Oscilloscope List, December 2021!

[David Simpson]

Jesus Chris, one helluva great collection. Puts my motley collection to shame.
I've two working day to day scopes in my workshop :- a Hameg HM605, and a 203.5, with a decent spare 605 on a shelf as a spare.
On display in our living room is :- (see picture) - L - R An Air Ministry Oscilloscope Type 11(1941), a good old Solartron CT436 (1960's), an EMI WM1(early 50's), and a CT52 from the 50's/60's. All working/restored.
I used to also have two ancient but restored Cossor's on display - a 1939 3339, & a 1941 339, but I gave them to Mark James for his Cossor collection.

Regards, David

[DonaldStott]

Originally Posted by Diabolical Artificer

Is that the one I sent you DS? Is it still going?

Yep - a bit of work during it's restoration (see here) but no problems since then!

[Herald1360]

A modest list in comparison....

Tek SC502 (with a nice AM503 in the third slot of the TM503)
Tek 465
Tek THS710
Hameg HM 205-3
Hameg HM 203-6

All working well enough to be useful- the odd noisy switch / pot.

[knobtwiddler]

4 x Tek 7000 Mainframes (7603, 7704, 7623, 7904) + associated plug-ins (inc. 7A22).

Non-working Tek 2014 digital (nice workhorse, would like to get it fixed. Tricky one, as it's not worth a lot and repair bill could be as much as a secondhand one... Looks like SW error, so not in my remit)

1 x Instek 70MHz Digital (daily driver in place of said Tek - boring, but helps pay the rent. Lifetime guarantee! Methinks not transferable... Good example of Taiwanese confidence in reliability, if not ergonomics)

1 x Racal 17" Monster. Acquired from a kind member here (thank you!). Only goes to 10KHz. Am wondering if it can be used with an external front end in order to look at higher BW signals. Haven't really thought it through.

1 x Kenwood 20Mhz. Bought new as my first scope. Has sharpest trace I've ever seen. Front end is incredibly quiet. Useful for looking at low-level audio before I could afford an AA. I remember it keeping up with my Lindos measurement set, which goes down to about -90dBv.

I've sold a few Hamegs over the years. None currently. They tend to go on forever.

[Max Power]

Wow, I feel quite inadequate !!

I've owned/used loads of scopes over the years, but atm, all I've got is:

1no. Tek 465 (on the bench in use)
1no Advance OS250 (working, but sat on the floor)

I have to admit to rather liking the old Advance scopes. For what they are: they do work pretty well, and are quite easy to work on. But not to be confused with the later Gould-era scopes such as the OS300 which are junk.

Anorak fact: Guernsey Tek 465's have grey mains leads, whereas Beaverton Tek 465's have black mains leads (!!!!!!!)
...............I'm off to bed!!

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Not enough Tektronix Chris. Shameful

eBay slid me an offer for another plain vanilla 465B, untested, early this morning – I have to admit my finger had been hovering over the "Accept Offer!!!!" for the past 12 hours, until I finally couldn't resist any longer and pulled the trigger!

Presemably a Guernsey built unit, s/n 106864.

So that's Tek 465B No. 2 added, Oscilloscope No. 55 and a Gould OS4000 (No.56!) and the pride of place one on my project bench, No. 57, a Philips "Combiscope" that I hope will help me repair everything else, that I forgot was already in the bottom of the wardrobe and forgot to bung in my first list !

Chris Williams

[Chris55000]

Hi!

So currently my collection is:–

46 × mains–only bench–top type oscilloscopes;

6 × mains/battery Oscilloscopes;

4 × kit/USB Oscilloscopes, I forgot about the "BitScope" BTS220 (upgraded version), untested ;

1 × Philips PM3394 Analogue/Digital "Combiscope", in current use;

1 × Tek 465B, newly added to the above list! (Beware! Do NOT go reading T & M Service Manuals during Festive Periods, or you'll get an irresistible desire to supplement your already large collection, like I did!

Final total to 7.30 this Evening, 58 !

