I just saw this thread and figured it appropriate to join in.
Thank you to the EEVBlog. Daniel from Keysight made it quite clear the rally here was the deciding factor. The support and associated discussions obviously made a serious impact on the team. I am guessing that the decision to triple up on the giveaway was not a small one. I owe huge thanks you's to all that made it happen this way. What a wild and weird ride that somehow ended with a completely ridiculously amazing instrument headed to my bench.
It is true that the scope is not a prize, but a gift. I had the tax all worked out but now I don't have to exercise that plan. As far as I know the offer is the scope with all available options which comes with a set of passive probes. Any additional probes are on me to buy. It may take a bit to get them but I will be purchasing the probes that will be needed for high-speed work as well as the power rail probe and a pair of current probes to deal with the power measurements. Not sure yet what the final value is. The tax savings make it far easier to work out the needed probes.
As I said in the video - this is a step up for me and there will be a substantial learning curve. Not just the scope, but the learning curve on the electronics I am planning to design. When signals get into the multiples of Ghz, a whole new set of skills will be needed to succeed. I have read a lot about high-speed design, but have no practical experience. Some late nights and tears should be expected as I learn some hard lessons. With that in mind, hard lessons is exactly what I wanted. I want to push far beyond my current skills and even beyond what I am planning to learn. How long will that take me? Who knows. I tend to go at it harder than than rock-n-roll, so hopefully some good progress will result.
Step 1: Receive the unit
Step 2: Learn the fundamentals so I can do my daily bill-paying work
Step 3: Dive head first into the juicy features that I have never had access to
Step 4: Repeat step 3 in an endless loop until I can apply those features to real world design efforts
This will no doubt be a long and fun journey and I have this amazing forum community to thank for that. I will never take that for granted.