Ditched my old multimeter for a Fluke 87V after chasing a ghost signal on a 737 for 3 hours

I spent forever trying to trace a intermittent fault in the weather radar system on a 737NG and my old $40 meter was giving me crazy readings. After swapping in a Fluke 87V from the lead tech, I found the issue in like 10 minutes - a corroded pin in the coax connector that my cheap meter just couldn't pick up due to noise. The difference in filtering and accuracy was insane, I honestly felt dumb for fighting it so long. Now I'm thinking about upgrading my scope too since the analog one at our hangar in Miami is pretty outdated. Anyone else have a similar story where a better tool saved you a ton of time troubleshooting? What's your go-to multimeter for tough avionics jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma8968d ago

Question whether it's really a fluke vs a worn out cheap meter making things worse. I've used the same $20 analog meter for 15 years on DC power supplies and it never let me down. Maybe the old one was just past its prime and any halfway decent meter would've done the trick.

barbara_moore738d ago

The 737 coax pin thing reminded me of something similar on a Gulfstream once. @uma896 I used to say the same thing actually, figured a meter was just a meter. But the noise rejection on that Fluke was night and day for me, totally changed my mind on cheap gear.