BIG EEVblog Giveaway Coming Up

[EEVblog]

Once it's made clear that at the bottom line this is not a "free scope" but a "high-end scope at a low cost", the people who will still choose to enter the raffle are probably those who know what they are doing and will put this scope to good use.

That won't stop anyone entering!

Aussies won't have to pay huge import taxes, but they deserve a break, being upside down and all 

The scopes are being shipped to me at zero cost via a magic carpet. I will be the legal owner of them. So shipping to someone in Oz isn't going to be a problem. It's overseas where the problems come in. I might actually have to rule out Germany completely for well known reasons. In fact, the EU is generally not great.
In fact given that aussies can't enter the Keysight giveaway, my one will be their only chance.

[Brumby]

In fact given that aussies can't enter the Keysight giveaway, my one will be their only chance.

An observation that has not escaped me ... and I'm sure many other Aussies.

[igendel]

That won't stop anyone entering!

It had already stopped me...

Fact is, we've been copping the rough end of the pineapple

Heh, that's a useful expression I wasn't familiar with 

The world's a global village in terms of communications, but regarding physical products... I can assure you you're not alone in cringing at local prices!

[Brumby]

I've found that has become much more apparent to me since joining this forum.

[StuUK]

How about the best begging letter incorporating a nice legal indemnification of all import duties? 

[Ysjoelfir]

It's overseas where the problems come in. I might actually have to rule out Germany completely for well known reasons. In fact, the EU is generally not great.

I may be called stupid or blinded (or both), but what are those reasons?
Besides I just called the german Zoll (Import office) in Frankfurt on Main and asked for the regulations that apply in this case.
They told me, that there isn't a problem importing it, you just have to keep in mind that you have to pay 19% taxes.
Since you as the sender don't have to pay the taxes my guess is that shiping to german wouldn't be that huge of a problem, but maybe I'm missing something?

[iloveelectronics]

Are there other countries/regions that are like Hong Kong where we don't really have to pay any duty or tax to receive or bring stuff in? Here I believe we are only required to pay duty for a few categories including liquors and tobacco, and maybe cars (but only when you want to register and drive on the roads). Pretty much everything else is tax free. No intention for me to enter this giveaway though as I honestly won't have a need or even know how to properly use such a high end scope

[EEVblog]

Since you as the sender don't have to pay the taxes my guess is that shiping to german wouldn't be that huge of a problem, but maybe I'm missing something?

I have a very long and sorry history of shipping uCurrent's to Germany. Huge number of returns, most get stuck in customs, some for months. It's horrible. Germany has the reputation of one of the worst customs in the world.

[Errmy]

Since you as the sender don't have to pay the taxes my guess is that shiping to german wouldn't be that huge of a problem, but maybe I'm missing something?

I have a very long and sorry history of shipping uCurrent's to Germany. Huge number of returns, most get stuck in customs, some for months. It's horrible. Germany has the reputation of one of the worst customs in the world.

As I heard from some other people who already ordered overseas, the CE mark is very important for german custom offices. Same thing happened to that Ouya console some time ago.

[selkathguy]

I don't think the prize is too good.  Giving away oscilloscopes of this caliber generates a huge signal in terms of networking whether it be via social media or YouTube or whatever.  More so than giving away more of the low-end scopes.  That means generating just as much publicity for you (@DaveJ) as it does for Keysight, and will be healthy for attracting more channel viewers and forum users, even if some of them don't end up staying.

Also you won't have to ship a bunch of smaller scopes to a bunch of different people, though you're probably battle-hardened after shipping the uCurrents, heh.

Edit: I also really want a shot at one of these. So I'm not exactly a disinterested/unbiased party. 

[Towger]

The scopes are being shipped to me at zero cost via a magic carpet. I will be the legal owner of them. So shipping to someone in Oz isn't going to be a problem. It's overseas where the problems come in.

Would it not make more sense for Agilent to ship it through their dealer network to the winners? It would reduce the taxes on import problem to whatever taxes the winners country has for prize winning, if any and if they declare it.
It would also save you the headache, especially if the winner has to reject the delivery and scope starts to play international ping pong.

Disclaimer: I have no interest in this solution: I will be in Australia for a couple of weeks this year, so can collect in person.


