On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 8:17:56 PM UTC-4, Clare wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 15:01:58 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

It SAYS 40 and 400 amp DC ranges -That has to be with the clamp. I
will definitely find out. If it has plastic covered jaw ends I'll know
without testing. Inductive pickups NEED bare steel core ends.

Huh? Not really. In fact...most amp meters..inductive type...have
plastic covered jaws. Just saying.

Inductive clamps NEED a metal to metal core connection to close the
magnetic circuit of the core.. Some clampons may use a Rogowski soil
which has no core - but I have not seen one in a consumer grade or
trade level meter - might be used in lab quality stuff for better
linearity with no core to saturate.AC transformer coils have to be
made of laminations or ferrite - solid iron doesn't work very well -
and the only time an air gap is used in a transformer is to prevent
saturation when there is a DC component in the power.

Most AC clampmeters can not give anywhere near accurate results with
the clamp not fully closed, while a hall efect sensor REQUIRES a gap
in the magnetic circuit.

Every insuctive clamp I have ever seen - for ammeters, tachometer
pickups, or timing lights - have exposed cores - and they don't work
worth squat if the jaws cannot close fully.

I've heard that the idea is to get the proper magnetic field reading from the live cable/wire which helps determine amperage with ammeters, not "amp meters".