[SwellJoe]

I'm hoping my dad kept his old scope. I haven't gone through his tools (he passed away a few years ago, and I didn't have the heart at the time, since fixing stuff was how I'd always bonded with my dad and every tool has associated memories), but plan to visit my mom in a few weeks. I'll see if it's still around. He owned a TV shop through the 70s and early 80s. His equipment was usually top notch stuff from the peak of the analog electronics era, but he got rid of some of it over the years, especially during moves.

Someday, I'll have more time to play with electronics. It's something I enjoy, and I have most of the tools for it (except a scope), but I always seem to have too many other things requiring my time and attention.

I worked with high-end 90s-era Tektronix scopes when I worked in television. They definitely weren't pure analog by that time, as they had memory and a variety of modes providing both digital and analog data, but they were still pretty cool.

[cjsuk]

Yeah they’ve come a long way since the analogue units. I’ve got a new Chinese digital unit as well (Rigol) and it’s got Ethernet and USB and stuff and you can drag data off it with python trivially for example. Colour wide screen and measures just about every parameter for you automatically.

But it feels like it’s lacking a soul.

Playing around with Electronics is my disconnect from reality for a bit. Works pretty well :)

If You find any of your father’s stuff, spend some time with it. It helps things believe it or not.