Cool old microwave test equipment

Well, I’m on the ground here in Montreal for IMS2012/MTT. I have to say, I did not enjoy the 1.5 hour wait for customs, but the rewards promise to be great. I stopped by to scope out the conference today, and ran across some “cool old stuff.” Admittedly, I was a little taken aback by some of the things in the historical exhibit; is 1990 really that far away? But here are a couple of things that caught my eye.

This first one is an antenna analyzer (Model 2020 series) was used to equip the anechoic chamber at the David Florida Laboratory (Canada) for the testing of Canadian satellites Anrik-C3 and Anrik-D. This piece of equipment was used to perform antenna measurements and radiation pattern recordings. Ever play with one of these?



This next one is a signal generator from HP (UK) dated from sometime after 1955. It spanned 2800 to 7600 MHz for testing Canada’s satellite earth station. It had 1 mW output power across the band.



I expect to find more cool stuff for you tomorrow. Until then, sound off below about your most nostalgic old equipment or what old stuff you found in the lab when you started your current job.