On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 11:46:28 -0500, Chuck Harris
wrote:

The saddest problems I have found with the HP gear is purely their own
fault. When they made the horizontal timing knobs for their 80's
vintage scopes, they made them out of plastic, and carved large slots in
the space between the outer part you turn with your fingers and the
inner part that turns the knob. This left very little plastic to take
the torque of turning the knob. Once they break there is no easy way
of repairing them.
That sounds just like the knobs used in the HT 32, 33, and SX101
series. They have a very thin flange, or lip around the front that is
very fragile. I saw one on e-bay a couple days ago that was described
as excellent, yet it had at least two sections of that lip missing.


The other big problem is their use of delrin gears with aluminum hubs
just about everywhere. And after 15 years, they are all broken. The
HP8640B is built like a tank, but everyone I have ever had came with
several gears that had split due to shrinkage.

But Delrin is very easy to machine.
Also unless the gears are of a very odd size (most are spur gears or a
pair of 45 degree bevel gears) that can be replaced with something
more modern and durable.

I do like a lot of the new, lighter weight gear as I have a bad back.
(Probably from man handling that old stuff that takes two good size
men to load it into a trailer)

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)

-Chuck

RP Jones wrote:
With out doubt, most new hardware looks like its built to be thrown away
and crushed.
"Built in absolesance" Its a dam shame !
Id agree on Tek for scopes and HP for analyzers, if you look on Ebay HP
"as is" scopes with problems must out number the Tek's 10-1.
(Many developed push button/switchpad related problems)

"gw" wrote in message isn't it true that the older
stuff is built like a battleship and

isn't as proprietary and can be repaired with user obtainable parts?
I always heard tek for scopes and hp for analyzers. Any thoughts on
that?