My trusty Fluke 77, which I've fondly used nearly every day for about 20 years, is about to give up the ghost. I've already taken it apart and repaired it several times over the years, but I get the feeling that it's not long for this world. It's giving me warning signals to "abandon ship." I do hate to part with it, but it's simply wearing out and it's time to upgrade.
Yeah, I know, I can simply shop on-line or visit local pawn shops and buy another. There are plenty of them out there, but I'm not really comfortable buying a used meter. Lord knows what's happened to it, and I took good care of MINE. And I doubt Fluke is still making 77s. (If I'm wrong, please tell me.) I've worked on mine often enough over its lifetime that if I sent it to Fluke for real repair and calibration, they'd just laugh and stuff it right back in the box and ship it back to me with a note saying "Buy a new one." (The store I bought it from, Industrial Electronics, just off Montgomery Street in Fort Worth, closed several years ago.) Does Fluke offer refurbished models for sale? (Sorry for not checking that in advance...)
The Fluke 77 does everything I need, but there's one feature that I've practically never used: Touch-Hold. I mention this because I'm sure Fluke's current new crop of digital multimeters can do everything the 77 did, plus a great deal more. I don't want anything more than what I've got now; I wouldn't use the capacitance test function, or a big LCD scope meter, or a USB port, or an automatic dish washer or anything else. I'd just like to replace what I've got with something new, be it a new model number or whatever.
There's a Fry's Electronics here in Arlington that carries a lot of good test equipment (I bought a Tektronix dual-polarity benchtop power supply from them a few years ago on sale because it was a showroom model, and I'm still very pleased with it), but I haven't gone shopping there yet because I wanted to ask everyone here first: What should I look for in today's Fluke DMMs, and which ones should I avoid?
I'd like to keep the same physical size if at all possible, because the original 77 fits snugly into my toolbox (an old ammunition box). I don't think anything much bigger would fit in there.
Now for my next problem: making my old meter fit in my photo album. :)
Thanks!!! Matt J. McCullar, KJ5BA Arlington, TX