WTB Analog Oscilloscope

[JDemo]

Hey all I'm relatively new to electronic engineering and I'm trying to find a decent priced oscilloscope. I'm on a relatively tight budget so I figured an older analog one would suffice. I've been browsing eBay and most I find that are cheap and of decent seeming quality are for parts only... yay. Anyone selling one or know any good sources? Thanks. Oh and I'm in NYC if that matters.

[drussell]

You should probably try to find one locally since shipping may well cost as much or more than the scope itself.

[JDemo]

I would love to but honestly I have no clue where to even begin. I'm in NYC so finding older tech is quite difficult due to the huge city. We don't really have electronics stores that'd stock older things. The only electronics stores that would stock oscilloscopes to begin with would be Microcenter and it'd be all new DSOs and such which I can't afford. I've tried craigslist as well but it's a bust. No one really sells them there and the few that do are DSOs going for $300 or so and I found ONE analog and the guy wanted around $300 which was laughable.

[drussell]

Find the closest amateur radio club to you in New York and contact them.  Someone in the club is likely to either have one they'd be willing to part with or know where you might find one, where to potentially find classifieds listings for things like that locally, etc.

You could also look for hackerspace / makerspace type places and ask the members there.

For an area the size of New York, I'm amazed at how few total listings there are on places like Craigslist, Locanto, Oodle, etc.  It seems to be just used for housing!  Wow.  Here in Calgary, AB, where we only have about 1.2 million people, there are currently more than 414,000 ads on Kijiji (a popular Canadian free classifieds website) alone, in every imaginable category.  Only 8 oscilloscopes listed right now, and no bargains but I can't believe there aren't more local classifieds of some kind in New York.

I stumbled across a Kijiji listing a few years ago for an estate sale of an electronics guy who was into TVs and radios and stuff with some interesting pictures of piles of gear.  Even though I had never gone to an estate sale before, I was intrigued and so I stopped by later in the afternoon on the day of the sale while I was out and about anyway. 

WOW, I should have gone earlier!  There were only a couple people left when I got there and I was the last person to buy anything.  They were selling every unit there or box of parts for $20 each for large items, $10 for small items.  I got all sorts of neat stuff!  An old Precision E200 signal generator, a Heathkit visual alignment rig, RF probes, a Fluke 80K-40 high voltage probe, a bunch of other smaller stuff, some books ($1 each, IIRC...  Good ones, like Peter Keller's history of CRTs book,) almost bought a vectorscope (in hindsight, I wish I had grabbed it!)  I spent all the cash I had on me!  INCREDIBLE deals.  They knew the stuff could potentially be worth much more but just basically wanted it all gone, even if people were just going to turn around and sell it on eBay or something.  Not me!  I wanted to USE this stuff! 

Part of the reason I went was to try to get one of the many scopes pictured in the original ad, but of course those were all long gone, since they had been selling them for $20 each!  All sorts of radios, HAM gear, etc..  Oh, my...  Had I known they were all going to be $20, I would have been there first thing in the morning!!

I stuck around and talked to the guy for a while (a family member of the gentleman who had died) and helped him out as he was finishing up, taking down tables, locking up the place, etc. and he said I'd be welcome to come by the next afternoon since he would be there cleaning more stuff out of the house anyway.  I called a fellow electronics friend and we went over the next afternoon.  The guy had found even more electronic goodies in the house, which I bought, including a Sencore CR70 CRT tester, (SUPER nice score!  A 1993 model with all the adapters and latest set-up book, my eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw the black case, I knew EXACTLY what it was!) a Sencore pattern generator, a Heathkit impedance bridge and all sorts of other goodies.  I basically made a pile and we just settled on a price.  My friend got boxes of rheostats and pots and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.  I was too fixated on my growing pile! 

My point is, there are lots of places where you can find excellent bargains on stuff like this, so don't give up too easily on your local area, you just need to do your homework, keep your eyes peeled and be patient! 

Good luck!

[JDemo]

Find the closest amateur radio club to you in New York and contact them.  Someone in the club is likely to either have one they'd be willing to part with or know where you might find one, where to potentially find classifieds listings for things like that locally, etc.

...

I know it's really weird. I'll keep my eyes out for things but in the past couple of months still no luck but I'm semi-optimistic. That sounds like an incredible sale, sadly we don't usually get things like that anymore. Haven't seen a garage sale or anything since I was a kid but wow that sounds amazing. I would've have left even more broke than I already am LOL. Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it!

EDIT: I've never actually heard of Locanto or Oodle

[mtdoc]

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/ele/d/goldstar-oscilloscope-os/6694673453.html

Working, 4 probes, good condition, $50. grab it !

[drussell]

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/ele/d/goldstar-oscilloscope-os/6694673453.html

Working, 4 probes, good condition, $50. grab it !

Indeed.  That's the kind of thing you're looking for....

[drussell]

That sounds like an incredible sale, sadly we don't usually get things like that anymore. Haven't seen a garage sale or anything since I was a kid but wow that sounds amazing. I would've have left even more broke than I already am LOL.

Tell me about it.  I spent every dime I could get my hands on at the time, even though I really couldn't afford it. 

In hindsight, though, I wish I had borrowed another hundred bucks or so from somebody, somehow or something.  I'm still kicking myself for not getting a few more of the items that were there that I simply didn't have the money for, even at ~20 bucks apiece and I shudder to think that some of it may well have ended up just getting tossed.  Old vintage military radios, piles of books and documentation, all sorts of stuff!

I probably could have made the money I spent on all the items I wanted for my own use back by selling a few of those other random items that were still sitting there but, alas, I had no more money at the time. 

