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Tektronix is Grrreeaatttt!!!
Isn't free speech a wonderful thing? I followed the Tek thread with
interest and am wondering if the whiners actually: 1. Have a use for instruments of this caliber 2. Know how to use them properly I have used Tektronix instruments for almost 30 years now, and don't know how I could have got along without them. Most of my work has been in commercial radio and television. The manuals are written incredibly well, and I have received assistance from tech support on devices more than 25 years old. Try that with Hitachi, Leader or Phillips or Sony. And I could still get parts for them! I reflect with fondness on repairing a device like a waveform monitor, more than 20 years old, and finding a small coil of silver solder on the chassis in a place that was designed for it, tucked neatly in its own "home." Tek has used silver solder for decades now...they have always known it makes a better solder joint...and they want their stuff to keep on working, 24/7 for years and years. So they put their money where their mouth is, and provide the end user with what they consider to be a lifetime supply (for that instrument) of the stuff. And now I hear that they desroy their own equipment so they can sell more new stuff?! Baloney. I think I am hearing from people who not only do not understand that "you get what you pay for," but have no use for the quality and accuracy of the products they are complaining about. Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays to all. de WA2AFD |
Well stated! Sparks
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Well stated! Sparks
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In article , haf47
@juno.com says... And now I hear that they desroy their own equipment so they can sell more new stuff?! Baloney. You're wearing rose-colored glasses. They absolutely do destroy older equipment via the trade-in "bounties" collected by resellers such as Tucker. This is no secret in the industry. That doesn't make them evil, and it doesn't make them "suck", but it does (IMHO) demonstrate a lack of respect for the engineering ethos and tradition that made the company great, while taking perfectly good equipment out of the ham/hobbyist community forever. You could divide the T&M equipment world into two categories: stuff like logic analyzers and signature analyzers that's pretty much doomed to obsolescence the minute the first pilot build rolls off the production line; and gear like oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers that still serves its original purpose decades after it's out of production. HP, for instance, made a lot of great test equipment, but a lot of it fell into the first category and nobody misses it much. For most of its life, Tektronix focused on the second category: scopes, spectrum analyzers, video monitoring equipment. In this regard, Tek's main competition is themselves, which is a problem for them. Whether I'm a hobbyist or a pro, I can (and do) use an old 2430A DSO and 2467 analog scope to do just about anything I could do with a new $6K TDS3034B. That means that it's not really in Tek's best interest to support their customers in their efforts to keep the old gear alive. I think I am hearing from people who not only do not understand that "you get what you pay for," but have no use for the quality and accuracy of the products they are complaining about. If you actually read the thread, you'll see that folks aren't complaining about the *products* as much they are the company's support policies and decision-making strategies. Yes, it sucks that they no longer honor Howard Vollum's lifetime warranty on 535 power transformers. It sucks that I can't get a replacement U800 for my 2467. It sucks that they sold the chip foundry to a bottom-feeding IC company known for promising the moon and delivering press releases. But Tek is what it is. They still make good scopes, even if they aren't worthy of the kind of adoration from the engineering community that they used to enjoy. And their legal department is actually pretty enlightened when it comes to granting permission to reproduce out-of-print T&M manuals and documents. -- jm ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam ------------------------------------------------------ |
In article , haf47
@juno.com says... And now I hear that they desroy their own equipment so they can sell more new stuff?! Baloney. You're wearing rose-colored glasses. They absolutely do destroy older equipment via the trade-in "bounties" collected by resellers such as Tucker. This is no secret in the industry. That doesn't make them evil, and it doesn't make them "suck", but it does (IMHO) demonstrate a lack of respect for the engineering ethos and tradition that made the company great, while taking perfectly good equipment out of the ham/hobbyist community forever. You could divide the T&M equipment world into two categories: stuff like logic analyzers and signature analyzers that's pretty much doomed to obsolescence the minute the first pilot build rolls off the production line; and gear like oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers that still serves its original purpose decades after it's out of production. HP, for instance, made a lot of great test equipment, but a lot of it fell into the first category and nobody misses it much. For most of its life, Tektronix focused on the second category: scopes, spectrum analyzers, video monitoring equipment. In this regard, Tek's main competition is themselves, which is a problem for