Oscilloscope Survey

Who has/uses an oscilloscope on your old radio or TV workbench?
What is it?
If you have more than one, what is your favorite that gets used the most?

I'm a test equipment geek and am just curious.

I occasionally use a scope in radio work, but mostly for circuit design. If I serviced or restored televisions, I am sure I would use one more often. (Often I just set my HP400H to read the presence and amplitude of a signal because I am lazy and it only has one knob and no probe compensation to check.)

My go-to scope is a Tektronix T922, 15MHz, 2-channel. (Made between approximately 1976 and 1984.)

So what say you all?

I mostly use mine for designing mini transmitters...

I have four that work and a couple tube units that sort of and could with a recap..

Can't remember model numbers but there's a 100 Mhz Tek with built in freq counter, a Meguro 40 Mhz, a Hitachi 30 Mhz & a B&K that I believe is 20Mhz... All are two channel... Since it has the freq counter the Tek mostly monitors my transmitter in the garage, that unit runs 24/7(xmit, not scope)...

I think I have 3 altogether. I have one of the sencore 61 scopes. Its a nice one but I need to go through it. I also have a heathkit. I just got a old waterman scope restored from the 40s. As far as using them in the shop I rarely turn them on. I am so use to a signal tracer and generator that I hardly use any other test items. The next two Items I use are my multimeter and my cap checker. I also have a sencore powerite suppy I use with everything.

Yeah, seems like they are more useful for design and TV to me, too...but occasionally, mine gets used for a "dog" or to see what is coming out of a tape head or something. I would like to have an older tube scope like a Tek 310A or similar. Right now I have two Teks, the T922 that I use most, a 50MHz 2225, dual channel, and a new Rigol DS1052E I haven't got to play with much yet, but I really like it. (it's a 50MHz, 2 channel, too) My first experience with a digital storage scope.

Anyone else care to chime in?

I have and use a B+K 1476A.

It's kind of funny how I got the B+K. I had ordered a Tek 922 and the parcel grinders dropped it on it's face. The dealer exchanged the remains for the B+K. It's been a nice unit.

Got a Tek 465B with the DMM. I paid $80 for it with all manuals and a recent calibration. Felt guilty. Fast enough for TV work which is as fast as I need for my hobby.

SO WC, you are back in your summer home? You will be amused to hear it is snowing here on LI.

i've never used oscilloscope on a radio but it's an idea.. On some tv service manuals, there is often a drawing of the waveform. So this makes me say that the same form should be the same on the oscilloscope. but on a radio, ca I couldn't tell

They're not a necessity for hobby use. I keep and use one because they were the most commonly available piece of test equipment other than a multimeter in many places I have worked and I can use them for a few different purposes. (and the price was right)

Marco-ni wrote:i've never used oscilloscope on a radio but it's an idea.. On some tv service manuals, there is often a drawing of the waveform. So this makes me say that the same form should be the same on the oscilloscope. but on a radio, ca I couldn't tell

You'd just see a modulated waveform in most of the set, or the signal jumping around with audio. You can measure the voltage level of the signal in the radios, but the schematics don't usually say what they should be anyway. Just know that there should be substantial gain in the amplifier stages. But like 75X11 says, not necessary for a radio hobby. You can find out is there is signal getting through and amplifying with any just about any old signal tracer.

Sometimes I have just used a headset, and diode with a DC blocking capacitor, and headphones with or without an audio output transformer to listen in to the IF signal, etc, and trace it. I also can use another working radio with an accurately adjusted dial to check another radio's IF frequency by tuning for zero beat.  

Still, they (scopes) are cool to have and handy for some things. I mostly use mine when designing a new (hobby) circuit like an oscillator or whatever. I rarely use one on a radio restoration/repair. I do use an HP400H radio frequency millivolt meter sometimes--Set the voltage range on the meter dial and probe away.

agree Ragwire.. an oscilloscope is useful.

I have, and use on almost every radio I repair, a Leader 20mhz, 2-channel, single time base, solid state (except for the crt) scope. I bought it 15 years ago, used but in almost new condition, with the original box, leads, manual etc, for $175 (iirc). It has been worth every penny. I like it for doing alignments as I can see the AVC voltage peak easier on the scope screen then I can on a VTVM. I align using the AVC voltage and an IF signal induced thru' the RF stage, with the oscillator disabled until the final touchup.

