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recommended oscilloscope for project

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tlh0598

Electrical
Mar 13, 2005
18
I would like to know if anyone could recommend an oscilloscope to use in a few projects I am working on. The first one is a radio kit and some testing requires an o-scope. I was looking on e-bay and hoping I could find one I could use for a couple hundred dollars or less.

TIA
 
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Recommended for you

Ahem - Not really 'Antenna & Propagation' related...

You should be able to find a basic o'scope for the price range you mention. It will likely be limited bandwidth to less than 100 MHz (maybe 30MHz). You should be able to avoid old vacuum tube units and get a more modern solid state unit. Make sure it comes with probe(s) because you don't want to have to go out and buy them as well.

I got one for about Cdn$50 (if I recall correctly, maybe it was Cdn$100...) at a ham radio flea market.
 
I paid £20 for a Hitachi V212, which is a basic single timebase dual channel 20MHz scope.

Paid about £100 for a Tek 465, which is a 100MHz dual channel, dual timebase proper scope.

Paid about £1000 for a new Tek 210, which is a 60MHz dual channel LCD scope.

As the saying goes, you pays your money & takes your choice.

Coz I'm an old geezer, I like the 465 the most, which is why I describe it as "proper".
 
The Tek 465 is a good choice for a general purpose
bench scope, and there was quite a few on ebay not
long ago (maybe still are). $200-300 range.
Look for 454's, 465's, 475's ... all dependable,
and probably have all the bugs fixed by now. ;)
Try to get a decent set of probes with it; some
include them, most do not. I prefer to stay with
brands I can get manuals for - Tektronics, Gould,
etc, and stay away from the imports.
Guess that makes me a 'geezer' too. :)
Newer digital scopes are a 'nother whole matter.
<als>
 
The thing with newer scopes is that when they break they are unrepairable... or very expensive to fix.

I've just written off a hitachi 150Mhz digital scope because there's something wrong with the trigger circuit & the embedded micro keeps on falling over.
 
Thanks for the information. I am going to try for a Tektronix 465 or 2235 if I can find one for less than 200 on ebay.
 
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