Oscilloscopes

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Tue Nov 23 21:38:05 1999

<good at looking at the color burst of a video signal in any detail. Again,
<find most folks design/troubleshoot in a variety of areas and that's why w
<need scopes with all the toys. I don't see Tek making any more 20Mhz boxes

Two things. 465 is not a 20mhz scope though Tek made many slower ones.
A 20mhz scope is fast enough to look at the main clock of an 8/e/f/m.
I use it for faster stuff knowing it will smear a bit after all it is
20mhz at 3db...

I can be a snob and buy a heavy gun, had one. The problem is the FEW
times I need it I can borrow a nice 7400, or anything else that suits
me. The rest of the time it would sit if I had it. For the bulk of what
I do the B&K2120 is plenty good enough. If anything I'd consider a digital
o-scope not for fast events but the painfully slow where the storage mode
would be real nice. When you consider most of the systems I'm like to pull
the scope out for are PDP-8, or z80(4mhz) speeds a scope better than
40-50mhz is wasted anyway. The fast stuff I play with really wants the
16 or more traces of the logic analyser anyway.

I'd say this, buy what you can afford, newer is better. Best is if you
can try it before you buy it. Buying used, if it's too old, good or not
maintenance can be painful. I saw the writing on the wall with the 465,
great scope but age is a potential problem for maintenance. Something
newer will also stay calibrated longer too. Also for the electronically
inexperienced servicing something like that can be more than a beginers
project plus a distraction from the real task.

Oh, the money I didn't spend on a scope was spent on other toys like RF
sources and the like.

Allison
Received on Tue Nov 23 1999 - 21:38:05 GMT