say! Well, it's a real upper class HF receiver, VLF 200Hz (yes, Hz!) to 32MHz with sensitivity down to -120dBm, say about 0.25uV. SSB only but the stability is such that ECSS is spot on. Master oscillator in an oven. Frequency display down to 1Hz. A bit flaky at the moment but I'm working on it! What do you want for less than US$100!

Did you find that at Savers?? I have magical luck at second hand stores. It's as if I have a Midas Touch, except it's with crap . If I think up a small part or tool that I am in need of, but never find for sale cheap, a little fairy goes *blink* and 9 times out of 10 I'll find it at the next Goodwill stop.

Good for youUUUUUUUU! Me I'd hesitate before knocking down a hundie for a used knik knak, I hear these 2nd hand places DO accept returns on electronics, however.

You say it goes down to 200... Hz?? Wowee wow wow! Me Wantee. VLF is a realm I am eager to explore. Just gotta find a real quiet RFI/EMI zone. Like West Virginia lol.

Goodwill: must be nice to have a store where all your merchandise you get at ZERO COST and you can write your own price tags. They may have "non-profit" status but it does not mean they do not make a profit. They're a franchise, privately owned. What a racket!

 

[majoco]

Sorry, fleef, I'm not in the US! We have a very good auction website here called "TradeMe" where all sorts of good stuff pops up but you have to keep your eye on the ball! There is 'auto bidding' where you put in your maximum bid and if the bidding doesn't get to your max then you win. Also there's a "buy now" but not may private sellers use that. I bought the 3586A at the opening bid, I guess "prospective" owners were put off by the listed defects but I reckon it could be parted out and the indivual assemblies sold on Fleabay. The oven controlled 10MHz oscillator goes for more than I paid for the whole thing! Fortunately I fixed all the faults and now it's a keeper...maybe....!

 

[ab3a]

ab3a - very handy - there is BNC connector on the back - out comes a 0dBm signal at the frequency you have dialled up on the front! Great for checking filters as I just feed the signal back into the receiver and read the level! Need a 20dB attenuator right at the output BNC to keep the leakage down.

There's more to this thing than the immediately obvious.....

The signal generator is capable of sending an adjustable phase signal in to this receiver. With that you can measure group delay in a filter. It can be configured to sweep too. These were wonderful pieces of equipment in the hands of someone who knew what all the bells and whistles were for.

 

[ridgescan]

Hey there's one for sale near me in Los Altos, Ca.! (no I don't want one-too many radios now I am told.)
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/ele/5658301717.html

 

[majoco]

I'm now in the process of making a 40-inch loop with hopefully sufficient turns and capacitance to get down to the VLF bands - I have only one hank of braided insulated copper wire left over that I calculate to be about 60metres/200feet long so hopefully that should be enough.

Any receiver other than the 3586A seems to get very noisy below 400kHz but I guess that's the result of moving house to a more heavily populated area with it's attendant TV and switch-mode noises - hope the loop rejects some of that cr@p!

 

[mmckenna]

I made a loop about 3 foot square for mine. I tapped it in multiple places to allow some flexibility. I also found a double gang variable cap that I installed a switch on to allow stretching the coverage a bit more. Seems to work pretty well from about 2100KHz down to about 150KHz. With the Rycom I was able to pull AM broadcast stations out of the noise pretty easily. Some "weak" station that I can barely get at night can easily be tuned in to the point of overloading the Rycom receiver.

I've got the parts to build a beverage antenna. They are supposed to work well with these guys. Since the Rycom has an internal battery, it's pretty easy to take it out with me, although I've failed to do that yet.

My plan is to take the receiver, the loop and the parts for the beverage antenna out camping one of these days. I usually go out pretty far, well away from power lines, etc. Looking to see what I can pick up with it.

Sort of a shame that the aeronautical non-directional beacons are mostly gone in my area. I was able to find a few with this receiver and loop. I used to hunt for them with a receiver and a long wire. This would have worked a whole lot better.