Oscilloscopes

yes, this is a bad sickness..
some audio phools who buy them to remove the tubes.
I have collected some Tek Oldies here, they are well restorated and full working.
It`s a peace of history. That 555 on the picture needs 1kW , there are 117 tubes glowing. I have 2 of them here.

Martin

Martin,
 Glad to see you posting.

 Yeah, I have a couple of those old scopes in storage. One was stripped of tubes before I got it, and the other I have no idea of how it is.
 Found a cart at a flea market & got it.

 Put my Hitachi scope on it and built a special purpose power supply in the space for the plug-ins.
It is on a panel, so I can easily use the cart for a boat anchor scope if needed.

 Supply is isolated, variac controlled and I used it for subbing B+ in old TV sets while diagnosing HOT problems. When I was servicing for a living, it saved me hours of time, and was usable on tube or solid state TV sets

large scopes for large radios  

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greetings
Martin

Frank, 
I looked at some Hitachi and Philips scopes but ended up getting a newer model CRT type 20 mHz B&K Precision from one of the Salvation Army ebay stores out of Southern California. It arrived in good shape. The case and front panel look good too. Nothing broken or bent. Cord included but no probes or manual. I bought it working condition unknown other than it powered up  and had a trace in the photos in the listing. It does work fine except that it does not have the brightest trace of scopes I've seen. It gets dimmer as the frequency of the incoming signal increases but I seem to remember that CRT scopes have a tendency to do that? It has been 7-8 years since I had a scope to use here in the radio shack so I am not sure about a few things like that.

73, Rod  WB6FBF

I found the Hitachi scopes were really good. I have 2 of them.
One was damaged by a co-worker who hooked it up to monitor the HOT pulse on the collector of the HOT Xistor. He did not use a X100 probe.
 Sadly, I went to use it and found the channel bad. He never admitted he screwed it up either.
 I quit loaning out my test equipment after that. 
 Tek scopes will do everything the SC61 Sencore will do, and a much lower price too. They also really back what they sell. I should have spent my bux on a Tek rather than the Sencore, but I was unaware that Tek made basically a better scope with all the same functions at a MUCH better price.
 Last I looked at a new Tek scope, they were all digital.
 I have a couple of 545 type hanger queens, an RCA and maybe a few others stashed away.

I have a B&K 10 Mhz dual trace scope that does pretty well.  I purchased a digital laptop scope interface that I had hoped to replace it with.  It didn't work at all.  The seller didn't even want it back, he just refunded me the price and costs.  I've been leery of trying another.  There is nothing like a good scope for a multipurpose test unit.

I'm gonna need more than scope refreshing myself. I've been away from this too long to suit me. It's now time that I make up for lost time!

I have a nice tektronix dual trace oscilloscope and a Heathkit I built 40 years ago.  I guess I should revive my skills with the o-scope and start using them again.

Sal has good prices on caps. I bought a large amount from him and also Just Radios in Canada.
 Good quality parts, and reasonable prices.
 Both places offer discounts on bulk buys too.

Cliff,
I am talking to Sal (capacitor@tuberadio.com). If he has the caps, I have an old Knight Kit KG-635 DC to 5.2 MC Oscilloscope that was given to me by a good friend. He built it and used it for a number of years. He is now a SK. Another friend (who also is a SK now) gave me the Heathkit course "How to understand and use your OSCILLOSCOPE" with the accompanying Model EF-2 Breadboard (that I need to replace the missing components) on. After I recap the O'Scope and get it working, I want to use the Heathkit course and breadboard to work my way through the book. I know that this is an old O'Scope, but it has sentimental meaning to me and  feel if I can understand this old scope, I can then use it in a meaningful way. Who knows, maybe I will even graduate up to a "big boy" scope! I feel that I will be asking questions on here from time to time.

73's
Steve
de HP9SAM

Went to my local thrift store and I found a HP 130A O'scope,its limit is 300 kHz. But I found out that I can use it for  R.F. transmissions too. 

It was designed for audio, phase shift, VLF, AND vibration analysis, if I read the HP Journel right.

