Off-topic, but interesting (Fiorina fired)

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Philip" == Philip Pemberton <philpem at dsl.pipex.com> writes:

 >> of the tube-based 5xx series.

 Philip> They're tube based? Heh. Bulletproof then.

...until one of those tubes loses it vacuum and you find it's either
unobtainable or costs $75 or more.

That happened with my 535 and its high voltage rectifier tube (5865?
Something like that).

 >> But the old line, with the passive components point-to-point on
 >> fired ceramic mountings,

 Philip> Aren't they the ones you have to use a special silver-bearing
 Philip> solder on? I seem to recall reading about Tek putting a small
 Philip> roll of solder inside the chassis of every scope that used
 Philip> the ceramic mountings.

Allegedly, though mine didn't have it anymore.

I now have a 7603, which is quite nice.  A lot lighter than the 535,
and it has a useful bandwidth for ham radio purposes.  Now if only I
could find a spectrum analyzer plugin for it that costs less than a
car... :-)

       paul