I can see why savvy scroungers shop the estate sales, though, and if I had more time (and had any money that I could spend on it,) I would try going to another.  Alas, I think I'm probably just as broke as you. 

[james_s]

You'll probably find half a dozen scopes as soon as you stop looking for one, that's usually how it works for me.

Look around for hamfests and swap meets, often there is something like that at least once a year somewhere. Look on craigslist and search ebay for local items, look around for a local hackerspace, there *HAS* to be at least one in NYC and many times they end up with more old analog scopes than they know what to do with.

[chris_leyson]

This might be useful https://wiki.nycresistor.com/wiki/Local_Resources_/_Parts

[Johnboy]

Here's one in Long Island that might be worth checking out if the poster is being honest. I don't understand why people post things on Craigslist claiming they are working and the picture of the unit doesn't show that. Unless, of course, it doesn't work.
https://longisland.craigslist.org/for/d/bk-oscilloscope/6685040627.html

[Old Printer]

Aside from telling us $300 is too much, you have not said what is a "decent" price for you. Second is what you want to do with it, except that analog is what you are looking for. What bandwidth do you need? Any analog scope under $300 will likely need some work eventually to keep it going, could you replace the caps in the power supply if they started going? Most analog scopes of this description are 30+ years old. With a bit of searching you could get a new digital scope with a warranty for $300 or a little bit less. Don't overlook the original Analog Discovery, a combination USB scope, AWG and several other learning tools and can be had used well under $200 with some careful shopping, sometimes much less.

[james_s]

For $300 I would expect a very high end analog scope that is in perfect working order, it shouldn't be too hard to find a decent fully working 100MHz or less scope for $100 or less. 10-15 years ago you might have been right, but with low cost DSOs like the popular Rigol and Siglent models the bottom has really fallen out of the analog scope market. Just the other day I rescued a 100MHz Hitachi analog scope that was about to go into a dumpster. It cleaned up real nice and after giving the controls treatment with switch cleaner/lube it works perfectly.

[Old Printer]

For $300 I would expect a very high end analog scope that is in perfect working order, it shouldn't be too hard to find a decent fully working 100MHz or less scope for $100 or less. 10-15 years ago you might have been right, but with low cost DSOs like the popular Rigol and Siglent models the bottom has really fallen out of the analog scope market. Just the other day I rescued a 100MHz Hitachi analog scope that was about to go into a dumpster. It cleaned up real nice and after giving the controls treatment with switch cleaner/lube it works perfectly.

I must be hanging around the wrong dumpsters.

[james_s]

It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Either way $1/MHz is typically the accepted going rate for an ordinary analog scope these days. Something that works but probably hasn't been calibrated or serviced lately.

[Johnboy]

Aside from telling us $300 is too much, you have not said what is a "decent" price for you. Second is what you want to do with it, except that analog is what you are looking for. What bandwidth do you need? Any analog scope under $300 will likely need some work eventually to keep it going, could you replace the caps in the power supply if they started going? Most analog scopes of this description are 30+ years old.

All of this would be helpful to the other forum users (most of them in this thread more experienced and knowledgeable than myself) who are trying to help you out. My contribution was a recommendation of a 20 MHz scope in your area that doesn't even appear to have probes included. Unless you make it a little clearer what you're looking for, in terms of your needs and your capabilities, and even a price range, it's harder to find good advice.

With a bit of searching you could get a new digital scope with a warranty for $300 or a little bit less. Don't overlook the original Analog Discovery, a combination USB scope, AWG and several other learning tools and can be had used well under $200 with some careful shopping, sometimes much less.

This is also true; older analog scopes are really only a temporary solution, unless you buy an immaculately restored one (big bucks usually), and you'll eventually want to know how to use a digital scope, because there won't be much else available down the road when you're looking for a new model. Might as well get in on the ground floor, as fast as everything's changing. The AD incorporates a lot of other tools worth looking at.

I would also echo what was said about amateur radio groups in your area. There are some great old analog scopes lying in mothballs that would likely be free to someone who was being mentored by an "Elmer"... but some of those same older gents would not even consider selling a piece of their equipment that wasn't going directly to a licensed ham operator. The entry-level Amateur Technician license is very easy and inexpensive to test into for most adults, and I would think that anyone interested in EE would find some like-minded interests among the members of their local amateur club. I really feel this is worth your time to investigate, above and beyond finding a scope in the short term.

[Old Printer]

In case the OP is still around, on the surface this looks like a pretty good deal if the primary qualifier is cheap.

https://www.banggood.com/nl/Hantek-DSO5102P-USB-Digital-Storage-Oscilloscope-2Channels-100MHz-1GSas-p-1013032.html?rmmds=cart_middle_products&cur_warehouse=CN

Hantek (meh)  but 100 Mhz 1Gs 2 ch scope for US $240. Don't know about shipping.  EDIT Shipping to US is free.

[drussell]

Hantek (meh)  but 100 Mhz 1Gs 2 ch scope for US $240. Don't know about shipping.  EDIT Shipping to US is free.

That IS pretty cheap, but you can also find deals on things like an open-box Rigol 1054Z at tequipment.net for $315 if the OP is going to save up his pennies for a new scope.  My impression was that the OP is simply looking for a starter scope for as little money as possible, eventually saving up for something more advanced.

My 1950/1960s era Stark OSK-2 served me well as a first scope (and I even still occasionally use it for certain things) even though it has but a single channel and a bandwidth of MAYBE 5 MHz (on a good day) at about 6db down. 

We all have to start somewhere and I have a feeling if the OP can find a working basic scope for $50 locally, that's a win. 

We'll have to hear from the OP, though.  Hopefully they let us know what they eventually decide on, just out of curiosity.