CrazyCanuck wrote:I have, and use on almost every radio I repair, a Leader 20mhz, 2-channel, single time base, solid state (except for the crt) scope. I bought it 15 years ago, used but in almost new condition, with the original box, leads, manual etc, for $175 (iirc). It has been worth every penny. I like it for doing alignments as I can see the AVC voltage peak easier on the scope screen then I can on a VTVM. I align using the AVC voltage and an IF signal induced thru' the RF stage, with the oscillator disabled until the final touchup.

That's an interesting way of doing it.

Seems like me and everyone I know that ever uses a scope gets a good used one for the $200 range. Shopping around eBay or forum classifieds can find some darn good ones if they don't jack you up on shipping.

Check this out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BK9TUZ6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pretty good price for a brand new basic scope for medium wave RF and audio. I paid more for some of my multimeters.

That unit has a nice footprint, too.

Yep. I actually just ordered one because my bench and shop are so flipping small that I have to put my regular old scope up to do any soldering work. (plus I got a gift card for Amazon to use towards it) This is like almost VTVM size.

Love the size, but it has t go back for exchange. No sync on any signal.

It's tough to wait, but it's got to be right.

Yeah...well I got to have sync or I cant even see the waveform shape. They were real nice at SRA Soldering Products and said just send it back and they'd get me a new one on the way. I haven't had time to ship it yet.

On the bright side, I went to an antique radio club auction Saturday and bought a 20MHz Energy Concepts Model 30820, 2-channel solid state scope for $10. It works perfectly and the calibration is dead on. Looks like someone took care of it or barely used it...or both.

I will be using it as my main go-to scope for now because my good old Tek T922 is acting up a little. I know what's wrong and it's not a big deal, but haven't opened it up yet. (The channel selection button assembly is a little jiggy and sometimes the display loses signal or the indicated amplitude shoots way up until I fiddle with the channel selector buttons.) So I put the Tek in the closet for now, and am using the EC scope. Apparently they make "rugged for the classroom" test equipment and are still in business. I had never heard of Energy Concepts until this weekend.

Plus this new/used unit has a 5MHz higher bandwidth and a 5X magnification on both X and Y and on both channels giving a 1mV/division sensitivity. Also has "add" and "invert." The Tek T922 doesn't have any of these features.

I have two. The shop 'scope is a Tektronix 453:

http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/pages/compact.html

The 'scope I carry with me for my work as a broadcast engineer is an HP 1740A. The Tek is a 60 MHz 'scope, plenty good enough for most of what I do in the shop, but on occasion I have to bring in the HP for a project.

Dale, the 453 is a favorite scope of mine. Unfortunately, I do not have one. I attempted to buy on at a hamfest but the CRT filament was burned out and, if fact, the CRT had actually lost its vacuum. I kept the guts for a parts donor.

On the bright side, last week I went to a vintage radio club auction and bought this Energy Concepts Model 30820, 20MHz, 2-channel solid state unit for $10. It works perfectly in is even dead on in calibration according to my other scopes:

I have two oscilloscopes, neither of which do I use.  The first one is a Heathkit IO-101, which is in more or less good working order.  The second is an HP 1741A, which is not in working order, despite numerous hours spent trying to fix the problems on the LVPS and HVPS boards.  Both were bought as non-working units from VETCO.  In neither case was I really interested in using the scope for anything to do with electronics repairs.  I was just intrigued by the project of restoring something that wasn't working.  And the HP unit had a special pull on me, as I work for HP and have seen those scopes in use around the office in the last decade.

A good oscilloscope can perform a number of measurement tasks, but they are not a necessity to do repair and restoration work. I wanted one because I have used one throughout my career and like to keep in practice. HP has made some of the best test equipment to be used in lab and industry, and can be somewhat used up by the time they are retired.

The used-up-by-the-time-you-get-it part is especially true of some of the industrial shops. If I can find one that's been sitting surplus in a college storage room, I go for it. My three HP 400 series AC millivolt meters were pretty raw when I got them...especially the Navy surplus one--salt-air rust.

PS that cheap Atten scope I posted about earlier (the replacement one) is still going strong.