Analog multi-meter suggestions

CenTex Farmall

Well-known Member
I've about decided I need a large size analog multi-meter. The digital ones I have don't do everything and sometimes they don't tell you their battery is low except to give funny readings.

What I have in mind is something with a large movement for resolution and also durability. I'm not going to throw it hand to hand while running backwards down a mountain but I need it to be durable enough to take to the field without worry. Don't need bells and whistles, just volts, ohms and a bit of current.

Any suggestions?
 
Hands down a Simpson 260 is probably the best bang out there but it is not cheap. I'd give every meter I have ever had for one of them. Used many of them when I was i nthe Navy but then that is one of the tools an E.T. used a lot
 
Centex, Several years ago I was on pawn shop row in Irving/356 hiway. Picked up a Simpson 260 that had been released by GTE telephone. Wonder if they still do that?
Nice meter came with the padded carrying case and an extra set of leads like you would use to test those pesky little phone wires. Don't know why they took out of service but for all I do a few times a year it is awesome. Bright yellow also so its harder to misplace and as big as a breadbox. Tom
 
For the fourth time ARRRGGGG( Internet acting up and losing post before I can finish it)

I have had the best luck with Radio shack analog multimeters. $30-40 dollars will usually get you a good one. I have two and the one is carried in the one work pickup 99% of the time. So it has been hot, cold, dusty, and dirty since day one.

Here is one on Amazon for $23.95.
Radio Shack meters on Amazon
 
Get you and old PSM-6 multimeter. These things are tuff, we used then in the USAF you drop these thing off the top of tall building and pick it up and use it. They were accurate every time. They are on Ebay starting at $80.00.
 
I have an old Simpson, and a B&K, as well as a Conar that I built from a kit about a hundred years ago that I got when I took the NRI electronics correspondence course. I use it all the time, the only drawback is, the batteries need to be soldered in whenever you change them.
 
Sperry snap 8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPERRY-MODEL-SPR-300-SNAP-8-VOLT-OHM-AMMETER-IN-CASE-WITH-LEADS-AND-MANUAL-/381648370955?hash=item58dc03fd0b:g:wi0AAOSwn9lXKYGZ
bought one in the late 70's working as an electrician, it got flooded in 1996, rescued it after the water went down, dumped the water out and it still worked fine.
Need to find out where it is at and see how it works now.
dropped it over the years, over voltaged it, etc. still kept working
use a Fluke now
 
Amazingly they still make Simpson 260's, though a new one will set you back over $250 these days. But it will probably still work just fine 75 years from now.
 
I remember as a kid way back when, I envied TV Techs who had Simpson 260's but couldn't afford one. I got one later and have loved it ever since.

GET A SIMPSON 260

John T
 
Well analogy meters can't measure frequency, capacitance, inductance and large AC current. So if you want a meter to do everything, better check first what they can do.

I need to measure AC current more than frequency and capacitance. So I have both analog and digital probes. They can do everything a VOM OR ECVOM can do plus AC current.

The one in pic is a $20 HF digital. Surprisingly accurate. Something to think about. Necessary if you work on motors. 9v last a long time. I keep one in truck along within analogy one and RD WON and digital EVOM.

Analog com use a battery too.
a228126.jpg
 
Yes I will add the Simson too. I have a FLuke 179 that is a dream of a meter. At work I use the Harbor freight meter that they always have on special for around $30.oo. The only problem with a 260 is the case. DON"TTTTTTTT drop it!!!! BUST THEM UP REAL GOOD. Picked up an RCA "kit" meter from the study course of many years ago. I payed $8.oo at a local twice a year yard sale. Took the unit apart and the meter movement and cleaned everything. Works great. Cute antique.
 
I'm going to shoot my smart phone, many times it changes what I type. RS One. I put in RS, It changed it to RD .
 
Add to the Simpson 260, Never measure 220v on the R1 scale, it will go up in smoke.
Never use lower small voltage scale when measuring 220 with the wrong polarity, it will twist the needle off going backwards.
Keep them away form dirty, dusty places. Dirt has iron particles which stick to the magnet in meter movement. Then needle sticks.

This is true of all analog meters too. But the Simpson 260 case will cost more than other meters.

Not recommended for an absent minded old person.

Don't want to rain on any ones parade. Back in the day, they were the state of the art, 20k ohms/volt. A model T in todays standards of EVOM. And there are some EVOM analog meters, mostly bench models. geo.
 

But not a PSM-6A.They had an overvoltage meter protection cut-out that showed no voltage in a circuit and when you reached in you got knocked on your arse.AF had them modified pretty quick.
 

I got 3 dead Simpsons, and a B&K. My late, ex FIL was an electrician and he picked them up somewhere. I tried replacing the leads, opened up the case and looked for burned bits. Not something I have much experience with. So no joy.


I just bought an Extech digital; it's yellow. The closest I'll ever get to a Fluke!
 
I'm now using a PSM-6 as my analog multimeter after my Radio Shack 22-204U dies of a broken rotary switch after 30+ years. I also had an unused PSM-6 purchased at a computer show many years ago in my misc stuff box. This move is not for the faint-hearted. The PSM-6 used a stacked/tapped/specialized tubular mercury battery for the ohms function. I just happened to have some multi-celled mercury batteries in my freezer held in reserve which I had to adapt. Also a resistor in the ohms zeroing circuit was out of tolerance so I had to attend to that. The PSM-6 is very heavy and clunky for a multimeter but I was familiar with them from my days as an airborne Comm/Nav specialist in the Air National Guard. I used the meter very recenty to troubleshoot the ignition system on my Ford 840 tractor.
PSM6_Cropped.jpg
 
I've had my Simpson 260 since July of 1956. Cost me about $50 then. Good instrument and it is still going strong.
 

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