13-07-2020, 08:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 13-07-2020, 08:06 AM by Mike Watterson.)
Well, it's a Vintage forum, mainly for hobby folk, so perhaps Mark was thinking of someone buying for work and I was thinking of the home enthusiast with little spare money. Restoring old radios or being a Radio Amateur hardly needs a scope at all. A second-hand analogue one is good value for restoring old TVs and even a delay time base isn't absolutely needed, but a s/h 100 MHz scope likely has one. A storage mode (digital or analogue) isn't needed.
Mark said they are complementary and he mostly uses the analogue one. I was merely pointing out for newcommers that the specs done quite differently to analogue scopes. Only the professional DSO have decent attenuators and triggers as good as a 40 year old 20MHz Hameg and 1GHz sampling is a minimum useful speed on a Digital scope. If someone doesn't have a scope then best to get a S/H one (transistor / IC based, not valves unless you are a vintage test equipment collector).
If on a budget, check one out at a vintage or ham swap meet (if there ever is one again). Years ago I found Helmut Singer good
https://smtnet.com/company/index.cfm?fus...ew_company&company_id=46917
Edit: Singer seems to be more a general tech agency now, rather than used /surplus test gear, so maybe not useful.
More expensive than ebay, but safer.
However, here in Ireland shipping is about the same from Germany as from the UK and the last 'scope I bought from the UK cost the same in shipping as buying the scope. Decent probes certainly cost more than a cheap DMM and second hand scopes usually need probes.
A decent external USB box for HiFi Audio makes a cheap entry level audio scope, or if it's not for for testing hifi, just restoring a vintage radio, even a phone or tablet with an external attenuator & AC isolation plugged in with a 4 pole jack is handy. Looking at the detector output on a scope is a little easier than using a DMM or ear to adjust the AM stages on a radio.
Scope, dual channel function generator and spectrum analyser SW all free on Windows, Linux and Android. Limitation is sample rate and quality of the ADC etc on the sound interface, but certainly good enough for basic testing not involving measuring HiFi specs.
No substitute for a scope, but a handy addition.
There is a huge difference between a professional lab procurement and an enthusiast's corner for restoring old radios, amps and valve TVs.
Mark said they are complementary and he mostly uses the analogue one. I was merely pointing out for newcommers that the specs done quite differently to analogue scopes. Only the professional DSO have decent attenuators and triggers as good as a 40 year old 20MHz Hameg and 1GHz sampling is a minimum useful speed on a Digital scope. If someone doesn't have a scope then best to get a S/H one (transistor / IC based, not valves unless you are a vintage test equipment collector).
If on a budget, check one out at a vintage or ham swap meet (if there ever is one again). Years ago I found Helmut Singer good
https://smtnet.com/company/index.cfm?fus...ew_company&company_id=46917
Edit: Singer seems to be more a general tech agency now, rather than used /surplus test gear, so maybe not useful.
More expensive than ebay, but safer.
However, here in Ireland shipping is about the same from Germany as from the UK and the last 'scope I bought from the UK cost the same in shipping as buying the scope. Decent probes certainly cost more than a cheap DMM and second hand scopes usually need probes.
A decent external USB box for HiFi Audio makes a cheap entry level audio scope, or if it's not for for testing hifi, just restoring a vintage radio, even a phone or tablet with an external attenuator & AC isolation plugged in with a 4 pole jack is handy. Looking at the detector output on a scope is a little easier than using a DMM or ear to adjust the AM stages on a radio.
Scope, dual channel function generator and spectrum analyser SW all free on Windows, Linux and Android. Limitation is sample rate and quality of the ADC etc on the sound interface, but certainly good enough for basic testing not involving measuring HiFi specs.
No substitute for a scope, but a handy addition.
There is a huge difference between a professional lab procurement and an enthusiast's corner for restoring old radios, amps and valve TVs.
