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January 22nd 05, 06:50 AM

Dr. Anton T. Squeegee wrote:
In article GIjId.17102$Qb.16595@edtnps89, says...

Dr. Anton T. Squeegee wrote:

If you want some serious bandwidth, you should have a look at the
Tek 7904 or 7104. The base frames have bandwidths of 500MHz and 1GHz,
respectively, and you should be able to get a good 7904 with plug-ins
for a little over $300.

There's one major advantage to the PC based scopes. It's STORAGE of
waveform. When I was younger we had to put a hood over the front of the
scope and use a Polaroid to get shots of easy to miss signals.

Tektronix DSA602A Digital Signal Analyzer. All kinds of waveform
storage and analysis, and a floppy drive as well. Runs about $400-$500
on the used market, uses 11-series plug-ins, mainframe bandwidth of
1GHz.

A real storage oscilloscope costs a fortune, but if you can get a PC variety
that fills your frequency needs, I'd go for it. Three or four hundred bucks
is a bargain when accompanied by a good warranty..

And how long will it last? If it's made up entirely of custom
parts, and cannot be repaired by the end user (at least at the module
level), then I would hardly think of it as a good investment.

When I buy test equipment, I expect it to be serviceable for a
MINIMUM of ten years. Very few items that I've bought new have measured
up to that requirement.

You make some valid points, but I still have concerns. Tektronix, among many
others, has been known to use proprietary chips/components in their scopes.
These may be getting hard to get. That would tend to even out the decision
making process, all other things being equal.

Having said that, Tektronix stuff is very nice, quality made merchandise.
I'm admiring a 7B92A dual time base module even as we speak. I just don't
want to wind up like Hamlet...

Alas, poor 7904, I knew it Horatio...

mike