Tempo Sidekick T&N Telephone Line Tester

I've been interested in getting a Sidekick for a number of years and recently found one on eBay for a reasonable price.
The thing that's special about this meter is that it can measure line impariments like unbalance and noise that the KS-8455L2 can not test.
Note this meteris eleven inches tall, that's much larger than a handheld DMM.

Power

Operation

Controls and Indicators

Meter

top red scale reads zero at right and 100 at midrange.
center black scale reads 0 (dBrnc, ma, PointsA) at left to 100 (Volts, Noise, PI, Current) at right.
Bottom red-yellow-green scale reads loss in dB.

Switches

Function

OFF/DIAL
AC VOLTS x2            0 to 200 VAC)
DC VOLTS                0 to 100 VDC
STRESS TEST (dB)    Noise measured with a longitudinal test signal
LEAKAGE (Rx10k)    135 VDC applied, resistance 1M center scale, also used for "Kick" testing for ringer capacity (Points).
Rx1k                            100k Ohms mid scale
Rx1                            100 Ohms mid scale
COIL DETECT            Finds up to 4 load coils
LOOP CURREN         ma on black scale
PWR INVLUENCE    dBrnC coupling from AC power lines
CKT NOISE               dBrnC
CKT LOSS                 dB loss from CO with tone, typical is 1004 Hz (can not do without the tone)

TIP - momentary toggle        measures from tip to ground
REV - toggle                        reverses polarity and for doing "kick" test
RING - momentary toggle    measures from Ring to ground

LED Low Battery Warning    1/second = low batt, on steady reading may be wrong

Test Leads - Red (Ring), Black (tip), Green (Ground)

Procedures

Patents

by Robert G. Crick inventor of the SideKick

US Patent #
Title
Date
Co.
Class

6559651 Method for locating an open in a conductive line of an insulated conductor May 6, 2003 -
324/522; 324/529; 324/543

5995588 Tone location device for locating faults in a paired line Nov 30, 1999 -
379/22; 324/527; 324/528; 324/530; 379/22.03; 379/22.07; 379/29.05

D352912 Telecommunications line noise measurement device <Sidekick>
Nov 29, 1994 -
D10/78

5302905 Apparatus and method for detecting and isolating noise-creating imbalances in a paired telecommunications line <Leakage Test with 135 VDC>
Apr 12, 1994 Tempo
324/613; 324/523; 324/539

5157336 Noise measurement in a paired telecommunications line
<Stress Test for longitudinal balance>
Oct 20, 1992 Tempo
324/613; 324/512; 324/523; 324/612

4291204 Fault locating system for electric cables and the like Sep 22, 1981 -
324/456; 73/570; 324/529; 324/534; 324/536

I worked with the HP 4380S which was designed to measure all the possible parameters of 2 pair of CAT5 cable. There are 8 wire ends and the test set has 8 each 50 Ohm test ports. After an involved calibration all the S-Parameters are measured, then converted into Z-Parameters and then the desired cable specs are displayed in a graph. The Sidekick just looks for imbalances, but that's the key spec for phone use.

Tempo Sidekick T&N

Background