OT? Tek Scopes

From: Bill Yakowenko <yakowenk_at_cs.unc.edu>
Date: Sat Mar 6 21:17:46 1999

Visiting a surplus shop today, I found a small herd of Tek Oscilliscopes. Some
of them looked pretty old to me. They want real money for them too. Details:

        Model Mod 1 Mod 2 Cart
        ----- ----- ----- -----
        564 3C66 2B67
        564 3A74 2B67 Y
        504 Y
        561A 3A72 2B67
        5111 5A20N 5B10N
        515A Y
        549 1a1 Y
        D11 5A14N 5B10N Y
        504
        564B 3A9 3B4

Prices were originally $200 for most of them, except the 549, which was $400.
Some of them had been marked down to $100. They have some kind of automatic
decrease in price based on how long things stay in the store (1% per day?),
but most of them have been there only since late February. And I don't know
how that effects the ones that were "manually" marked down.

I suspect these prices are outlandish. The same place wants $25 for 2400
baud modems. :-) Anyway, the age-based discount may eventually make the
prices more reasonable. At least for the scopes, if not the modems.

The ones marked "Y" under "Cart" had a "Scope-Mobile" cart with them. But I
didn't think to get model numbers from those.

Oh, and I can't guarantee that these work. I didn't ask if they would allow
me to test them, and at present I don't know enough to be able to test them
anyway. I also can't guarantee that they'll still be there when I next visit.

Questions:

0. How old are these guys?

1. Are any of these potentially useful for computer work? Can they handle the
   frequencies used in old machines, say, up to a few MHz? (Judging from their
   apparent age, I wouldn't hope for much more than that.)

2. Anybody want one? Be aware that in addition to the price tag, I wouldn't
   expect these guys to be easy or cheap to ship. (At least one time in the
   past I have had to back out of a deal because I couldn't arrange shipping
   within cost & safety constraints.) And the carts are probably too big to
   go through UPS or USPS. Given all that, if you want one, let me know.

        Cheers,
        Bill.
Received on Sat Mar 06 1999 - 21:17:46 GMT