My lead tech swore by analog test meters over digital. I fought him on it for months until last week when my Fluke 87V failed to catch a transient spike on a 737 comm panel in Denver. Analog needle would have showed that quick blip plain as day. He was right all along and I owe him a coffee now.

I spent almost a year ignoring my lead tech's advice to keep an old Simpson 260 analog meter in my box. He kept saying digital meters miss those fast voltage spikes because of the sampling rate. Last Tuesday I was troubleshooting a glitchy VHF radio on a 737NG at the Denver hangar and my Fluke 87V read a steady 13.8 volts on the power bus. Swapped in his old Simpson and the needle jumped to 16 volts for a split second every 5 seconds. That spike was dropping the radio out intermittently. Replaced the voltage regulator and the problem went away. Has anyone else ran into a situation where the old school tool beat the fancy one?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_martin4428d ago

Man that is a solid reminder that sometimes the old stuff just works better.

paul_lane8028d ago

Bet my grandad's radio still gets better reception too.