[Test-Equipment] Advice about used scopes

[Eric Lemmon]

Chris,

Be cautious about buying a used 'scope, especially on eBay where you
probably don't have the option of a 30-day trial like many used-equipment
vendors offer.  There may be an obscure malfunction that is costly to
repair, and you may not find this out for days or weeks.  After all, if it
is such a great scope, why did the owner want to sell it?

Before you spend some serious money for a used scope, look at some of the
new models being sold by Hameg, B&K Precision, Leader, Instek, and others.
You can buy a new 100 MHz, dual-trace, digital-storage oscilloscope that is
loaded with features that you might not find on an older unit, and many of
these current models are reasonably priced.  Of course, they are
fully-calibrated and come with a guarantee.  One thing to consider
carefully:  Do you really need 100 MHz bandwidth?  There is a significant
price difference between a scope that is in the 20/25 MHz range and one that
reaches 100 MHz.  I have a B&K 2520 DSO that is rated to 20 MHz that has
served me well for many years, and it does everything I expect in a modern
scope.  I also have other analyzers that can go above 1 GHz, but my scope is
not used for direct measurement above 20 MHz.

73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY





> -----Original Message-----
> From: test-equipment-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:test-equipment-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of 
> Chris Albertson
> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 3:37 PM
> To: test-equipment at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Test-Equipment] Advice about used scopes
> 
> I've desided I want a "new to me" scope.  Looking on eBay I 
> find used scopes are selling for pennies on the dollar.  I 
> want a general purpose dual trace scope of at least 100Mhz BW 
>  After I've met those minimum specs the most important thing 
> is reliability.  
> 
> So I guess the question is, if I'm looking for a used scope 
> for use on the bench to build and debug QRP HF band gear (and 
> I like Tektronix) and my budget is "$100 and up", what is the 
> best value?  The mainframe types seem nice because I can swap 
> out parts but possibly the portable ones (like the 454 or 
> 465) are better as they were designed to be lugged around by 
> field service techs.  
> 
> I'm just getting back into electronics.  The last time I had 
> access to good test equipment was in a University lab in the 
> early 1980's and now I see all that stuff has become affordable.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris Albertson
>   Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278 at yahoo.com
>   Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson at aero.org
> 
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