as I don't see needing 4 channels.
The Siglent will happily work up to 144MHz out of the box.
QuoteThe Siglent will happily work up to 144MHz out of the box.
It´s the 1202X-E, with 200Mhz bandwith...
Remember those cartoons where a person has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each telling him what do do? That's how I feel right now.
I'm a retired IT guy and a long-time ham radio operator. I'm not an EE. I'm thinking seriously about buying an oscilloscope. I don't know if I truly need one, but am sure that I want one.
Models I'm considering are:
Siglent SDS1202X-E
Rigol DS1054Z
Hantek DS05102P
I'm leaning towards the Siglent because it is has 200 MHz bandwidth, and seems to hit the "sweet" spot for price vs. capabilities. The Rigol is the most expensive and probably overkill, as I don't see needing 4 channels. I'm also concerned about possibly needing to "hack" the Rigol to get full capabilities. People here seem to think that Hantek is a cut below the others. But honestly, any of the three could probably do the job.
I read "Oscilloscopes for Radio Amateurs," by Paul Danzer. He seems to like USB scopes. In one section titled "Don't Overbuy," he mentions that one can get useful qualitative information for frequencies considerably above a scope's official bandwidth, just not precise quantitative information. He also advises not paying for features you can't use while the scope is being used a scope (such as a signal or function generator capability).
advise a cheap and simple vintage analog CRT scope,
Hameg in EU can be found for 5..100€ 10..100 MHz have several in Paris
Best scopes are Tektronix 465/475/B, 22xx series and 2465B, 2467B.
100..500$
Suggest that you join groups.io forums tektronix, Tektronix2 and instruments FS.WTB
The Chinese scopes have many potential pitfalls and a digital scope is not a substitute for the classic analog scope CRT
Just the ramblings of an old retired EE
Jon
In US the ham radio flea market and ads in ARRL, QST, etc
-snip
For many applications the digital scopes are much better eg single shot capture and image export to a PC.
Certainly, beginners with limited acess to ham radio Fleas and silent keys, the latest digital scopes from China are popular.
personally, being burned by some Chinese equipment, I am wary of it in general.
I've only speed-read this thread, so sorry if someone has already made this point. If you are a radio amateur (like me), at some point you will probably use your 'scope to view your outgoing signal. This is a trivial task for an analogue scope, but for DSO's it can be a difficult job and it will start aliasing and you'll not get the familiar 'AM envelope' display. The way around this is to get one with plenty of screen memory (ie it can store lots of 'points'). My Rigol has 14 million points and will show a good AM display on 160m (1.8 MHz) and up to maybe 10 MHz or so, but beyond this it looks worse than my old Tek analogue. So when you are inspecting the manufacturer's boast-sheets, look for the 'Memory Depth' spec and aim high. Hope this helps, it had me befuddled for ages....
advise a cheap and simple vintage analog CRT scope,
Hameg in EU can be found for 5..100€ 10..100 MHz have several in Paris
Best scopes are Tektronix 465/475/B, 22xx series and 2465B, 2467B.
advise a cheap and simple vintage analog CRT scope,
Hameg in EU can be found for 5..100€ 10..100 MHz have several in Paris
Best scopes are Tektronix 465/475/B, 22xx series and 2465B, 2467B.
I have a Tek 465B that I've had for many years, it's a great instrument and I have no plans to part with it, but frankly I rarely ever use it anymore since I have a newer DSO. The CRO is as someone else mentioned, a lot like a classic car. It spends most of its time in storage but I pull it out now and then for some nostalgia or when I have a specific need such as XY mode that it does better than any DSO. These days I only recommend analog scopes to beginners if it's very cheap and the only scope they can afford. Even the newest analog scopes one is likely to find now are decades old.
Latest DSOs from China are a lot popular not only among hobbiest but also in industry sector, they disrupted a market that was dominated by Tektronix, a company that was thinking to be able to sell DSOs with few kpts at whopping prices for ever.
Now it's a sinking ship.
Obviously they are not aiming to compete in the sub-$1000 price bracket.
Latest DSOs from China are a lot popular not only among hobbiest but also in industry sector, they disrupted a market that was dominated by Tektronix, a company that was thinking to be able to sell DSOs with few kpts at whopping prices for ever.
Now it's a sinking ship.Tektronix was dominating the market when analog scopes were cutting edge. HP/Agilent/Keysight and Lecroy started eating their lunch with much more advanced digital scopes in the nineties, long before Rigol scopes become known in the west.
Now Tektronix appears to be catching up, and their latest models are getting decent reviews. Obviously they are not aiming to compete in the sub-$1000 price bracket. So I'd argue reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated.