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Oscilloscope Dilemma

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baldurn:

--- Quote from: Andy2 on December 04, 2022, 02:57:20 pm ---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....

--- End quote ---

I am not sure what you are doing wrong, but my DSO has no trouble at all displaying a typical AM signal. Here is a photo of a 29 MHz (10 meters) signal modulated by 1 kHz at 50%:

oldjackbob:
Peter,

I'm also a ham and have been struggling with the exact same questions as yourself. A week ago I decided to pull the trigger on a Rigol MSO5074 for $799, it came with the free MSO5000-BND software bundle, I did the upgrade hack (super easy hack, I can send you the 3 small files to put on a USB thumbdrive) and now I've got a 350 MHZ 4-channel mixed signal scope with 8Gsa/s sampling rate capable of extremely high waveform resolution.

I know that's a bit over your stated budget but my motto is "buy once, cry once".

Mark

markone:
I would say that now we have the proof that third millennium sub grand DSOs are able to provide a fancy view of typical HAM signals  :D

Jokes aside, as I was saying a modern medium segment 2GS/s 200MHz BW from Rigol / Siglent fits the puporse, if you look to David's Youtube DSO review you can also spot models that have nicer analog persistence emulation with AM modulated signals.   

james_s:
It's worth remembering that these low cost hobbyist oriented scopes tend to hold their value pretty well, if you take good care of it you should be able to sell it for a substantial fraction of what you paid for it should you decide that it no longer meets your needs, at least that's true of the more reputable brands like Rigol and Siglent. Don't be too paralyzed by indecision, any scope is better than no scope.

james_s:

--- Quote from: jonpaul on December 04, 2022, 05:42:35 am ---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.

--- End quote ---

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.

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