What The Heck Are Fluke Multimeters?
Friday, May 15, 2009 1 commentsA friend of mine who is a HAM radio operator started talking to me about needing a new Fluke multimeter. I had no idea what the heck he was talking about! So I did a little research and this is what I found...
Fluke is a manufacturer of electronic testing equipment founded in '48. In fact, they are probably the biggest manufacturer out there for these things. The story behind the company is actually quite fascinating. John Fluke (the founder) was roommates with David Packard back in the forties. They both worked for GE at the time and eventually each went on to form their own companies... Fluke started his company, and David started his, Hewlett-Packard.
Today, Fluke manufactures all kinds of technical electronic instruments, mostly for professional use. Some of their most popular products are things like insulation testers, electrical testers, and calibration instruments. None of which I have a need for, but a lot of other people do! One of their products I was intrigued by is the Fluke Earth ground tester. It is used for ground resistance testing... I didn't even know there were instruments out there that did that!
But back to that multimeter... so I discovered that they are apparently used by technicians out on the field to do electrical testing. However, I wasn't able to come up with a definitive list of all the things it can test.
Electronic Test Equipment Multimeter measures voltage, current, and resistance. Modern multimeter has added features for measuring temperature and continuity.