At 09:08 AM 2/7/02 +0000, you wrote:
> >>  Are there certain models that are notriously high quality?
>
> >Tektronix!  Just excellent!
>
>Or Hewlett Packard/Agilent. Either Tek or HP are really the best when it
>comes to 'scopes.

Everyone seems to believe that, with the consequence that other brands
can be cheaper to buy for the same functions. I have a compact 20MHz one
that I keep on my office mini-bench that does 90% of what is needed and
leaves room for everything else. Cost? Maybe $140 US including the 'scope,
reprinted service manual, and two nice new generic probes. The Tek gets
used when its needed, but often most of the work is in the software, the
analog stuff just needs a quick test or two). I picked up a cute little
Tenma (Taiwan made)  3" scope (needs a new cap in the power supply) for
$10 that will live in a  semi-permanent test fixture for one product
line.

The only ones I'd absolutely avoid are the old vacuum tube Eico and
Heathkit ones unless you absolutely can't afford anything more than
$15-$25- even a 1MHz scope is sometimes better than nothing! There are
still even a few Tek vacuum tube scopes that are still worth having if you
have more room than money. Also, take care on ebay, there are stories of
known bad stuff being sold, so do watch feedback ratings and so on.
Watch out when there is no return policy and the seller claims not to
know anything. For example, there is a  problem on the 4xx series with
attenuator contacts, IIRC, and those can be hard to fix, I understand.

But, used test equipment dealers are so expensive that you could buy a
couple from ebay and still come out ahead.

P.S. I've heard Frys (SW USofA) sometimes has good prices on some of the
little Tek TDS portable digital LCD scopes.

http://www.tek.com/Measurement/cgi-bin/framed.pl?Document=/Measurement/scopes/index/prodindex_handheld.html&FrameSet=oscilloscopes

(of course they are more than $500, but $900+tax might be within reach).

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
9/11 United we Stand

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