Everyone has favorites, but the older Tek analog scopes are very solid and a good deal. If you have the room, you can get amazing performance/cost from 7000 series scopes. I have a 7854 (400 mhz plus waveform digitizing) and a 7934 (500 Mhz Analog storage) 7000s run from 100mhz to 1Ghz in bandwidth, and, depending upon the plug-ins chosen, you can do just about anything with a 7000 series. Their primary drawback is size. Both of my scopes are on carts because they would take up a big chunk of my bench, otherwise.
Tek also made a very nice series of "portable" scopes. The 100 Mhz 2246 is very nice and readily available used. It has the added bonus of "smart cursors" to easily measure amplitude and period/frequency with a single button push, and I have found the triggering to be quite good. The 2400 series, and particularly the 2465s are also nice pieces of equipment, but are more expensive due to their greater bandwidth. What you "need" really depends on what you "want" and what you are going to do with it. The higher bandwidth devices are useful if you need to look at abberations in a signal that may be smoothed out in a lower bandwidth scope, but may be unnecessary if you just want to trace a signal through a circuit and measuring changes in amplitude or phase. Extra bandwidth is never a bad thing, it just costs more, and may not be necessary. Now to stir up the controversy, I used to have a Tek 465. This is a venerable 100 Mhz scope, but frankly the 2246s that I have had worked better and were much easier to use. So, I would recommend a scope more recent than the 465/475 series. But there are lots of these still out there and are very much liked by some. My one experience repairing a 465 may have colored my view. Howard W. Ashcraft, Jr. W1WF ***************************** This communication, including any attachments, is confidential and may be protected by privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone or email, and permanently delete all copies, electronic or other, you may have. To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. The foregoing applies even if this notice is embedded in a message that is forwarded or attached. ***************************** _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