 

[wraper]

The scopes are being shipped to me at zero cost via a magic carpet. I will be the legal owner of them. So shipping to someone in Oz isn't going to be a problem. It's overseas where the problems come in. I might actually have to rule out Germany completely for well known reasons. In fact, the EU is generally not great.

I might take a flight to Australia for a local pickup  .

[digsys]

I have a very long and sorry history of shipping uCurrent's to Germany. Huge number of returns, most get stuck in customs, some for months. It's horrible. Germany has the reputation of one of the worst customs in the world.

LOL. I had worse problems with Canada for many years (both in and out). I've had a simple 2nd hand camera repair held for 6 months !!! until they could
find someone who would verify the contents. Never had anything under a month ! In the end, I paid a friend to drive back and forth across the USA border
to pick-up / deliver :-)  That was a few years ago .. their postal union are as bad as AUS was way back.

[hamster_nz]

I hate suggesting this because it probably would ensure I wouldn't end up with one...

But,  I have seen giveaways like this done by the membership voting on the best submission describing the proposed use for the item being given away. 

For things of minimal value that works - a Raspberry Pi kit, a DMM, or a Soldering station. But I worry that with a $$$$ item, the crowd will hound the person out of town unless the winner's hobby project delivers to their satisfaction - and you can't please everybody all the time. Some will want build logs, and to get "their money's worth" to see that it is being used properly.

Is somebody who spends his or her spare time attempting to build an atomic force microscope from a piezo disks and a DVD laser assembly any less worthy than somebody who services transceivers for a living? Is an old hand who already has a bench of kit more worthy than a novice who is just starting out?

If somebody wins it, then sells it straight away then I can't fault them for that. It happens all the time with spot prizes at cycling events... you find them on sale the following day, as the winner already has a bike that they love and the prize provides minimal utility to them.

What really matters is the happiness of the person who wins - if they are chuffed then that is the best you can wish for! If it becomes a burden for them, then the giveaway has been done wrong.

[elex_enthusiast]

IMO i think its better to categorize the giveaway and make criteria for every category. Instead of giving away a "pricey" scope without an assurance if the winner is worthy or not, why not ask Keysight for 3 different class of scopes to be given away for each category. The categories would be for newbies/start-ups, mid-level, and expert category with different criterias. In such way someone wins an adequate scope for his/her level of applications. Say, a 100MHz for a noob, a 500Mhz for mid-level, and >500Mhz for an expert/professional category. Just an opinion though. I'm in for the noob category

[Al]

I see what you mean there, yeah I forgot that you can't track twitter followers to forum usernames. Maybe they can tweet their username at you? And once a winner is picked you can verify their forum username?

It will not involve twitter in any way.
You're either an active forum member or you aren't, just like previous giveaways.
The problem everyone seems to have is that the prize is "too good", and I share that concern, but I'm not sure what can be done about this.
Although Keysight don't really care who ends up with it or what they do with it, they perhaps might have an issue with me selling it and buying 10 Rigol's to give away! 
Perhaps I should have just asked for money to do the promo video and bought 10 cheaper scopes myself 
Actually, the country import tax thing might turn out to be real nightmare for the winner, and me, it's a real problem.

I really think you should just make a deceleration that says "by entering this giveaway, you agree to pay your country's import taxes / fees, etc. etc." and make sure the winner understands what they are getting into prior to shipping it to them. I for one, wouldn't mind at all paying a couple of grands to import it to the US (I'm not sure of our import fees on such items) but whatever it is, it would be worth it!

[broz]

Looking forward to this! Starving student spends all his money on beer so he can't afford a scope...if only I had the slightest chance...

[SeanB]

Flying to Australia and picking up the scope would actually work out cheaper, though to satisfy Customs this side i would have to make the flight with another oscilloscope so that I left declaring an oscilloscope, and came back with an oscilloscope.  One cheap GWInstek later in carry on luggage and I will be sorted, and the flight is only R20 000 return ( and 18 hours one way) and I only hope the HP/Agilent/keysight scope fits in the same carry bag with it being able to close...

