Tek's Golden Years

During which years were Tektronix turning out their very finest stuff? When were they producing their very best oscilloscopes in terms of build quality and innovation? And what were their stand-out models? Let's all fondly reminisce. :-)

Reply to
Cursitor Doom
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On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 10:16:20 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom Gave us:

You have obviously never seen one of their recent MDOs.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

BURN THE WITCH!

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

I have 7 Tek scopes at the moment. My two faves are the TDS 694C and the 11

802. If I had to have just one, it would be the TDS 694C, because it does everyt hing.

(List below.) I also used to like my 466 storage scope, but one day it died when I switch ed into storage mode.

There's a reasonably up-to-date list of my equipment with a fair amount of possibly-interesting commentary at

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bEquipment.html.

I used to have a TDS 7704A (7 GHz, 20 Gs/s iirc) (Windows XP), TDS 684, TDS 520A, a couple of 2465Bs, a 7104, another 7000-series that I forget, a 468 analogue storage scope, a 485, and a bunch of 500-series plug-in stuff tha t included a small scope. The 7000 series was neat because you could have a spectrum analyzer as well as a scope in one box.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

------------- Current list (abbreviated) ---------

Tektronix TDS694C Digital Scope

ltaneously on all 4 channels, colour LCD

?1M: 120k points/channel

?HD: Internal hard disk drive

course, but then I have

Tektronix TDS744A Digital Scope

11800 Series Sampling Heads

l mildly broken)

Tektronix 475A Analog Scope

very low noise (2 mV/div)

Tektronix 2467 Analog Scope

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

On Tue, 05 Apr 2016 07:32:26 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" Gave us:

Terrell must be on one of his 'off-the-meds' mornings.

Go back to sleep, lard ass.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Oh, dear, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this AM.

How about we talk about scopes for a bit first?

Re: fondness.

I remember the first time I actually saw and used a scope. My sister was ta king a first year physics lab, and had no idea how the equipment worked. I was about 13 at the time, and had been building stuff for a few years with no more test equipment than a Radio Shack 50k ohm/V VOM (volt-ohm-milliamme ter for the noobs).

Being able to see stuff instead of having to poke around and guess was so a mazing that I still haven't got over it entirely. ;)

We figured it out quickly and went home, but by then I was hooked. If I did n't love scopes, I wouldn't have as many. (I have two others I didn't list 'cuz they aren't Teks.)

So fondness has a lot to do with associated memories.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

My favorites are these:

323/324 for a small, battery powered portable scope 453A dual channel scope that I used for over a decade to repair computers, terminals and other electronics. 2465/2465A/2465B four channel 300/350/400 MHz scope. Some have IEEE-488, voltmeters and power connectors for active probes, depending on the installed options.

Then there are their Vectorscopes, Waveform, Logic and Spectrum analyzers. that are still in use in many places.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

You just come across that way, dipshit.

Reply to
Chris

... And gay as well.

Reply to
Chris

Their best (and I think last) round-tube scope was the 547. Fabulous electron optics. I have a few. Here's the CRT:

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The 11801 sampler, ca 1992 maybe, is fabulous. 50 GHz bandwidth. We have a bunch of them, and a lot of sampling heads. We recently bought a couple more 11801C's on ebay, and we had one open yesterday to fix an encoder knob. Lotta stuff in there, very nicely done.

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--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

11802.

ything.

A digital 'scope! I somehow had an image of you as an only analog guy.

George H.

ched into storage mode.

of possibly-interesting commentary at

formatting link
LabEquipment.html.

DS 520A, a couple of 2465Bs, a 7104, another 7000-series that I forget, a 4

68 analogue storage scope, a 485, and a bunch of 500-series plug-in stuff t hat included a small scope. The 7000 series was neat because you could have a spectrum analyzer as well as a scope in one box.

multaneously on all 4 channels, colour LCD

f course, but then I have

nel mildly broken)

, very low noise (2 mV/div)

Reply to
George Herold

My uncle Sheldon let me play with scopes when I could barely walk. Turn the knobs, see the pretty patterns.

I used to buy Heathkit scopes, build them, and sell them at cost. I just liked building them.

When I was 12 I got a Knight-Kit scope. 5 MHz, DC coupled, triggered sweep, calibrated X-Y. That changed my life: I got quantitative about electronics and physics.

A few years later, girls changed my life.

I worked summers in the Physics electronics shop at LSUNO, 85 cents per hour, and got to work with and work on Tek 545s. They were awesome.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
John Larkin

Small modern color digital scopes are not works of art, like the

500-series were, but they beat the heck out of the old iron for usability.

And price. A 545 with a plugin cost as much as a Chevrolet.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

It doesn't seem to have done Bloggs any harm. Unfortunately.

Reply to
Julian Barnes

Urgh. That reminds me of a beautiful 555 I once owned many years ago. When I moved abroad it was just too big to take with me and nobody in the ham fraternity I knew who would have loved it in principle had enough space for it. In any case, I had a dozen modern scopes that were of course far lighter and smaller. I'm still traumatised over the way I had to dispose of that 555 in the end. I shudder to think about it to this day. :(

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 14:26:25 -0000 (UTC), Chris Gave us:

Now gay slurs? That pretty much proves my previous comment. You a TrumpTard too? You ten year old mentality twits should not be permitted online.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

On Tue, 05 Apr 2016 08:33:44 -0700, John Larkin Gave us: snip

You were "sure" I was just "a tech" too. Your powers of making valid assessments about others rests firmly at nil.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Well, have a nice (short) life.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
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Reply to
John Larkin

My first scope was an EICO 460 with a bad power transformer. Barely

500 KHz, no triggering and AC coupled. I was still in school, and working part time in a TV shop. Frame to CRT filament winding shorts were common in those early, low budget type scope. The other tech at the shop suggested that I try a separate filament transformer, instead of pay EICO about $30 for a new transformer. It worked, until I spent the money on a brand new, just introduced Leader LBO-505 dual trace 10 MHz scope. I now have 17 Tektronix scopes. One that was made for TV stations has two CRTs.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

On Tue, 5 Apr 2016 17:09:27 -0000 (UTC), Julian Barnes Gave us:

You are such an immature putz.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

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