With that vast experience what do you recommend for
1. The hobbyist with little or no scope experience ?
2. The young professional, say the EE student with limited resources ?
In both cases, it depends on what you can get.
Are you living in the same world as the rest of us ?
In 2 weeks I can something from anywhere in the world......1 week from China.
It's not about what you can get but instead the best instrument for today's and future use....they are not expensive.
The hobbyist might pick some CRO boat anchor use in their twilight years however to advise the EE's of tomorrow to get one is just downright irresponsible.
NOT wishing to offend anyone, but while
YOU may be able to get something from anywhere in the world, and
YOU have the financial resources to pay some hundreds of dollars for a DSO, or professional* multimeter, or name-brand soldering station, etc... there are many people in this world who are
POOR.
by
POOR i mean having just a few dollars to spend on a hobby, who perhaps live in a tin shack, who access the internet via a $10 cellphone. or they may be a youngster whose parent(s) work 12 hour days and have
ZERO spare cash to share once the weekly bills have been paid.
most folks on this forum likely are
NOT so poor. but some are. and, indeed, most people in the world are. for those folks the "best instrument for today's and future use" is completely out of reach. so they make do with a $5 multimeter (ICL7106 based, manual ranging), a 2nd hand CRO if they are lucky, and whatever soldering device that can be scavenged for a few dollars.
cheers,
rob :-)
* by "professional multimeter", i mean a
good multimeter that is CAT rated, of either workshop or tradesperson grade.