What signal generator (sweep generator) should I look for?
 

I would like to buy a nice signal generator and frequency counter so I can properly align tvs and stereo receivers that need it. What should I look for that works well without spending tons of money. Thanks!!

The last thing you need is a counter. The signal generator for stereo won't work for TV so you will need separate units, in general. For stereo, a low distortion audio oscillator and an FM/AM signal generator will do. For TV you would need a sweep generator and/or an RF generator with video capability.

All this depends on whether you are working on vintage stuff or modern stuff. Modern stuff is all but unrepairable; you generally buy an entire circuit board rather than align anything.

Thanks for the help so far, the newest stuff I'll be working on will probably be late 70's stuff so no new crap lol. The reason I wanted a counter is because when I was at Doug's house a while back he showed me that the dial on the generator isn't always correct, especially on the older ones that may have drifted a little. I just want to be sure that the signal I'm injecting is the one I want to inject. The counters seem pretty cheap so I'm not worried about that, I just don't want to spend money on a generator that is crap or won't do what I need. I just got a PM about the EICO 369, does anyone have anything to say about it being a good one? Thanks again for the replies.

I was just shopping around and found these: http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Sencore-...f#ht_500wt_940
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_1160wt_925
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...T#ht_500wt_940
And here is the one I was just told about: http://cgi.ebay.com/EICO-369-TV-FM-S...#ht_1602wt_925

Any thoughts??

I'd stay away from Sencore. Can't help much on TV stuff, as I never work on (or watch) television. Basically though, the EICO is good stuff for being from a kit, but still that's all it is, very low end.

The counter thing, well you can check calibration on an audio generator from the power line with an oscilloscope. I assume you have one.

I have a 369 and it works well. Make sure you get the cables with it. My only complaint is that there's no marker output which makes it a little inconvenient to calibrate with a frequency counter.

I can vouch for Sencore - I have an SG165 for AM/FM alignment and access to my dad's VA62 and SC61, both of which are spot on. The SG165 does require me to use a counter to verify settings.

RCA's test equipment for color sets used to be the cat's meow - rock solid, but only if left on 24/7. When CB's were popular, our tech could pick up the color burst freq from the RCA color alignment gen with only a short antenna on his freq counter.

I can count on two fingers the times I've had to align a color set. Both were out of alignment only because their owners had played with the IF cans. I have an SAE FM tuner I still can't get to tune a stereo signal at max signal strength. But it's fun to play with...

Cheers,