[volt-nuts] (New to me) 3458A Trivia

[J. L. Trantham]

I just added a 'new' (manufacture date late 1998) 3458A to the collection
that had Option 001 and 002 noted on the rear panel.  When it arrived, all
seemed well, passed self test, seemed accurate but with OPT? and ENTER, it
returned OPT 1,0 which implies OPT 001 is installed.  However, I thought
that it did not have OPT 002 installed.

I called Agilent, spoke with Gary Biermann, and learned that there never was
a way to tell from the front panel if OPT 002 is installed or not.  The only
way to tell is to open it up and look at the part number on the DC Reference
Board.  

I did this and discovered that it, indeed, had part number 03458-66519
installed, the 4 ppm reference.  03458-66509 is the 8 ppm reference and
03458-66529 is the 'ultra high stability' 2 ppm reference.

Thought I would share this 'pearl' but I suspect most know this already.
Was news to me though.

Joe