Multimeters?
 

After working on my Admiral for awhile, I quickly came to realize that my $20 analog Greenlee would not suffice. I'm looking around for good deals on quality digital multimeters that can handle basic television repair work, and of course be a natural for any work I should do on radios. Are there any in the $50 price range or less that would be suitable?

And just wondering, what meters do you guys prefer in general?

The best all purpose (and affordable) meter would be from Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/ac-dc-d...ter-37772.html

A few years back, there was a page where a guy compared this to his Fluke. It held up pretty well, until you got into the <5% accuracy range. But for $20, you will not find a better deal. Tests all the voltages and resistances you would need to radio and tv work.

At that price, I should have started with one of those all along! But yeah, I just bought one so I could have it here sooner better than later. I'm beyond tired of not being able to take any accurate measurements and having to do so much guesswork...

The best DMM I have ever used (and I still do use) is a Beckman Tech 310. It has not been made for probably 15-20 years, though.

I have a few of the Harbor Freight DMMs that often go on sale for $3 each, and it is certainly usable for basic stuff.

Don't bother with the $3 Harbor Freight meters, I don't think they can even measure any resistors over 1 meg (the $20 model will do up to 20meg).

I lucked out and got a MIB Beckman 4410 - their TOTL True-RMS "handheld" - from a eBayer - for $13, including shipping! It eats batteries, but I love the 4-1/2 digit display. It's one use is measuring those tiny 1% resistors. I hate having to figure out the colors - is that red or orange? Measuring a 1% resistor is a breeze with it. I use my Fluke 75 for 99% of my measuring needs.

As for the $3 HF meters, I have about 30 of them, all "MEET USA" brand - got them in Dubai at their 5&10 store. I paid 5 Dirhams each, or about $1.36 each, with an alkaline battery that was actually pretty good. I checked them for accuracy - 50VDC from my Fluke 332B measured +/- .5V, or about 1% basic DC accuracy. AC was off by about 3-1/2% at 60Hz, and 12% out at 400Hz. Resistance is the worst, about 10 percent off across the board.:thumbsdn: Still, they are ok for measuring use with the truck, or as a go/no-go tester for Christmas lights. I've yet to toss one out, which is what my original plans were should one fail. But for regular use, these are useless.

Cheers,