For want of a nail..

 

Sorry to have been gone so long. 

This is mine. I got it cheap. It broke. I fixed it. I learned how to fix these type of things. That's what I have been doing..

..now I gotta go back to the shop. See you soon.

UPDATE: Honest to goodness, folks, I have been engaged in this effort as a semi-vacation from the political blog world. I would say for sanity reasons but that would be a slight prevarication. The little radio I was building wasn't checking out at the various build points and I had to debug it. Not to convey the impression that I know squat about electronics or troubleshooting radios -- I am a relative neophyte in that department -- but I give it a shot from time to time.

So, anyway, while checking out the VFO on this rig, I suddenly noticed that my trusty, rusty Tek 2445's display was quivering weirdly and the horizontal sweep was somewhat jerky. Here's the checkout config on a good day:

So, I put the radio away and popped the covers on the scope. After some head-scratching, RTFMing, swearing, and hallelujahs, I extract a couple of electrolytic caps, replace them and power the beast back up. Well,  I won't have to worry about the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" bromide any more because the 2445 was definitely broke after I fixed it.  

More head-scratching, manual-reading, etc. led me to a bad resistor in the +42V supply. Replacing it yielded the picture up at the top of this post and I'm back in biz, right?

..well, in the process of re-installing the scope back into the bench, I pulled my old surplus AN/URM-25D signal generator, noticed that the power cord was bad, did an R&R, and..

*sigh*

But it's fun and it take one's mind off of Obama and the rest of the clowns in D.C. busy ruining our lives. But I'll be back once I fix all of my test equipment.

-30-