[Tubejunke]

I like my working Hickok 209A best. It's so freakishly huge and almost nobody these days has seen one before. I have shown mine to seasoned electricians and a bench tech or two and their eyes get big like a small child's before I get a wow or a holy s**t! I love it! I guess my favorite meter for the sake of durability, accuracy, and still pretty cool looking but practical is my Simpson 303. I have one in pristine condition inside the roll top carrying case. These of course are VTVMs; for the field I would toss a DVOM in a box of tools, or maybe grab the Simpson 260.

I take the 260 to work just to mess with some of the younger guys and even a few older hot dog techs. The young guys try to laugh it off or call it old school. After all; these days it's a ridiculous proposal to use something that requires thought when you can get something that DOESN'T! LOL! The older supertechs just fear them because they know that they would take a while to do a simple measurement. Some used them years ago and still others only saw them in school or college. My boss only believed that the old inferior equipment could only read as high as what is marked around the function selector. He changed the subject and walked away when I tried to explain multipliers.

Anyway, I always have an interesting day when I tote the 260. Somebody must still be using Simpson analog meters because they have a really nice website where analog is ALIVE! To stay with the times, they have some nice digital equipment as well. Check it out some time.