You're not burning them up hard enough. When the glass implodes, smoke will indeed come out. 

73, Bill W6WRT

That is odd, but here is their address from the email receipt: 

ALPHA ELECTRONICS
905 DEANS MILL ROAD
RAVENA NY 12143
UNITED STATES
208 439-9499

73, Bill W6WRT

Bought it from Alpha Electonics:  http://www.alpha-electronics.net/

As I mentioned other places are cheaper, especially one in Singapore, but this place has their own service department.

So far I'm very impressed. A lot to learn but I'm getting there.

73, Bill W6WRT

Fascinating, thanks. I would never have guessed such hacks were possible.

Reminds me of when I worked at Tektronix back in the '70s and '80s. I was a technician on the final test and calibration line when a new version of the venerable 465 scope came out, to be known as the 465B. It was supposed to have the same 100 MHz bandwidth as the old one but we quickly found out it was easily tweakable to 150 MHz with no problem at all. The big bosses immediately told us NOT to tweak it there, but just to hold it down to the advertised 100 MHz. They said if the customer wants more bandwidth, they need to buy a more expensive scope. Not exactly the same as what Rigol is doing, but the same mind set.

If you should ever come across a 465 or 465B, look and see if my name is on the "calibrated by" sticker. I did sevral thousand of them while I was there. At the time it was the all time best selling scope in history, with more than 50,000 sold at about $2500 each.

73, Bill W6WRT

Remember one basic thing about lightning: Lightning does not want to go into your shack and destroy your equipment. Lightning really just wants to go to ground. Your job is twofold: Give it a short, easy path from your antenna and tower to ground and at the same time  make sure there is NO path into your shack. 

There is only one absolutely guaranteed way to protect your equipment from lightning strikes and that is to completely disconnect all your cables when lightning is near. And don't just unplug them and leave the plugs a few inches apart. The lightning has already traveled a few thousand feet and a couple more inches is nothing. Unplug the cables and move them far, far apart. Don't waste your money on lightning arresters and such stuff. Distance is your friend.

I know it's a nuisance but lightning is nothing to mess with. Do it right.

73, Bill W6WRT

If you have access to your attic, that's a good place for an HF dipole. As long as you don't have metal shingles or other large amounts of metal close by the roof will be completely transparent to 20 meter RF. The antenna is invisible to neighbors, protected from wind and rain and will work surprisingly well.

I earned my original DXCC with just such an antenna and 100 watts.

If you want to add other bands, just connect those dipoles in parallel at the feed point and run the wires off at a slight angle from each other - about 5 or 10 degrees separation. There is some interaction but not much. Be prepared to do a little trimming and adding.

Since room in an attic is usually lacking, run the center section as long as the attic will allow and bend the ends 90 degrees or whatever will fit.  The center section does most of the radiating and the ends just do the resonating. Caution: The ends of the dipole have a LOT of RF voltage so be sure they are will be well insulated from anything combustible.

I highly recommend an SWR analyzer such as one of the MFJ series. It will give you a much quicker picture of what your antennas are doing than trying to use your transceiver and an SWR meter. Money well spent. And you won't be bothering anyone on the air.

Be creative and have fun.

73, Bill W6WRT

Thank you Zenki, but it's too late. The Rigol is in the mail.

As you mentioned, I did find cheaper sources in Asia, but the US distributor I bought it from has his own service department and I consider that important.

You're right about the winds of change. We live in interesting times, don't we?

73, Bill W6WRT

Make that copper or aluminum wire and I'd agree. Don't use steel wire.

Bill, W6WRT

I guess I've been out of the loop for a while. Whatever happened to the suite of Cabrillo tools? A google search found all kinds of links but no place where the suite can be downloaded. I did find a "Cabrillo Evaluator" but that's not the original. Is the original no longer available? What are the contest sponsors using for log checking?

All comments welcome.

Bill, W6WRT

Tell me what part you need and I'll scan it and send it to you.  Be careful about posting it, however. I understand somebody bought the rights to Heathkit manuals and they are guarding them jealously. Lawsuits might follow.

Please email me direct at dezrat1242@yahoo.com in case I don't get around to reading this group right away.

Bill, W6WRT

You can't go wrong with the AADE meter. I've had mine for years and wouldn't be without it.

Bill, W6WRT

Nothing to do with gain<1 at VHF?  Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post. I was talking about the entire circuit, not just the tube. If the gain of the entire circuit is less than 1, it will not oscillate. As we are all aware, overall circuit gain is made up of many factors, not just the gain of the tube alone.

Many builders make the mistake of ignoring the grid-cathode impedance at VHF. By having it unnecessarily high, VHF stability is decreased. Keep it low enough and the fed-back energy will be swamped out, the gain of the overall circuit falls below 1 and the circuit will not oscillate.

Bill, W6WRT

Looks like a good choice. Thanks!

Bill, W6WRT

I haven't bought an oscilloscope for about 15 years or more and I see the market has really changed, to say the least. I'm looking for a DSO with 100 MHz or more bandwidth and I see there are a ton of new manufacturers I've never heard of, all from China apparently. Prices range from about $300 to $500 or so. Are any of these any good?

I worked at Tektronix as a technician and supervisor for ten years back in the '80s so I know the older scopes pretty well, but these new ones are a different ball game.

All comments welcome.

Bill, W6WRT

Try http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/189/Connectors-Multi-Pin/1.html

And especially their models CON-60 and CON-90.  I have bought several of these over the years and they are great. Just cut the wires right in the middle and splice it in.  I have used them all over the shack. There are lots of others on that page.   

Those two are not waterproof so you would need to protect them outdoors.

Bill, W6WRT