Meissner Analyst

A neat piece of test gear with four 6E5 eye tubes.

The Meissner Analyst 9-1040 was introduced in early 1941 and was marketed until early 1942 and again for a few years after WW II. It is the second version of the Meissner Analyst, the first being the short-lived model 9-1025 introduced in April 1940 and sold first as a kit for $60. The earlier version featured five tuning eye tubes but did not have the voltmeter. Model 9-1040 has four eye tubes and a voltmeter. The 9-1040 is almost a pure copy of the Rider Chanalyst.   The Rider Chanalyst link has lots of information on what it and the Meissner are capable of doing. I have restored/ repaired two Rider Chanalysts.   Here is a link to the second Rider Chanalyst 11. Apparently, the circuits of the Rider Chanalyst were such that no patent protection was available.

Analyst versus Chanalyst
The Meissner Analyst 9-1040 sold for $87.50 when introduced. The price increased to $96.25 in the September 1941 RadioNews ad (page 45). Despite the quick price increase, it was considerably cheaper than the Rider Chanalyst. The Meissner Analyst was introduced about the time that RCA introduced their version, the RCA-Rider Chanalyst model 162, a slightly modified Rider Chanalyst 11. RCA had purchased the rights to produce the Rider instrument.

The Meissner format is a handsome addition to a radio test bench. The vertical format occupies a smaller foot print for tight space allocation on the bench. The bright red knobs contrast with the four green eye tubes in almost a Christmas motif. The one wrong color knob on the lower left (on-off switch) is a replacement for the one knob that was missing when I acquired this piece. It matches the form but not the bright red color of the original. I have since received a proper replacement for the knob thanks to Kevin H.

The Meissner also has a permanent ground wire and clip attached and also has more tip jacks in parallel with the phone jacks making it a bit more versatile than the Rider. Both the Rider and the Meissner are among my favorite pieces of vintage test gear because of all the green eye tubes and because they are their own complete TRF radios when headphones or a speaker and output transformer are attached.

Meissner Analyst after cleaning and repair

Repairs
I replaced several off-value resistors in the voltmeter circuit and several capacitors including the cap that feeds the audio output jack since it blocks the DC from the output tube plate circuit. If leaky, that cap could allow B+ on the jack. All controls and tube sockets were cleaned with deoxit spray.

The RF-IF section (third section down) and the AF section (top right)
are very useful for tracing a signal through all stages of a radio receiver, from the antenna all the way to the speaker. The unit shown above is actually receiving an AM broadcast station using a piece of wire for an antenna (shown plugged into the RF-IF input jack.) The output of the RF-IF section is plugged into the input of the AF section using phone plug patch cords. Both the RF-IF and the AF eye tubes are fully closed at the control settings shown.

Line current section (bottom) The unit is also shown with a 60 watt table lamp plugged into the outlet on the lower left with the control adjusted to just close the eye of the tube. The control is pointing to 0.5 ampere, proper current draw for a 60 watt bulb.

The voltmeter section (top left)
is shown at its proper zero voltage setting in the center of the scale. The meter swings right or left to measure either positive or negative DC.

The oscillator section
is actually not an oscillator but is a tunable RF amp that detects the working of a radio's oscillator on a selected frequency. It's sort of an early frequency counter to verify the working of the oscillator in a superhet radio. Feeding it with a signal generator will cause its eye tube to close when dialed to the correct frequency.

As noted elsewhere, these are fun pieces to restore and to play with.