them. Whether I'm a hobbyist or a pro, I can (and do) use an old 2430A DSO and 2467 analog scope to do just about anything I could do with a new $6K TDS3034B. That means that it's not really in Tek's best interest to support their customers in their efforts to keep the old gear alive. I think I am hearing from people who not only do not understand that "you get what you pay for," but have no use for the quality and accuracy of the products they are complaining about. If you actually read the thread, you'll see that folks aren't complaining about the *products* as much they are the company's support policies and decision-making strategies. Yes, it sucks that they no longer honor Howard Vollum's lifetime warranty on 535 power transformers. It sucks that I can't get a replacement U800 for my 2467. It sucks that they sold the chip foundry to a bottom-feeding IC company known for promising the moon and delivering press releases. But Tek is what it is. They still make good scopes, even if they aren't worthy of the kind of adoration from the engineering community that they used to enjoy. And their legal department is actually pretty enlightened when it comes to granting permission to reproduce out-of-print T&M manuals and documents. -- jm ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam ------------------------------------------------------ |
John Miles wrote:
That means that it's not really in Tek's best interest to support their customers in their efforts to keep the old gear alive. Isn't this where -- at least in the software arena -- the idea of maintenance contracts comes in? Granted, the average hobbyist is typically not going to buy into such a plan, but I would imagine most of Tek's sales are to companies that would be willing to pay, e.g., 10-30% of the original equipment cost per year for a guarantee that the equipment will be repaired free of charge if it breaks. The new equipment is so much software-based as well these days that Tek could also consider changing for software upgrades -- although personally I'm quite happy that TDS3000 software upgrades are free! I am going to get myself a nice 2465B or perhaps a 2467 after finish school and find myself a Real Job again -- in a sense those scopes seem like the pinnacle of pure-analog scope development and even if they are only good to 400MHz, there'll continue to be plenty of designs that can be serviced by such scopes for years to come. It sucks that I can't get a replacement U800 for my 2467. Ah, but wasn't someone mentioning that some third party is making compatible replacements? It was supposedly very expensive, but if one person can do it, surely others can as well -- and will, once there's some demand. Look at the old computers such as the Commodore 64 -- these days people enjoy not only completely emulating them in software (doesn't applies to scopes, obviously) but also building equivalent pieces of hardware in FPGAs (e.g., the Commodore One). ---Joel Kolstad |
John Miles wrote:
That means that it's not really in Tek's best interest to support their customers in their efforts to keep the old gear alive. Isn't this where -- at least in the software arena -- the idea of maintenance contracts comes in? Granted, the average hobbyist is typically not going to buy into such a plan, but I would imagine most of Tek's sales are to companies that would be willing to pay, e.g., 10-30% of the original equipment cost per year for a guarantee that the equipment will be repaired free of charge if it breaks. The new equipment is so much software-based as well these days that Tek could also consider changing for software upgrades -- although personally I'm quite happy that TDS3000 software upgrades are free! I am going to get myself a nice 2465B or perhaps a 2467 after finish school and find myself a Real Job again -- in a sense those scopes seem like the pinnacle of pure-analog scope development and even if they are only good to 400MHz, there'll continue to be plenty of designs that can be serviced by such scopes for years to come. It sucks that I can't get a replacement U800 for my 2467. Ah, but wasn't someone mentioning that some third party is making compatible replacements? It was supposedly very expensive, but if one person can do it, surely others can as well -- and will, once there's some demand. Look at the old computers such as the Commodore 64 -- these days people enjoy not only completely emulating them in software (doesn't applies to scopes, obviously) but also building equivalent pieces of hardware in FPGAs (e.g., the Commodore One). ---Joel Kolstad |
In article ,
says... In article , haf47 @juno.com says... And now I hear that they desroy their own equipment so they can sell more new stuff?! Baloney. You're wearing rose-colored glasses. They absolutely do destroy older equipment via the trade-in "bounties" collected by resellers such as Tucker. This is no secret in the industry. snip I would question this statement. I've seen lots of older 'scopes and other gear at the Tektronix company surplus store, mainly 7000 and 11000 series. I would be curious to know how much really is destroyed, and how much makes it into the store's inventory. Perhaps someone who actually works for Tektronix could comment? -- Dr. Anton Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute (Known to some as Bruce Lane, KC7GR) kyrrin a/t bluefeathertech d-o=t c&o&m Motorola Radio Programming & Service Available - http://www.bluefeathertech.com/rf.html "Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" (Red Green) |
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