Oscilloscope Tektronix 465B, 475, 2336YA or ???

[TheDriver]

I am a second year electrical engineering student and I am looking to buy an oscilloscope. I am under the impression that I could learn more about what I am doing if I could see what is happening. Currently I am working with AM transmitters and receivers operating up to 1.710MHz. I have built a gainclone amp in the past and cannot accurately predict what my future needs are.

My budget is $450 but my target price would be $250 or less. From my research on this board and others, I am leaning towards a used analog Tektronix. I have been looking on ebay and have notice the 465B, 475, and 2336YA to fit this budget.

Something I would like to do with an oscilloscope is measure the difference of two channels. For example, measuring the difference of the input and output of an op-amp to see the effect the op-amp has.

Any recommendations on what models or specifications to be looking for?

Is there a website or resource that explains the differences between the older Tektronix?

Thanks,
Matt

[jackinnj]

There are a lot of resources for vintage Tek and HP:

just put Tektronix vintage in your search engine.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/scopes/tek.html

FWIW, the 2465B was the Cadillac of analog scopes -- and there are still guys who service them. There is a 2465B with GP-IB on EBay at the moment. I have 2 scopes on my desk -- one is the 2465B and the other is a TDS3012B.

If you have a lot of room you can get a 7000 series -- these are real boat anchors with enormous functionality -- but they are the size of a couple bread-boxes.

One to avoid -- the Tek 2215 CRT is easily damaged if you bang it around. Not a good undergrad scope.

[x-pro]

My 2 cents:

If you are serious about your scope, save some money and get this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=005

It will be better for most things that anything new up to $3-4K, IMHO.

Otherwise get a simpler Tek cheaply, like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tektronix-2213...dZp1638Q2em122

it will be enough for a good start and it is light and easy to carry.

Cheers

Alex

[jackinnj]

Before purchasing a 2213 I would want to be sure that it doesn't use the same CRT as the 2215. The mesh is easily deformed with rough handling making it difficult (if not impossible) to focus/astigmatize

[Conrad Hoffman]

The 465B is a nice scope, but they're getting on in years. Unless you're good at servicing gummed up controls and dealing with "five lbs of ---- in a two lb sack, I'd stick with something newer. I find having a good differential amplifier is important, but you need a scope with separate plug-in's to do that. The 7000 series is large but very good and takes plug-in's. There is a smaller series that's similar, but the construction quality isn't as good. Avoid analog storage scopes. IMO, there's no reason to spend more than $200 on a scope if you shop around.

[x-pro]

Originally posted by jackinnj
Before purchasing a 2213 I would want to be sure that it doesn't use the same CRT as the 2215. The mesh is easily deformed with rough handling making it difficult (if not impossible) to focus/astigmatize

AFAIK, 2213A uses a different (brighter) tube from 2213 (and, presumably, 2215 too) . I have 2213A in my home lab as a spare scope and previously it did survive a very rough 20 years in a factory enviroment quite happily.

Alex

[spind]

I just picked up a second Tek 475 scope that I don't really need. It cost less than your $250 lower limit, but it will need a little servicing, if you are up to that (horizontal trace is tricky to get 'motionless').

Steve.

[x-pro]

BTW, if you are working with AM signals most modern digital scopes (especially cheaper kind) could be practically useless for a proper work. Here is a simple 1kHz AM modulated 1 MHz carrier observed on my Tek 2465B and an attempt to look at the same signal on my digital Agilent DSO3062A . You can not really see the AM envelope properly on a digital scope unless you have a very deep memory option (keeping a high enough sampling rate for slow horisontal sweeps) .

Alex

[jackinnj]

Reminds me of working a pair of 6146's on 80 meters with full plate modulation from a pair of 6L6's -- back in "the day" when SSB was much more difficult.

Doesn't your Agilent have an "Envelope" button?

Ham Radio Proverb "... a digital scope doesn't lie, it just doesn't tell the truth all the time..."

[x-pro]

Originally posted by jackinnj
Doesn't your Agilent have an "Envelope" button?

No, only "peak detect", which works a bit better for a reasonable ratio of a carrier to a modulating frequency. TDS3012 is a much better scope than my Agilent but also much more expensive. At work thought I still prefer an old Tek 2465 to TDS3032 for analogue jobs most of the time.

Alex