Chris Williams

[markfff]

Originally Posted by Chris55000

Hi!
46 × mains–only bench–top type oscilloscopes;
6 × mains/battery Oscilloscopes;
4 × kit/USB Oscilloscopes,
1 × Philips PM3394 Analogue/Digital "Combiscope", in current use;
1 × Tek 465B,
Final total to 7.30 this Evening, 58 !

Wow! Now I feel kind of impoverished

Tek 453
Tek 465B
HP 1700B
Tek TDS210

[Vintage_RC]

Originally Posted by David Simpson

Jesus Chris, one helluva great collection. Puts my motley collection to shame.
I've two working day to day scopes in my workshop :- a Hameg HM605, and a 203.5, with a decent spare 605 on a shelf as a spare.
On display in our living room is :- (see picture) - L - R An Air Ministry Oscilloscope Type 11(1941), a good old Solartron CT436 (1960's), an EMI WM1(early 50's), and a CT52 from the 50's/60's. All working/restored.
I used to also have two ancient but restored Cossor's on display - a 1939 3339, & a 1941 339, but I gave them to Mark James for his Cossor collection.

Regards, David

That's an impressively strong piece of furniture they are standing on!

[IanG3XYV]

Nothing to compare with Chris but I feel I should throw my collection into the ring:

TEK544
2465A
TDS420
TDS340

HP1741

Philips PM3055
PM3055
PM3264 - with friend
PM3217 - with friend

LeCroy 9374L

DSO138

Only the TEK2465A and PM3055 are used regularly but apart from the TDS420 which suffers from the leaking surface mount electrolytics problem, all the others were working when last tested.

Far more than I need of courses and must get round to slimming down the collection before it takes over.

[Cobaltblue]

One post moved to a new thread

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/....php?p=1434941

Cheers

Mike T

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Not enough Tektronix Chris. Shameful

Tek Oscilloscope List now increased to 4 with:–

1 × 465B to bring back from my sister's in Essex at a later date ;
1 × 465 (plain vanilla one !) & one 485 collected from Worcester today, both with sick tantalum syndrome !

(The 4th is the 465B/DM44 in the bottom of my wardrobe, previously included in my list !)

Chris Williams

[Renato65]

Wow, some serious collectors out there. These followed me home....

HP 54501A
HP 54602B (My Avatar pic)
HP 130C X2
HP 120B
HP 1710B
HP 1740A
Tek 2445 (Everyday scope)
Tek T932
Tek 2335
Tek 9834 (Configured with 7CT1N curve tracer)
Tek 2215
Tek Type 535A (Use this to fault find boatanchor radio's)
Tek Type 549
Tek Type 547
Tek Type 551
Tek Type 310A
Tek Type 561A
Tek Type 564 X2
Siglent SDS1102
Kikusui COS6100
Leader LAS-5500
Leader LBO-524
Gould OS-4000 (Very useful storage function)
Enertec Schlumberger 5276 (EHT fault - Hunting for schematic)
GW GOS622
Eico Model 460 (Configured as my Octopus component tester)
Sinclair SC110
Philips PM3010
Philips PM3200
Solarscope CD1014.3 (Not working)

And a few more in the repair holding area, Hameg, Tek, Meguro and a ? and not counting other CRT instruments such as HP 3580A, HP 141T even a Polyskop3. Yes, I have back issues but more on route

Regards
Renato

[Joe_Lorenz]

Hello,

very interesting scopes out there! I get the impression the TEK 500 series have a lot of friends although they may be seen as nothing but "heavy boat anchors" depending on one's point of view.

Anyway, here are my "boat anchors":

TEK 516 (mine since 1981)
TEK 545B (with plug-ins CA, H, L, 53/54C and more, my favourite daily driver)
TEK 565 (to be restored, plug-ins missing)
TEK 585A (with plug-in 82)
TEK 575 (very early unit, serial # below 2000, restored)
TEK 7603

Hameg 103 (two units, one almost unused NOS)
Hameg 503

AEG EO 1/100/2Z (operational, circa 1940 made)
Unknown homebrew scope, circa 1950
several non-standard scopes (Siemens relais contact tester, Bosch car ignition scope etc.)

