My first scope!

[bigwill]

I was given a scope a few years ago, a tube based one from the 60s or 70s (actually it might be a hybrid of solid state and tubes) but I didn't really have a use for it. In the last couple of years I've started to get into electronics, but I COULDN'T FIND the scope!! Today I found it, it was hidden in our garage. I'd had nightmares about the scope before and what condition it would be in when I found it. The case was a bit rusty, so I cleaned it off and plugged it in. No pop or bang, but no traces. I fiddled with some of the knobs and the traces sprang into view, and the scope seems to work perfectly now it's all warmed up! After letting it warm up, I got my CD walkman with jack to phono leads on its line-out and pushed it into the inputs and it worked! Both traces were perfectly matched with the same gain and everything. I'm not sure what the bandwidth of the scope is, I don't think it'll go particularly high, but it's a fantastic gift! A oscilloscope is so useful in electronics.

This post doesn't really have a point, I'm just really happy to finally have a scope

[Christer]

Congratulations. A scope is indispensible, even if just an old one with limited bandwith. Happy to hear it works too after all those years.

No problems with corrosion on the switches? That's a common problem after long term storage, but sometimes go away by exercising the controls a bit.

[rcavictim]

Good going. Yes an o-scope is one of the most useful fundamental instruments next to a multimeter.

As for excitement seeing an old piece of gear come to life I know it well. You should have seen me last summer when a very early color televison from 1957 finally made it all the way from New Jersey to my home in Ontario and after a soft start conditioning with a variac and discovering a gassy HV rectifier tube which was easily replaced it mnade a perfectly converged color picture and clear sound. I was jumping up and down like a little kid with a new toy.

The fanfare was short lived for as I watched it the picture shrank, dimmed and finally disappeared as some of the critically placed ancient wax paper capacitors failed from absorbed moisture. Not unexpected really. I will be confident now to replace the caps knowing that the RF circuitry was all perfectly alighned and the vintage and rare 21CYP22 color picture tube is like brand new.

[Enzo]

and hours and hours of wax gunk on your fingers from the old caps.