Hands down, the old analog multimeter beats the digital on one job

I was troubleshooting a intermittent light on a Cessna 172 in Wichita last month and my fluke kept giving me phantom readings from all the radio noise on the ramp. Swapped back to the battered Simpson 260 the senior guy left me and found the bad relay in 20 minutes flat. Anyone else keep an analog meter around for EMI-heavy situations or am I just old school?

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averywright1mo ago

Gotta love when the fancy $400 meter gets outsmarted by a brick from 1965 that probably survived a few drops off the wing. Fluke sees radio noise and just starts making stuff up like a drunk guy at a bar telling stories. Meanwhile the Simpson just sits there all calm and points at the actual problem like it's not even trying. Twenty minutes with the old needle vs however long you burned chasing ghosts with the digital, that math does itself. Keep the antique, it clearly knows things the new stuff forgot.

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