• Country
• United States of America (USA)

• Manufacturer / Brand
• Boonton Radio Corp.; Boonton, NJ

• Year
• 1939–1959

• Category
• Service- or Lab Equipment

• Radiomuseum.org ID
• 216955

Click on the schematic thumbnail to request the schematic as a free document.

• Number of Tubes
• 3

• Valves / Tubes
• 536A_Boonton 535-B 5Y3 or 5W4

• Main principle
• something special ? Please give information (notes)

• Wave bands
• Wave Bands given in the notes.

• Power type and voltage
• Alternating Current supply (AC) / 115 Volt

• Loudspeaker
• - - No sound reproduction output.

• Material
• Metal case

• from Radiomuseum.org
• Model: Boonton Q-Meter 160-A - Boonton Radio Corp.; Boonton,

• Shape
• Tablemodel, slant panel.

• Notes

• The Boonton Q-Meter Type 160-A covers 50 kHz to 75 MHz with the internal oscillator, and 1 kHz to 50 kHz with an external oscillator. With the internal multipliers Qs from 0 to 625 can be measured, and special measurement techniques can measure capacitor Qs as high as 10,000. The basic accuracy is ±5%. Price in Boonton Catalog B from 1942 is $ 550.00. A very similar model for higher frequencies is the type 170-A, which covers 30 MHz to 200 MHz with the internal oscillator.
  
  Direct predecessor is the Boonton Q-Meter 100A, the first Q-Meter at all and the first instrument of Boonton Radio Corp. The market introduction of the 100-A was May 1935 (see article in "Electronics" as picture here). Q-meters measure the quality factor of coils and other components used in electronic devices and had broad applications in the testing of components and systems. This type 160-A has replaced the 100-A in 1939 (may be 1940 or 1941). According to hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0010/index.html. the instrument was still in production when HP aquired Boonton in 1959, but we believe it was the follower, the 260-A. This HP page puts the Q-Meter Type 160-A to the year 1946 which is definitively wrong. See Boonton "The Notebook".
  
  Boonton: The New Jersey-based Boonton Radio Corporation was founded in 1934 by W. D. Loughlin and several associates and was a manufacturer of electronic test instruments. The new firm concentrated its engineering skill on creating new measuring equipment for the still-young radio industry.
  
  HP acquired Boonton in 1959 as a wholly-owned subsidiary. By then the firm had 150 employees and was a pioneer maker of precision instruments for measuring electrical circuit quality and checking aircraft guidance systems. In a year of phenomenal growth for HP (the company acquired three other firms in 1959), Boonton added to the HP family an old, well-established company with an excellent reputation in a field closely related to many HP products.

• Mentioned in
• Tube Testers and Classic Electronic Test Gear (page 119 about Q-Meters.)

• Author
• Model page created by Ernst Erb. See "Data change" for further contributors.

• Other Models

• Here you find 20 models, 19 with images and 10 with schematics for wireless sets etc. In French: TSF for Télégraphie sans fil.
  All listed radios etc. from Boonton Radio Corp.; Boonton, NJ