It's very sensitive, has triggering which for its time, beat out Dumont O'scopes, and took on Tektronix's  too!

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IIRC, You might have to adjust your probe compensation capacitor a bit. Adjustment of that varies the waveform you see.
 Possibly bad/drifting value in resistors or capacitors in the scope, or if its tube type, a gassy tube.

OTT the crystal ball says "Out to Lunch"

I am working on this scope and found that the variable sweep pot didn't have any carbon on 90% of the fiber. I replaced the pot whit another 2 MEG. and now the wave form is ok. BUT when I sync the wave form the leading edge and the trailing edge of the sign wave move up and down. I can't get it to sync completely. Any ideas on what could be causing this? When the leading edge moves up the trailing edge moves down.

Thanks for all the links Cliff. I'll check these out later today.

Checking out an oscope
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How NOT To Blow Up Your Oscilloscope!
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Another good reference for older Tektronix scopes is the book "Oscilloscopes: Selecting and Restoring a Classic", by Stan Griffiths.

Nice, reply Cliff and very interesting for us who do not know what went on inside these companies. Sounds like Tektronics were ahead in the employment field, and the way they looked after you well, and this is reflected in their outstanding products, thank,s for reply.........Alan.

Very nice link.
The Flash is better than typing word by word to get an Idea across.
I learned a few things, but alas all I have are analog scopes, all used, and low frequency. I think the highest off hand is 60MHZ or the probe freq.

Hi Cliff, you sound as bad as me, i must admit i love Tek Scopes, i have two monsters a 535A and a 545B, both work 100%, these need the large filter at the rear cleaned often or they can overheat. The model you have sounds a steal, its nice to pick up these scopes cheap, just the job for the collection. Another use for your scope......regards....Alan.

The other nice thing about that is there are collectors and aficionados that actually sell parts and give advice on repairs. I used to work in the 500 series section in Beaverton, back in 75-76 and the quality controls and detailing were outstanding, along with employee profit share, our own Credit Union, and the Company was self reliant as to manufacturing in-house, in case of outside strikes or disruptions in deliveries of materials.

They would take a complete scope and cut out sections of the case to see the internals and view them while they were being on a shaker table, tested while powered on in ovens and freezers. That's why they stood up to the competition and became the Industrial Leader. I learned a lot from them, through the schooling they offered after hours, and bus trips to other plants during working hours. They encouraged inventions and Ideas to improve design and production. Great company all around.

Hi Guys, i have numerous Scopes in my collection, Tektronik Scopes being me own personal favorite, i have the 535A, Scope with plugins and the 545B on its own trolley with 4 plug in amps, its a lovely piece of equipment, the build quality is second to none. These are old Scopes and i use them during and after repair of my old Radio,s, so they go to-gether, i have the full manuals for each Scope. ...regards....Alan.

Went to PSARA Parking lot sale up north of Seattle, and got a Tektronix 2213 60MHz Unit.
Included with it was the service manual, and went online to get the Users manual.

$20

Finally fired up the beast and it it looks like it works, I will test it further though.
The trace needs to be rotated yet, should be easy as there is an adjustment on the front panel as a display trace.
Downloaded the Users Manual, but My HP printer is kinda flakey.

Oscilloscopes can be very helpful in diagnosing problems with radios. You can check frequencies, voltages AC and DC, phasing, Lissajous patterns, distortion, AC voltages riding on AC (spikes)
Complex waveforms, and bandwidth.

You can check for ripple current on a DC power supply, you can see trailing and leading edges on digital pulses.
Its a versatile tool when you learn how to use it.

The range of frequencies start at DC and can go to Several Gigahertz.
They can be used as spectrum analyzers, and even checking automobile ignition and spark plug problems.

The basic device uses a Cathode ray tube to present a visible pattern, this pattern is displayed with a cross-grid so readings can be interpreted.

There are scopes that can test transistor and tube curves, show frequency spread, show shorts in wires and transmission lines, show distortion, and envelope patterns, modulation percentage, spikes, drops and analysis of signals automatically.

This topic will cover all aspects of using and repairs to O'scopes. If you have any problems with your Scope someone may be of help here.