Emerson,

I agree, these 'yellow' DMMs are great. My real experience with them began when we purchased toolkits for the students in first year EE and the toolkit selected included both one of these yellow DMMs as well as a soldering iron and all necessary hand tools. Surprisingly it was a pretty low cost kit and we used to buy 50-100 every year. I could not believe how good (for the price) the yellow DMM was. Then I instigated a move away from formal labs with students (too many students not enough labs) towards students working 'at home' where-ever that might be so we needed battery powered DMMs and PC based programming - such as Arduino = so that students could work any time, any where. I don't think we ever had a broken DMM. The most that happened was students wanting a new battery for them. I now have four of these DMMs, although two are black. They are just great for what I do.

Dubbie

I was first studying to become an Electrician in the early 80's and i bought myself a Micronta 2 Multimeter. I was so proud to own my own meter.

Happy Christmas everyone. Stay safe.

I'd have to say my first piece of "test" equipment was a needle movement battery tester - the sort that you "hinge" upward and let it "clip" down onto a battery. It was a hand-me-down from my Dad who knew I had an interest in electronics, but also didn't want to spend money buying me more and more batteries to power my projects with. So we used it quite a lot, on the Ni-CD rechargeable cells of the time, and we relied on its "Replace, Low, Good" scale quite a bit even though I personally didn't find it all that accurate.

Surprisingly, we still have it, but I don't use it anymore and it's not a part of my bench. In fact, it sits inside my Dad's "half-used-batteries" box, where it is still occasionally called upon to check the random AA/AAA cell prior to use.

- Gough

I'm going to be a little different to everyone else.
While I had a DMM for ages, it was only when I got a pair of Vernier calipers like these from Machinery House in Sydney that I really started to realise precision.

I bought it as I was starting to work in Technological and Applied Studies at a high school in Sydney and was starting to do more and more work on lathes and mills with the schools' robotics team. I did a heap of semi-accurate measurements (user error ) of components of our competition robot that year and was able to get them to the point where we were able to hold our own in the FIRST Robotics Competition. I've still got the callipers. They sit on my desk in my new school and come out whenever I need a measurement more accurate than a ruler can provide. I've also used them in combination with a slide rule to teach my current crop of STEM students that things with a battery are still useful

It was a Radio Shack VOM kit that I bought along with a cheap soldering iron somewhere in the mid 1970s and put together. I used it for quite some time but have no idea what happened to it as I moved many times over the years and just lot track of it.  I still have the iron.  I remember the instructions having a good description of how the meter worked and still marvel at the sensitivity of D’Arsonval movements.

My hands  ; P

I used to take everything electrical apart & had no idea how the magic worked.

I was electrocalmed by the mains more times than I can count.

Always keep your left hand in your pocket.

I will continue the topic and also post my first tester. For me, at one time, as for a novice electronics engineer, it was terribly inconvenient and incomprehensible. This tester is from some Chinese manufacturer unknown to me. And I still have it and it works. Unbelievable.

My first instrument was one of these generic multimeters:

It was exactly like this one on the picture, even the color, it was a faithful tool with almost 10 years of use and no defects, but I had to left it behind when I move to another country.

My first instrument was an old used Heathkit VTVM which I paid $25 for at a HAM fleamarket, or was it an auction? (anyway, a big investment for a starving student at the time).

I still have it, but have not used it for a long time.

I did use it for several years before I got hold of a digital multimeter.

I was always in a hurry to grow up and get a 'real job'.  I completed High School in three years and college in three years.  While in High School, I spent nearly half of my time in the Electronics Lab ( Class time, Student Teaching (assistant) and Radio Station time).  We have a very complete lab, which I could use in my spare time to build my own projects, which meant that I did not need my own equipment (not that I could afford any).  In college, one of our first projects was an assemble only one, to build our own multi-meter.

I have no idea where this meter ended up, but for many years this (and a small adjustable power supply) were my only test equipment.  Again, with my full time employment I had usually had access to a full lab space that I could use for any projects that I was building.  As my career advanced and my life became fuller with my growing family, I drifted away from building and experimenting during my non-working time.

After the kids got older and moved out on their own, I started getting involved again in building projects at home.  This of course required buying equipment and a full inventory of parts/supplies.  Initially, I bought mostly used equipment (ebay) or in in some case took on consulting jobs that would sometimes include some working for equipment arrangements (my first oscilloscope was acquired in one of these arrangements).  Through the years I have built up a fully equipped lab, enabling me to run all my consulting and hobby activities from my home.