What is this scope and is it worth picking up?

[Cubdriver]

Try to save it if you can - I'd bet someone would want it.  I wish I was closer - I'd give it a home.

-Pat

[daveyk]

I found this scope in an electronics disposal.
it has always been a goal of mine to find a scope with a round crt display, it just seems so retro.
This is an old tektronix scope, but that's all i know. I dont think i can add it to my collection because it is HUGE and has a separate HUGE power supply.

Anyone know anything about this scope?  Is it worth saving?

That's the scope we had is electronics school when I went from 1979 to 1981.

I remember we use to take the bezel off and put very thin tracing paper under the plastic graticule overlay. Then we called the teacher over, he'd see it and call for the old man who rand the schools repair shop. We would walk by and the sides would be off the scope and he was in to the repair hot and heavy.  Several hours later we could hear from down the hall way "Oh, God Dxmn!!"

The lab teacher even got a kick out of that.

Heh heh, what strange memories... 



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[tautech]

That's the scope we had is electronics school when I went from 1979 to 1981.

I remember we use to take the bezel off and put very thin tracing paper under the plastic graticule overlay. Then we called the teacher over, he'd see it and call for the old man who rand the schools repair shop. We would walk by and the sides would be off the scope and he was in to the repair hot and heavy.  Several hours later we could hear from down the hall way "Oh, God Dxmn!!"

The lab teacher even got a kick out of that.

Heh heh, what strange memories... 



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What an evil child you were. 

[james_s]

What an evil child you were. 

I once turned off all the channel switches on the front of my grandmother's police scanner when I was about 4. She took it into a repair shop because it wouldn't pick up any signals.

[primegaps]

Well, I brought it back. And here it is.
I ended up being able to contact Mr. Carlson, and he said he would take the scope, so that's awesome. Thank you for that suggestion. It will go to a paradise for its type i must say. Just incredible! Here are some pictures just before that happens.

[Brumby]

Well, I brought it back. And here it is.
I ended up being able to contact Mr. Carlson, and he said he would take the scope, so that's awesome.

This is good news!

Nice series of photos.   

[Cubdriver]

Thanks for saving the old beast from the dumpster!   

-Pat

[Harb]

I have a collection of old Tek Scopes.....clunky old beasts yes, but bullet proof, another yes.

[Electro Detective]

Great to see it's going to a good home   

Might see it getting restored on youtube in the future from Mr. Carlsons Lab   

[Harb]

Paul sure likes his boat anchors.......I recon a bolt of lightning could hit dead centre of his shack and not a single piece of gear would even go out of Cal......

[james_s]

Despite being obsolete, it's a thing of beauty. IMO these instruments are one of the finest examples of electrical engineering of the era, they not only work well but the insides are a work of art.

One area where these old Tek tube scopes are still useful is working with Tesla coils and similar devices. I'm not taking my DSO anywhere near one of those things but that old Tek would be no problem.

[David Hess]

It is not obsolete for some applications.  The differential amplifiers and comparator plug-ins are still useful.  Put a pair of 1A4 vertical amplifiers in it and you have a dual beam 8 trace oscilloscope.

[MadTux]

Thanks for saving it.

Obsolescence is only one side, the other side is ease of operation and keeping it functional. This is where this scope shines, you can fix about everything except the CRT and everyone with a basic understanding on how to use a scope can use it. Also hard to kill by overload. Modern scopes might not be obsolete, but they are usually a nightmare to repair once broken and usually can't take much overload.
Quite similar with machines, old ones without electronics might also be obsolete, but are easy to fix, set up and operate. CNC is more capable, but evil to fix and more difficult to learn.

[TerraHertz]

One area where these old Tek tube scopes are still useful is working with Tesla coils and similar devices. I'm not taking my DSO anywhere near one of those things but that old Tek would be no problem.

Yep. Did you notice the word "PLASMA" stenciled on the unit in a few places? What's the bet that's short for 'plasma physics department' or something like that? Some research group dealing with high voltage plasma stuff.

I'd love to get an old valve scope like this, for exactly that reason. My HP 54120T scopes have the bandwidth I want, but their maximum input limit is +/- 5V. I'm certain this is going to be a problem, no matter how conservative I am with attenuators.

Thanks for saving it.

Obsolescence is only one side, the other side is ease of operation and keeping it functional. This is where this scope shines, you can fix about everything except the CRT and everyone with a basic understanding on how to use a scope can use it. Also hard to kill by overload. Modern scopes might not be obsolete, but they are usually a nightmare to repair once broken and usually can't take much overload.
Quite similar with machines, old ones without electronics might also be obsolete, but are easy to fix, set up and operate. CNC is more capable, but evil to fix and more difficult to learn.

Totally seconded.  And you forgot to list 'can get detailed paper service manuals including full schematics, theory of op and calibration procedures you can easily do at home'. None of which is true for modern DSOs.

Downsides:
* "You can fix about everything" will involve tracking down very hard to find old valves. That mostly are not made anymore, and any found may also be age-degraded.
* Most of those old carbon composition resistors will be drifted high, often well out of tolerance.
* Mass recapping probably required.

[rsjsouza]

Thank you for taking the detailed photographs - it seems it is in really good shape.

[timb]

Damn, that is a work of art inside. You know, I'd love to make a coffee table book consisting of photographs of the insides (and outsides) of vintage test gear. (Several years back someone did a book like that for computers, from Univac to Cray to Altair and everything in between, it was pretty awesome.)

[Electro Detective]

Paul sure likes his boat anchors.......I recon a bolt of lightning could hit dead centre of his shack and not a single piece of gear would even go out of Cal......

Totally agree, at worst any existing stray carpet charge build up in the lab may get neutralized, eliminating HV doorknob zap giggles 

[daveyk]

Well, I brought it back. And here it is.
I ended up being able to contact Mr. Carlson, and he said he would take the scope, so that's awesome. Thank you for that suggestion. It will go to a paradise for its type i must say. Just incredible! Here are some pictures just before that

OMG, it's been years since I've seen inside one. Marvelous! They are a thing of beauty! No need for any silly FPGAs in those things. These schematics we can actually understand and follow. No lines going in to magic boxes on the schematics.




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[Harb]

0Some of them had a roll of solder in them so you used the right solder.....a complete waste of time of course......the things never die.

[David Hess]

I think Tektronix used 4% silver solder but common Sn62Pb36Ag2 works well enough and even if the joint separates from the ceramic terminal, it is not the end of the world.  Lead free tin and silver solder is available but the higher tin content defeats the purpose of the higher silver content.

The clones of these oscilloscopes used ceramic terminals with metal inserts so silver solder was not needed.

[Cyberdragon]

0Some of them had a roll of solder in them so you used the right solder.....a complete waste of time of course......the things never die.

Mine still has it (Idk if it was ever used, not sure how much was on it originally). There is a warning label inside that says lead solder may disolve the mounting lugs off the ceramic insulator bars. It also says "property of Astron". I think it has Astron caps inside, so not sure if it was repaired or part of some two-way contract deal.