[XynxNet]

Well, regarding the notion of worthyness...
If you are an expert/professional working day in day out with hf, you probably have such a scope at work.
But not doing this for a living, it might open a new field of electronics for the winner, wheather he is a noob, a hobbyist, a professional outside the hf field...
Ultimately you just have to hope this is the case. There is just no way to ensure this, no matter how you restrict the contest.

[rx8pilot]

I am baffled by all the interest in choosing a 'Worthy' winner. The most fair way to do it is have a sign up thread somewhere. Draw a name. Announce the winner. If they pay the taxes/shipping the get it. If they don't/can't pay the taxes  go to number 2, 3, 4 in the drawing.

Turning it into a worthiness contest is silly. Why does it matter what happens to the scope after the giveaway? Is it less sour grapes if you see it being put to 'good use' whatever that may be? 

Make it a drawing and keep it simple. Keysight wants and will get conversation about their products so they win. If it goes up on eBay, someone gets some cash and the buyer gets a sweet scope.

[Aodhan145]

I am baffled by all the interest in choosing a 'Worthy' winner. The most fair way to do it is have a sign up thread somewhere. Draw a name. Announce the winner. If they pay the taxes/shipping the get it. If they don't/can't pay the taxes  go to number 2, 3, 4 in the drawing.

Turning it into a worthiness contest is silly. Why does it matter what happens to the scope after the giveaway? Is it less sour grapes if you see it being put to 'good use' whatever that may be? 

Make it a drawing and keep it simple. Keysight wants and will get conversation about their products so they win. If it goes up on eBay, someone gets some cash and the buyer gets a sweet scope.

+1

[mtdoc]

I am baffled by all the interest in choosing a 'Worthy' winner. The most fair way to do it is have a sign up thread somewhere. Draw a name. Announce the winner. If they pay the taxes/shipping the get it. If they don't/can't pay the taxes  go to number 2, 3, 4 in the drawing.

Turning it into a worthiness contest is silly. Why does it matter what happens to the scope after the giveaway? Is it less sour grapes if you see it being put to 'good use' whatever that may be? 

Make it a drawing and keep it simple. Keysight wants and will get conversation about their products so they win. If it goes up on eBay, someone gets some cash and the buyer gets a sweet scope.

+1

+2

[rch]

I am baffled by all the interest in choosing a 'Worthy' winner. The most fair way to do it is have a sign up thread somewhere. Draw a name. Announce the winner. If they pay the taxes/shipping the get it. If they don't/can't pay the taxes  go to number 2, 3, 4 in the drawing.

Turning it into a worthiness contest is silly. Why does it matter what happens to the scope after the giveaway? Is it less sour grapes if you see it being put to 'good use' whatever that may be? 

Make it a drawing and keep it simple. Keysight wants and will get conversation about their products so they win. If it goes up on eBay, someone gets some cash and the buyer gets a sweet scope.

+1

+2

+1 (=4)

And secondly;   I know why the price of 'scopes goes up with bandwidth.   But I don't agree that the worthiness and sophistication of EE work goes up with bandwidth!

(DOI - doing some work at about 5MHz which would be immensely helped by a scope with versatile signal processing.)

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

We are not worthy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FucbvoFFy0&feature=youtu.be

[luney]

I'm not going to quote anyone because there are too many duplicate responses to quote. Not word for word but in attitude? I think anyone judging someone else as not being worthy of, or incapable of, using an expensive piece of test equipment like this is kind of snobbish and displays an elitist mentality. Maybe you are right. A newbie that wins a beautiful machine may very well just let it collect dust because they have no idea how to make use of the advanced features of said piece of equipment. For me, I would hope that if I did not win it, the one that does will maybe ask questions about how to use those advanced features so that I might actually get a chance to share the little bit of knowledge I have to share at this point in time. With time and someone willing to help by sharing knowledge, anyone can learn to use a 15k scope just like anyone else here has learned to use one. Would I love to have something like this? Absofreakinlutely! Can I use it correctly right now? Absofreakinlutely NOT. But I would damn sure try to learn how. I love to learn and if and when I run into something I do not know or understand, it will grate at my nerves until I figure it out. I was told a very long time ago by an engineer that I became good friends with, "Never assume anything. When you assume you make an ASS of U and ME". No I'm not real old but in my 46+ years I have come to realize that this is one of the truest statements ever made!