They don't wonder; they know very well. But they're stuck. Consider oscilloscopes. Why pay for a Keysight or Tectronix or LeCroy or, God forbid, a Rohde & Schwarz when, for the vast majority of applications, a Rigol will give you everything you need at 1/N the cost?
The hugely expensive, overbuilt gear that we grew up with is yesterday's news; that's why we can scarf it up so cheap on the 'bay. Lots of labs and manufacturing facilities now consider basic gear like DSOs, SAs, DMMs, PSUs, and sig-gens as disposable as cell phones. I'm not sure that is a bad thing. Bill On Sunday, February 14, 2016, Scott McGrath <scmcgr...@gmail.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','scmcgr...@gmail.com');>> wrote: > HP's greatest advantage of old was being the largest and best vertically > integrated technology company as innovations in one line of business were > often applicable to others. This was right down to things as prosaic as > packaging and or hybrid circuit design > > Now Keysight is just another mid sized technology company who outsources > much of their production and wonders why Asian vendors can copy their stuff > so rapidly and undersell them. > > Content by Scott > Typos by Siri > > > On Feb 14, 2016, at 8:31 AM, Adrian Godwin <artgod...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > HP built their reputation for quality and reliability with test > equipment. > > Computers were always considered a bit weird (in a nice way, in the case > of > > handheld calculators) but printers have followed the consumer race to the > > bottom. > > > > It's sad to hear that the instrument division are no longer focused on > > keeping that reputation - perhaps that's why the medical division moved > to > > separate the names. > > > > On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave > Ltd) < > > drkir...@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote: > > > >> On 14 Feb 2016 09:04, "Perry Sandeen via time-nuts" < > time-nuts@febo.com > >> wrote: > >>> > >>> Hi, > >>> It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the > >> unreliability of HP test equipment. > >>> There is one area where they had outstanding equipment. > >> > >> I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal > generators, > >> 15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is > >> HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP > the > >> most reliable. > >> > >> Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a > >> modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus > >> £1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which > >> was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will > blow > >> up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it. > >> > >> He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the > >> reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on > >> that. > >> > >> I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable > and > >> some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable > than > >> other decent makes. > >> > >> Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by > >> Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and > Impedance > >> analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit > the > >> forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get > no > >> response.) > >> > >> There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g. > >> Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best > choice to > >> me. > >> > >> I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a > >> Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no > >> way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is > >> reflected in their higher resale values. > >> > >> At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful, > though > >> modern service manuals are less so. > >> > >> Just my opinion. > >> > >> Dave. > >> _______________________________________________ > >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > >> To unsubscribe, go to > >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > >> and follow the instructions there. > > _______________________________________________ > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.