[R-390] Nolan - TEK scopes

[Dan Osborne]

Thanks for all the comments on Nolan's posts - here is one that hits a 
little close to home for me !!!

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At 04:34 PM 10/21/00 -0400, you wrote:

> I think I have some Tek
> CRTs in boxes so pass on the part number if you know it for the one you
> need.

The Tek part number for the CRT for my old 547 is 154-0568-00. It's
also known as the T5471-32-1. I've been nursing the current one for
ages. It developed a wicked double peak close to ten years ago.

> I'll also check out what plug-ins I have.

Thanks.

> The scope on the bench is a
> 2445A and there is also a 7603A but it has a spectrum analyzer plug in.

I never got into the little 2xxx portable Teks. My current portable
is is a 7704A. It's a few pounds lighter than the 547 and has lots
more knobs, switches, and buttons. Since all of my piddling is HF,
bandwidth isn't as important as it is for it to look impressive so
I choose my plugins according to the number of knobs, coax connects,
etc. :-)

> It
> does not matter much as I cannot use either due to all the crap on the
> workbench. My R-390A died about 3 years ago but I cannot get to the 
> rack to
> even get it out.

Sounds like my test benches, my reloading bench, my mechanical
bench, computer desk, etc., etc. Are you sure that we weren't
separated at birth or something? <grin>

> The plain R-390 I never tried. In the last 4 or so years I
> disposed of about a dozen R-3XX receivers and about the same number of 
> the
> SP-600 types. The bottom line is, I have to get rid of stuff.

I know the feeling. Anytime I start digging around looking for
something it's like going to a hamfest or an auction or something
because of all of the "new" stuff I find that I didn't remember
having. I found three HP scopes last week that I had no idea
that I had and still can't remember when or where they came
from. Since they were all stacked together I must have got them
at the same time. I don't even know why I have them. I never was
a fan of HP scopes. I must have hauled them home for the knobs,
tubes, and stainless steel hardware. You can never have enough
knobs and stainless steel hardware.

> My wife of 26
> years is pretty understanding, but she is frustrated, HI.

Mine ran the radios out of the house a few years back. I have
a couple of battery operated portables I'm allowed to use if
in the house but only one at the time and I can't leave it
in the house. She won't even come into the shop. She calls me
on the phone. A line from the movie Forbidden Planet comes to
mind:  "Morbius is in his study sir, never to be disturbed when
that door is closed."

> For that matter so
> am I since it is depressing to go downstairs and not be able to do 
> anything
> due to the lack of space.

I periodically go on a cleanup binges where I scrap stuff that I
don't particularly like. Stuff where there is no emotional strife
over doing it. The next items on my list will be those three HP
scopes. I never did like their scopes anyway, they're the wrong
color.

> Talk about a sickness, but, I guess we all have it.

It's not a sickness, it's "appreciation". The same thing happens
in a lot of hobbies. Old cars, pinball machines, tractors,
aircraft, etc. I know of one guy that's got a gem of 1947 Cub
tractor stored in his kitchen along with one to be restored.
I helped him lift the sliding glass doors off of their tracks,
drain the gasoline, lay some boards on either side of the door
tracks and push the project tractor in there. Naturally, he
isn't married. I've got another friend that's got about three
dozen jukeboxes in his house. He is married.

> I really wonder about all those guys in the magazines with ties on,
> sitting in front of an uncluttered desk with just a radio, are they 
> really
> hams?

NO! They're closely akin to talking heads on the network news
broadcasts with shallow and narrowly focused lives. They're
nothing more than a pretty face and some stage props. A definite
illusion. REAL people like that do not exist. It sounds like they
airbrushed a radio into an old :Leave it to Beaver" episode.

Cripes, the day that I set at an empty desk wearing a tie and
listening to a radio, it's time for somebody to pop me in the
head with a claw hammer and toss me in the hog pen because
obviously I've got nothing left to live for and/or have went
totally insane. Sheesh, just the thought of sitting there
doing that makes my my skin crawl. I'll have nightmares about
this for weeks.

nolan


Survival Kit contents check. In them you will find: one 45 caliber 
automatic, two boxes of ammunition, four days concentrated emergency 
rations, one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, 
pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination 
Rooshan phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one 
hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gum, one issue of 
prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pair of nylon stockings -- shoot, 
a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that 
stuff...."   ---Dr. Strangelove---