Didn't make this a poll because of the wide range of answers that I could imagine. Item does not have to be XB3
A few suggestions: Specific part number, priorities, item type, or general pain in the ass items.
"Never hurts to NRTS."
"NRTS them all let QA sort it out."
One for the old timers - Wavtek 110.
Capacitance fuel level test sets in general...
Back in da day anything that wasn't a HP, Tek or Fluke item :-o
Anything Wavetek, Boonton, IFR (especially AN/GRM114As) and any Tektronix spectrum analyzer.
Me - I code anything older than I am. If it is as old as my kids are I flip a coin.
Any step attenuator blown up by Comm group, Power Sensors, ANUPM137A.
Any scope or plug-in with wafer switches....especially the 2230 series
Mike
I enjoy NRTS 9'ing the coffee machines and the tube TVs. Nothing compares to a Bunn... I also enjoy obtaining permission to disassemble old useless printers to use the parts for projects and test fixtures.
Printers? also whats NRTS 9?
After PMEL at howard AFB, Panama,(actually Albrook) I went to work for Boonton. Thinking that it was a big company. what I surprise, I even wonder how they got the military contracts. we were only 4 service techs. my vote goes for any Boonton equipment except the distortion analyzers
Any DMM made by Beckman.
Trig-Tek is a close second.
Wavetek 1060 Waveform Analyzer...not only do I get to scrap a POS boat anchor, I get to annoy the French because they still use them in their test consoles! Double the fun!
nrts-9?? why not what is your favorite NRTS code? mine is 1, clean and simple.
Quote from: USMCPMEL on 07-02-2012 -- 13:00:20
Printers? also whats NRTS 9?
nrts (not repairable this staion) is the same (even the codes) as BCM (beyond capability of maint)
Thanks for replying Jimmy I believe when I was in the Marines it was called BER beyond economical repair?? But I could be wrong on that.
Any spectrum analyzer with Tektronix on it and anything made by Gigatronix.
Anything that says Boonton is NRTS 9 or Code out for the Army pukes!
Any Lecroy oscilloscope or a close runner up would be any pressure gauge w/oil on it. I don't like to get me hands dirty.
During my USAF days it would be gas sniffers, cheap dial calipers from Radio Shack, and my all time favorite: the Wavetek/Gigatronix 1018B power meters...You could spend all day adjusting that POS, then it would go out of tolerence just by leaning on the bench.
The Simpson ANPSM45. You gotta love a meter where the circuitry surrounded the display and physical pressure could change the measurement from bad solder joints.
DJshepp21:
The 1018B's are still being used by the Air Force as my company is the sole source for the repair of those items.
Those big, blue resistive pots... so touchy and flaky. And the cables running to the sensor would get bound up in that open storage compartment underneath and damaged long before it got to PMEL. We used to repair those at the labs (as little as 6 years ago) if the damage/repair wasn't too intensive. Honestly, I believe they should just put them in a pile and burn it all!
I just never understood why you would use one when you can get other peak power meters to do the same thing. We could never really trust the readings, even after depot repair. The Wavetek 8502A was more reliable and more heavily used. Why waste the time with the 1018B? If only HP/Agilent made a peak power meter that did the same thing...
http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902899.536880100.00&lc=eng&cc=US (http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902899.536880100.00&lc=eng&cc=US)
http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902899.536880101.00&lc=eng&cc=US (http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902899.536880101.00&lc=eng&cc=US)
http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902903.0.00&cc=US&lc=eng (http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902903.0.00&cc=US&lc=eng)
I remember one time we were trying to clean out some old inventory and they would not let us scrap some old piece of test equipment. It had been waiting for repair for like a year 4 or 5 different techs had looked at it and no one could figure it out. Our Gunny at the time would not let us scrap it out so we were told to "introduce" some faults to it so that it would be beyond economical repair. We used an open oper cord and just touched it across various points on different circuit boards. Looking back it was a pretty stupid thing to do but it did some serious damage to that tester and we were finally able to get it off the repair shelf... :evil:
Ballentine RF meters and Monsanto O-scopes.