good deal on a scope?

[cowanrg]

so, i was checking out craigslist today and saw a guy that has an oscilliscope for sale. its a Tektronix 545B in working condition. he wants $20 for it. i know for $20 just about anything working is worth it, but i was just wondering if this is actually useful for audio purposes?

i would assume it probably doesnt have the resolution for some digital stuff, but for just amps and such, should it be ok?

edit:

oh, its local, so no shipping.

 

[rayban68]

yeah thats a pretty old scope! But at 15MHz, that is definately adequate for audio design with analog electronics. And like you said, for $20 no way you can go wrong.. scoop it up before i do

Anything with capabilities less than about 1MHz would likely be inadequate.

It would be ideal to have a two channel plugin for it.

Info from this site:

http://www.thevalvepage.com/testeq/tek/545b/545b.htm

 

[SY]

For $20, don't worry about whether it works or how good it will be at audio frequencies. Get busy stripping out those terrific ceramic/silver terminal strips.

 

[cowanrg]

cool, thats what i thought.

if it DOES work (which he claims it does), i would be thrilled. it should still be an ok piece even if it is old. however, for $20, who cares

SY,

what makes the ceramic/silver terminal strips so special? are they worth a lot or something?

 

[cowanrg]

well, i picked it up tonight, and it is what it is. its BIG and HEAVY. it seems to work (i dont have leads, so i cannot verify), but the buyer claimed it works great. he also claimed that it was upgraded to 30mhz by the previous owner.

it does turn on and give a trace on the screen though. so, once i get some leads, ill check it out!

not bad for $20 and an hour round trip in the car.

edit:

it turned out to be a RM545B, not just a 545B. not sure what the difference is, but it looks similar to this one:

http://www.barrytech.com/tektronix/vintage/tekrm545bfront.jpg

except at the top left, there is a "type CA dual trace plugin".

 

[SY]

Sorry, didn't see your question before. Those strips work fine (though they require silver-bearing solder) and look exceptionally cool. Super-high reliability and connection quality.

I think "RM" indicates rack-mount.

 

[cowanrg]

ah ok. yeah, its rack mount alright. would be one hell of a rack though....

here is a pic of the plugin thats in mine:

http://62.131.62.16/collectie/apparatuur/plug-in1.htm

i still have no idea how to use all the knobs and buttons, but i guess ill learn eventually.

if anyone has an easy to read website that explains basically how to use the basic functions of a scope, i would be interested. and also, recommendations on where to get probes, and why some are $ and others are $$$.

 

[tekman]

Yep, the Tektornix 545 is 30 MHz.

Make shure to clean the interior and chnge the air inlet filter.

These scopes are build to last decades. Only the 500 Watts power consumption is a little bit hard to take in summer -- but a nice heater in winter time ;-)


Make shure to check the web for these Tektronix scopes. A lot of nice made web-museums with a lot of information for these units.
It's worth the time to do a little bit "google".

hth,
Andreas

 

[magoo]

Hi cowanrq, This site gives some details on functions, measurements, etc.

https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/baict/bac/jf/labs/scope/