Fw: Oscilloscope Recommendations

[Ron]

Thanks for the fun trip down memory lane... The scope I replaced
with the 465B was an old 545A, that was 50 years old if it was a
day. It was still sorta working, though uncalibrated and very
difficult to trigger. I had an annoying problem that brought my
poor 545A, with it's limited BW (type D plugin) and tricky
triggering, to its knees. The 465B solved it within 3 minutes of
firing it up.

I sold the 545A, for $25, to the first person that agreed to pick
it up. I kept the Tek cart, where the 465B perches now.

-- Ron



Garey Barrell wrote:

> Malcolm -
>
> I have quite a bit of Heath test equipment, and many pieces are very
> useful.
>
> But as far as oscilloscopes go, the Sync type scope is not much good for
> anything outside modulation monitoring and Lissajous patterns.  There is
> just no substitute for a triggered sweep scope once you have used one.
>
> The Tek 500 series scopes were big, heavy, hot and not very portable,
> event though they DID have (two) handles on top!  Fortunately they were
> usually on their cart, (with wheels.) and so easy to move about.  I used
> lots of them in the 60's, (yes, for NASA and on rockets to the moon,)
> and they did a great job of heating up the lab on cold mornings.   They
> did indeed have beautiful ceramic terminal strips with notches that
> leads were just laid into, rather than being wrapped two or three times
> around a tag strip as Heath recommended.  Changing a part was very easy
> and quick, with no damage to other parts or the ceramic strip.  Yes, Tek
> advised the use of  "silver-bearing"  (not "silver") solder, available
> even today at Radio Shack.   But just in case you didn't have any handy,
> they included a small spool of solder inside each scope!  Those scopes
> required so little service, other than tube replacement, that most
> scopes still had their little spool of solder inside when they were
> surplussed out.
>
> They were replaced by the 465 family of scopes, which are quite portable
> and easily lifted with one hand.  They were not quite the level of
> quality of the 500 series, but way ahead of most other products of the
> time, including the HP scopes.
>
> Still later the 2000 / 3000 series came along.  These were even smaller
> and lighter, but not up to the quality of the earlier models.  They are
> still way ahead of any of the Heath scopes in functionality.
>
> As for the service use of those scopes, yes, we did use them.   Many
> people drove Model T automobiles for many years too, but not many would
> want to step outside and turn the crank to start their cars today!
>
> Bottom line is, I love Heath gear as much as the next guy, and still
> regularly use my IT-28, IM-11 and IP-22, but my IO-102 (nostalgia value)
> sits on it's shelf while I use the Tek 465B and 2215 scopes to design
> and service my equipment.
>
> 73, Garey - K4OAH
> Atlanta
>
> Malcolm Leonard wrote:
>
>> Oh boy!As a lover of tubed,kit built,relatively low priced vintage
>> test gear
>> and a Heathkit fan to boot,I can't help feeling that I ought to speak
>> up in
>> behalf of Heathkit and kit built scopes in general.
>> So far,everybody has tried to discourage the poster from getting a Heath
>> scope.
>> Look,Teks are very well made but I had one that literally took two
>> good men
>> to lift up and place on the bench.
>> In some cases you will need to purchase a separate cart or reinforce an
>> existing bench or shelf to support one of these monsters.
>>
>> Furthermore,the Tek internal ceramic parts supports requiring the use of
>> silver solder are not funsville to service for the average hobbyist.
>>
>> And maybe the guy posting this has a feeling for the nostalgic value
>> of old
>> Benton Harbor stuff.
>>
>> Furthermore,thousands of service shops happily used Heath scopes and made
>> lots of money with them for many years.
>>
>> For servicing *digital*equipment will a Heath scope do?No,of course
>> not.But
>> for general,vacuum tub era servicing Heath scopes are fine.I'd choose a
>> later model,perhaps to get the advantages of changes and improvements but
>> unless you are designing rockets to the moon or doing digital work on a
>> serious basis
>> Heath scopes wiil still serve as they did for so many years.
>> Malcolm
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Goss, Ed" <Ed.Goss at JHUAPL.EDU>
>> To: <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
>> Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 10:27 AM
>> Subject: Oscilloscope Recommendations
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> All,
>>>     What would you folks recommend in the way of a used Heathkit scope?
>>> I'd like to pick up something for general bench use, alignment of
>>> boatanchors, etc.
>>> --Ed G--

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