Yes I agree, TE has a draw to it, especially CRO's many of which are some 30 years old and are still capable of being everyday tools, I wonder if the same could be said about the new breed of DSO's with their custom chips etc. That's one reason why I have so far avoided Tektronics scopes because of their heavy use of custom hybrids which almost certainly means that once they get to a certain age, Tektonics will pull the plug on supporting the old hybrids.
The US seems to be the place to be as the supply of old gear to fix and donor units seems inexhaustible.
IMO the future there will likely be mostly electrolytic replacement and SMPS repair as much SMD construction these days is very reliable. Other than rare infant mortality products I sell are proving very reliable.
Is it me or do you find that DMM's suck at measuring resistance with the item still in circuit? I replaced that 475k minimelf one with a brand new one that I checked prior to soldering it back and it was bang on 475k, once soldering back, it read again around the 400k as the previous one did. The DMM was ever so slowly creeping upwards in its reading. I dragged out my old Avo Model 8 and tested it in circuit and it went straight to approx 475k. So is this because of the higher impedance of the DMM that there is far less current being drawn and therefore any caps in circuit can only charge up very slowly whereas my old Avo being a 20,000 ohms per volt instrument will allow more current to flow and therefore any caps in circuit become almost immediately charged and that 475k resistance in circuit now reads around 475k. Have I been chasing ghosts all time using the DMM for in circuit measurements?
Some equipment is better than others at in-circuit measurement and one need be careful with stressing other componentry than what you are trying to measure. It is true that there is some interpretation required and mostly I just look for resistance that IS NOT greater than the marked value as there is often another current path to shunt the value lower than marked values. Resistors mostly drift high so this method works for me. Semiconductors and caps is where I focus my attention. Poor joints and connectors too.
Oh yeah, and I have an Avo 8 that gets used occasionally too.
Most of my measurements are done with a ST-3 smart tweezer, it's so fast to use and quite accurate. Many think they're toys but I can assure you they're not. Convinced a few members to get them (now ST5) and I don't think any are disappointed. Trouble with them....they're not cheap.
With a Fluke 15B and the above there's a lot I can do before having to drag out any of the bigger guns in my range of demos.