Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => AmpTools/Tech Tips => Topic started by: lego4040 on November 04, 2014, 08:14:56 am
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What's up this morning, thankfully not my fever :icon_biggrin: I'm interested in learning how to use a oscilloscope and was thinking of getting a extech 381275 or 381285. I can justify the purchase for my work and need some advice on good affordable hand held scope. Thanks guys
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I think you want to ponder the "handheld" size factor versus the (what ever it is called) "book sized" solid state scopes. In terms of being able to see stuff & do real work with them. I have seen some used, great condition Tektronix scopes on Craigslist that were so cheap, talking well under $200, I really had to restrain myself from buying one, even though I already have a scope (bench, CRT-type)
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whats a good model number to look for? I see some on craigslist at reasonable prices
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I wish I could tell you, but all I can tell you is to grab the model number in the CL ad and search for same in google images to be sure it is a handheld, then look up the specs. Much depends, of course, on whatever else you might want to use the 'scope for----audio requires "no" bandwidth to speak of. Also depends upon whether you live in an urban area where such scopes are/were common.
There was a listing for a "book size" Tek scope that was $200, while the same scope was listed in another ad for $600. It was all I could do to resist buying it, even though I am fine w/the scope I have.
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A Tektronix 465 is a fine scope. There are buy-it-now Tek 465's on 'the bay' right now for ~$200 after shipping. This model fully refurbished to like-new and calibrated would be ~$600. And it's probably all you'll ever need unless you get into high-speed digital electronics (or the microwave range).
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Cool, thanks. Know I'll need a idiots guide to use one. Don't know if I'll actually get one know but I thought it would be handy to learn and have in tube land.
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> A Tektronix 465 is a fine scope.
Yeahbut.... not exactly "handheld".
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True dat.
I'm probably uninformed... In my mind "good," "handheld" and "affordable" seem mutually-exclusive. The 465 isn't handheld, but it's not that big in the big scheme of things. And it's surely affordable now (and may be all the scope he'll ever need).
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Given the new DS1054Z that Rigol just came out with, I have to figure you'll be able to find a DS1052E or DS1102E on ebay for less than $200 before too long, which gives you something fairly small and portable, and being a digital scope you have some capabilities you may not need to work on guitar amps, but which are valuable if you get much beyond guitar amps. Not exactly a handheld unit, but still, quite portable, and good capabilities. Or, if you can go for $400, you could get the 1054Z, which is a hell of a lot of scope for $400. Just because of the screen sizes, any of these are going to be much more useful than those little Extechs.
Gabriel