Oscilloscope question

[Joe R.]

At 03:45 PM 4/13/05 -0400, you wrote:
>>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> writes:
>
> Tom> On Tue, 12 Apr 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
> >> The Tek 7000 series scopes are really, really, undervalued these
> >> days for what they represent.
>
> Tom> The problem with all of these older Tek devices, as pretty much
> Tom> everyone who uses them for some time discovers, is that they
> Tom> soon enough die of electromechanical issues -- the switches get
> Tom> touchy, intermittent, then die -- and are essentially
> Tom> unrepairable.
>
>That hasn't been my experience with any of them, and given the superb
>quality of those devices I would find it surprising if that were
>common.  

   It's VERY common. In fact, it's pretty much the rule for old Tektronix
scopes IMO. Come over to Sanford, Florida and I'll show you several HUNDRED
Tektronix scopes and AT LEAST 95%+ of them have aging problems (bad caps,
brittle plastic, intermitant switches, etc. I recently pulled out a dozen
of so 465/466/475s and I didn't find a one that worked properly. In my
experience, sitting unused is death on a Tektronix scope. I know that when
I worked for the Telco they left them on ALL the time becuase they had less
trouble with them that way. And that was when they were new! I've had
several that worked perfectly UNTIL I let them sit unused for a couple of
months and then they developed all kinds of problems.

    Joe


My 535 and my 7603 both worked very well.  The only 535
>problem was a tube problem (HT rectifier -- obtainable though
>expensive and not well known).
>
>	  paul
>
>