Mournful drone sounds of a repurposed HP test device

Hainbach continues to make beautiful sounds with esoteric or forgotten gear – this time, the “saddest drone machine,” a used HP 3782A Error Detector telco device.
It’s wonderful sometimes the things esoteric gear makes. In the earlier, more analog age, a lot of telecommunications worked in the audible spectrum with tones you can hear. In this case, this HP device produces a set of patterns that sounds surprisingly musical, if melancholy:

Hainbach doesn’t include the description, but surprisingly a quick search suggests people still repair and use these devices. Oh yeah, and these actually work on digital equipment, but in audible-range patterns:
The HP 3782A Error Detector used with a HP 3781A Pattern Generator forms a flexible, high-performance error measuring system for digital transmission equipment in the CEPT digital hierarchy. They provide 2, 8, and 34 Mb/s interfaces and binary ECL operation up to 50 Mb/s. Automated or remote measurement capability with HP-IB. Measurements can be made on all types of digital transmission systems including cable, digital radio, satellite, and lightwave. The pattern generator provides a wide range of test patterns including PRBS for simulating live traffic and shorter WORD patterns for checking pattern sensitivity in transmission equipment. Binary and code error injection capability is included for stress-testing line terminating equipment. A jitter modulation input is provided to add controlled amounts of jitter to the output test pattern and perform jitter tolerance tests on equipment interfaces.
Sounds like a wholesome good time for the whole family.
More:
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