[Boatanchors] A VERY nice birthday gift

[Phil]

Hi All,
The other day was my 74th birthday,  Wifey surprised me by handing me a 
card with a big wad of "Greenbacks" in it.  All she said was get 
something you REALLY want, preferably not another radio ;-).  It was FAR 
more than I expected, but she said it was a "thank you" for the 
considerable amount of time I've spent the last couple months caring for 
her sister (several Dr appointments a week, shopping etc).  I've gone 
through a LOT more gasoline than the usual 1 tank/month each in car and 
truck.

After thinking about it for a few days and doing a LOT of research I 
decided to buy myself a new O'Scope, something I've wanted for a very 
long time.   This may sound odd to some of you, but after my military 
and Aerospace days the O'Scope is one of my most used instruments after 
the DVM/VTVM and signal generators. . .  I've been using a 45 year old 
10MHz B&K that was given to me a few years ago (and for which I am 
grateful), nice for basic troubleshooting, but too slow for modern 
digital stuff. . .

In doing the research I was totally amazed at what one of today's 
relatively inexpensive scopes can do!!! While I was spoiled by the TEK 
and HP scopes in days of old, and which had always been out of reach for 
my personal bench, the new generation of instruments makes those old 
instruments that sold for thousands of dollars look like something out 
of the dinosaur age.  And I'm not talking about the new generation of 
modern TEK & HP instruments, but rather what are called "Entry Level" or 
basic units.

After a lot of research I decided that a 2 channel scope would be all I 
need, it's unlikely that I'd ever really need to compare 4 signals at 
once, and my available dollars would buy 'more' 2 channel scope than it 
would a 4 channel one.

I looked at some of the Rigol scopes (they have a good name), but chose 
this Siglent Technologies model as it seemed to have a bit better 
reviews, and with the Rigol (and some other brands) you have to pay 
extra to activate certain firmware "options" to get the instrument to do 
all it can do.  This one doesn't require you to pay for "extras". I 
don't need the extras like a built in function generator as I have a 
very good one on the bench already.

Hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew though.  While I have a VERY 
extensive electronics background going back over 60 years, some of the 
terms used in it's description go right over my head!

This is the one I chose, it should be here next week and I'll post a 
followup report after I've used it awhile.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZML6RD/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

-- 
73 From "The Beaconeer's Lair"
Specializing in DXing NDBs (Longwave Beacons)
Phil, KO6BB,  http://www.qsl.net/ko6bb/
KO6BB/B beacon, ~20W on 28.290 MHz, Ringo Vertical

HF/LF RADIOS:
HOMEBREW:   7 Tube+Rect 1v3 Regen RX for LF (built 2015)
Icom:       IC-7200 Xceiver, DSP IF & filters (~2015).
Kenwood:    TS-450SAT Xceiver, cascaded 250/125Hz Inrad filters.
10M Beacon: 2 x Realistic HTX-100's on 28.290MHz
SDR:        Softrock Ensemble II LF (built from a kit 2017).

ACC:   HOMEBREW  LF-MF Pre-Amp, 8Hz Audio Filter.
        HOMEBREW  4 Port Antenna Multicoupler, Feeds 4 RX's.
        
ANTENNAS: 88 foot Long Ladder-line fed dipole, 35 feet AGL for MW/SW.
           Active Mini-Whip, 36 Feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
           37 foot "Low Noise Vertical", 11 feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
           Cushcraft AR-10 Ringo Vertical, 14 feet AGL for 10M beacon.
Merced, Central California, 37, 18, 37N   120, 30, 6W CM97rh


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