capacitance meters

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>

John F. and all,

A recent posting by John F. on measuring the isotropic capacity of a toroid 
got me interested in checking the intrinsic capacitance of my 4 handheld 
meters capable of 
measuring capacitance. The leads used are just 36 inch test leads with 
alligator
clips on the end.

I have a Wavetek 27-XT, a Fluke 12, a BK 878 LCR bridge, and a TEK 353. I 
checked
the "zero" or intrinsic capacitance of each meter  with no leads connected 
(NL), with the 
connected to the meter (L), and the leads Twisted around eachother to get them
close together (LT).

TEK 353
The TEK 353 is the only meter of the 4 with a zero adjust. The 353 could be 
set to zero
at all times.

Wavetek 27-XT
(NL)         0.036   nF
(L)            0.060   nF
(LT)          0.083  nF

Fluke 12
(NL)         0.000  uF
(L)            0.001  uF
(LT)          0.004  uF

BK  878 LCR bridge
(NL)        000.9  pF
(L)             12.6  pF
(LT)           45.0  pf

Cheers,
Ralph Zekelman