OT, because I want to rant.

I attempted to use on the very day a Fluke K-Type thermocouple multimeter
adapter is returned from calibration. I find the battery is flat (very flat
and very old) and do minor damage to the case to pop open to replace
battery and eventually discover that they have covered the screw over with
a cal sticker.  WTF.  Does this mean technically it is out of cal because I
have removed the sticker.  How did they cal it, did they replace battery,
cal, then replace with old battery.

They cover multimeter battery compartments with cal stickers, again, is it
out of cal if I need to change a battery.

HP signal generators no output at some levels straight after cal.  It costs
big bucks to cal these items.

We have so many items that get calibrated each year we never use.  I
suggested we just cal one multi-meter as we mainly use them for go no go
and any reasonable tech will verify it operability before relying on it.
 But oh no, "cant have an un-calibrated tool in the workshop, never know
what issues that could cause" was the response.  If it needs precision
adjustment or commissioning we know we need model number/ serial number
/barcode/ cal date etc.

I accept commissioning tests require calibrated documented procedures but
for day to day repair (which is often getting rough battery levels or
seeing if there is power or no power) it is over the top.

Even had a fluke meter that was destined for disposal because the cal
report read "Unable to calibrate, 30mA fuse blown" and because the people
running with the cal from our end are not tech savvy   just read "Unable to
Calibrate".  The effort required to save that meter from destruction was
far more than the $500 to replace it but for me it was the principal.  I
was not popular.

In Telstra they would calibrate the laptops.  This practice has now stopped
but what were they thinking.  The argument was that it was a tool on the
tool asset list so needs to be calibrated.

Part of commissioning tests involved measuring the height of a keyboard
that had to be between 900mm and 1200mm and i had to provide details of the
calibrated tape measure that I used to measure this.  Yeah, right.

So my blood boils when the topic of Cal comes up.

Deep breaths...

Justin
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