Sir Al. . . .




The Eico 149 was good enough and imprssive enough to get me to order one of their kits back in ~'64.
I couldn't quite swing for the MUCH more expensive, fully assembled HIKOK with its Gee-IANT meter on it.
Since that time I also have taken on a large metered Layfayette and a trio of the RCA WV series.


As far as the probe and leads, the assembly manual gives enough info to the electrical aspect in
order for you to be able to fabricate your own sets.

Their main aspect, typically being, that in some functions, (other than OHMS), that a 1 meg resistor is inserted in series to the probe tip.

The mechanics on the RCA units was such that the plastic galled from extensive rotations in changeovers and started freezing up mechanically, making rotary switching transitions VERY problematic.

That resulted in my making my own creations using 1/2 in aluminum tubing and acrylic plastic end caps
with retaining set screws.

Therewith, there was enough room inside to the incorporate a miniature slide switch, such that in one position, it would be shorting across the internal 1 meg resistor.

On another, I had it using smaller 3/8 inch aluminum tubing, I also used Acrylic tubing for both end caps, with retaining set screws, but additionally used a tubing cutter such that I had cut off the probe tip end about 2 inches from the probes total 5 inch length.

I then mounted a male and female RCA connector inside the now parted probe such that the two would plug together and have the two parts meeting again. . .almost seamlessly. The 1 meg resistor was included within the short section, and when that section was pulled off, that left the main section with its protruding male tip of the RCA plug acting as your probe element.

The Owners instruction and assembly manuals are available both at this site in its Manuals section as well as additionally being available at BAMA site.

I'm quite happy with mine, and it serves well in its main purpose, of non invasive loading of circuitry while taking measurements, along with the ease of reading those large meters.

I had even considered the building in of a WELL SHIELDED DC/DC converter inside the casing to wean it away from AC line tethering. . .but then. . . digital metering came along.

.
The unit still gets its share of use by virtue of its two main aspects:


1...That large meter being able to be preset to ZERO center scale, for use in setting the DC swing during FM detector alignment.


2...The monitoring of AVC voltage and not noy having its true value being pulled down from shunt resistive loading.