Oscilloscope Survey

jukeboxman wrote:i have 2 but have never found the nerve to try to understand how to use them--what probe for what and so forth-perhaps this winter

You might want to pickup an older generic 'scope handbook. There are many such measurements outside of looking at TV wave forms that are useful. One such measurement I occasionally make is using the scope to see the power transformer spike in a vibrator supply and tweaking the buffer capacitor for best performance.

Chas

thank you Chas i will look into that

I just picked up a Sencore SC3100 100meg scope. I really like it but the Sencore probe that came with it doesn't work so I am looking for Sencore probe 39G292. Anyone have at least one. This is a low capacitance 10X probe. If you have a Sencore 39G294 from a SC3080 will work as well. Any suggestions, Let me know. Thanks

Just get any decent quality low capacitance scope probe. Adjust the compensation capacitor in the probe to get the cleanest square wave you can get.

I do more audio amplifier design/build/restore than radio work, so use a 'scope here a lot.
I've had a few nice Teks over the years, but sold them all as too big for the workbench.  My daily driver is now a cheap RAMSEY BS-625.  But I rarely use the 'scope on radios as waveforms mean little and analog instruments are easier to use, e.g. a VTVM.  One exception is checks on B+ hum.  Another would-be exception is FM discriminator and Ratio Detector alignment... I would use one here, but don't a I don't have a sweep generator for the X deflection!  My "work around" is to use a very stable signal generator (digital readout) from about 10.6 to 10.8 MHz and "iterate" the final IFT core settings so as to plot a good "S-curve"... IMHO, you have to develop a knack to do this!
Just remembered another 'scope use in radios... I made up a diode probe to chase RF, but I hardly ever use it.  
Cheers,
Roger