Sources for Electronic Test
Equipment
and Manuals
revised May 10, 2020
A number of people ask me about where to obtain used
test equipment or manuals so I decided to gather all my information and post it
here. Then all I have to do is just refer people to my web site rather than
having to find all the scattered information. Another plus of posting this is
that I can use it too - all the links are in one handy location. Be sure to
check back often as I will revise this list as I discover new good sources.
There are a number of other sources I know of but have not yet done business
with.
Sources for Test
Equipment
The following companies are listed in alphabetical order. I
have done business with each of these companies and highly
recommend all of them.
Fair Radio Sales located in Lima, Ohio
http://www.fairradio.com This is one of the oldest
electronics surplus companies around. They do not have a wide
selection of test equipment but their prices are good and the
quality is high. They have a lot of odd, hard to find items. Many
things they sell are sold as in "reparable condition".
In my experience, this generally means that it either works fine
but may need some minor adjustments or needs only some simple
work to restore it to new condition. They are generally slow to
respond to emails so allow at least a week. A phone call is
probably the best way. Just because you do not see it on their
web site does not mean that they do not have it. They also sell
photocopies of some test equipment manuals but the selection is
not broad. Although they list some manuals on their web site,
they actually have much more - so you need to call.
GLK Instruments located in California http://www.glkinst.com
This company sells a small variety of mainly hard to find
specialty cables for old test equipment but they also have
equipment from time to time. These cables are newly manufactured
to meet or exceed all specs of the original. They have a complete
line of cables for all HP141 series spectrum analyzers and
accessories. I purchased a cable to connect to my HP8443A
tracking generator and it is excellent. The prices may seem high
but the bare connector pieces are expensive if you can find them
and expensive crimp tools and know how are often required for
assembly. Your best bet is to buy the cables made by an expert. I
highly recommend them.
Precision Services located in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, http://www.linearz.com/ .The owner is John Bau and
his specialty is quality surplus electronics. Everything he sells
has been checked out and is guaranteed to work -- my
personal experience confirms this. His prices are generally very
competitive with any other source. I have known him
to sell guaranteed to work items for less than the same item sold
for on ebay where the unit was untested. He updates his web
site every few weeks. You can also get on his email list and
receive immediate notice of new equipment a week or so before
it is posted on his web site. This feature has worked well for
me. John is very easy to deal with -- every time I called he
was there ready to help in any way. Everything I have bought from him
was just as he said. I highly recommend him to everyone. By
the way -- do a Google search on either the name, Precision Services
(formerly Precision Audio Services), or John Bau, and you will
discover that in a former life John was an expert speaker
designer. His designs are world known.
Sources for Test Equipment
Manuals
These sources are listed in alphabetical order. I
have done business with each of them.
W7FG Vintage Manualshttp://www.w7fg.com This company located in
Oklahoma is an excellent source for high quality photocopies of manuals for test
equipment and consumer electronics. I have purchased a number of manuals from
them and the quality is indistinguishable from an original. If the manuals did
not come with comb binding and with their logo cover you would think the manual
was an original. You can see a list of their manuals on their web site. They
keep the site up to date but call if you do not see what you want as they are
always obtaining new manuals. Since they only sell copies, they are never out of
stock. If you see it on the web site, they have it.
http://www.ebay.com I have found many good deals for test equipment and
manuals on ebay.
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