Chose the cheaper test set over Fluke. Big mistake.

Got a call last month from a Citation owner in Tulsa complaining about intermittent transponder issues. I was stuck between buying a used Honeywell test set for $800 or grabbing a Fluke for $3500. Picked the cheap option cause my budget was tight. Thing was off by 21 MHz on mode C right out of the box. Almost signed off a bad transponder because of it. Had to borrow a buddy's Fluke to double check and it cost me 3 hours of drive time. Any of you guys ever get burned by a budget test set?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninas6717d ago

Off by 21 MHz" reminds me of my buddy Dave. He grabbed a cheap ohm meter from a flea market and it read 50 ohms on a 10 ohm resistor. Took him two days to figure out why his circuit kept blowing fuses.

tylerpark17d ago

Wait is that really that big of a deal though lol. A 50 ohm reading on a 10 ohm resistor is definitely off but most cheap meters have a little variance and you can usually work around it. I feel like Dave probably had other issues in his circuit too if it took him two whole days to figure out the meter was reading wrong.

derek_perez17d ago

Did the cheap test set come with any sort of calibration cert or traceability paperwork? I've had a couple of those budget units show up with a printed sheet that looked official, but when I actually checked the serial number with the manufacturer, it wasn't even in their system. That 21 MHz error is wild though, that's like three whole channels off on mode C, not just a tiny drift. Makes you wonder if they're just printing random numbers on a sticker and shipping them out hoping nobody checks.

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