Regards, Joe

[Joe_Lorenz]

Edit: Forgot a most rare find

Wandel & Goltermann Storascope BLS-218
This unit has got a special crt that shows the trace on phosphorus for more that 24h!

[Chris55000]

H!!

Gould No. 3, 60 MHz OS3500, powers up but no eht, cosmetics all OK, as these have only normal h.t. and l.t. windings on the mains transformer with a separate e.h.t./PDA supply generator I thought it worth a punt!

(Alas to say the free pdf bookwork is far from gratifying, copy wise, too faint and furry, so I had to buy an original paper one for it!)

Chris Williams

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Quick update on the Gould OS3500 – I got it undamaged apart from the blue perspex/acrylic filter missing and the graticule illumination lamps out – there was a very light musical tinkling from inside when I carried it upstairs to put on my storage racks – remains of the broken bulbs perhaps?

A prod of the XY button produced a single dot and some experimentation revealed the timebase and vertical channels were both OK was the E.H.T. and CRT but at the lowest speeds (> 2 ms/div) the trace becomes uneven with a bright spot to the left hand side and a regular brightness modulation across the horizontal trace length, so I suspect yakky electrolytic capacitors almost certainly!

Finally, can anyone tell me if there should be a gap between the CRT and the front panel in Gould Oscilloscopes of this general type? I can't get at my '4000 yet to have a look, there's too much other stuff on top of it!

I got an original paper OS3500 book but it's not clear from this whether there should be a gap between the CRT and panel or not!

Back to the Cossor CDU 130 circuit drawing & repairs now!

Chris Williams

[cmjones01]

Dare I list them? In my defence, almost all of mine do get used to earn a living from time to time, and I work in two countries so I need twice as many. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

In the UK:
Tek 2465 300MHz analogue - still the instrument I reach for when debugging
Tek 7104 1GHz + plugins - a miracle of physics and will outperform all but the most expensive digital scopes
Soviet C1.91 (inspired by Tek 7000 series) and basic plugins, because why not

In Poland:
Tek 2465: same reason as above
Tek 2430A: 150Ms/s digital scope which, though old, I still enjoy using, and has some neat features (glitch capture) which modern ones don't have
Tek 7904A 500MHz + a shelf full of plugins: incredibly versatile and still in regular use.
Tek 535A + interesting plugins (1A1, 1A4, 1A5, 1A7, 1S1, 1S2, 1L40, O) my first "real" scope, still amazingly capable, got used a lot for working from home last year
Tek CSA803A: for anything measured in picoseconds, plus the wonderful SD24 head for time domain reflectometry. Irreplaceable.
HP 16702B + 16534A cards: decent digital scope if rather clunky to use. Enormous touch screen.
Soviet C1.122 (inspired by Tek 7000 series) with many of the plugins including sampling, multimeter and curve tracer. Still trying to collect the set but they're *really* hard to find.

Looking at the list, I think the only ones I have "just for fun" are the Soviet ones. I realise, happily, that they all basically work, though the C1.91 could do with a lot of new electrolytics and probably a couple of 04KN009 hybrid modules.

Chris

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Default Re: Oscilloscope List, December 2021!
Hi!

Quote:

Not enough Tektronix Chris. Shameful
Tek Oscilloscope List now increased to 4 with:–

1 × 465B to bring back from my sister's in Essex at a later date ;
1 × 465 (plain vanilla one !) & one 485 collected from Worcester today, both with sick tantalum syndrome !

(The 4th is the 465B/DM44 in the bottom of my wardrobe, previously included in my list !)

Tek list now increased to 5 with the "Devil's Oscilloscope From Hell!", another C.I. Guernsey–built unit, fitted with "Option 07", External DC Supply, s/n ending in '666 !

Chris Williams

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Tested the "Devil's Oscilloscope" s/n 103666 and sure enough it lived up to its name, dead with a s/c across the LT +8 V rail, so that means a massive printing job to print out the bookwork and then go through all the fault–finding charts in sequence to find out where the duffy tantalum is, and my fingers get very cold too quickly to do anything for very long at the moment – our heating and H/W is also duffy !

Chris Williams