I’m really happy of being a new owner of a Tektronix 7104 oscilloscope – one of the fastest analog oscilloscopes made by man.
Tektronix 7104, 1 GHz analog oscilloscope
Last time I saw one of those on eBay, I was hesitating to buy it and it went away for dirt cheap. Anyways, I didn’t want to miss a chance this time. The unit is working and in a very good condition. The horizontal and vertical plug-ins delivered with the scope are meant for the full bandwidth of 1 GHz.
The Microchannel Plate CRT display is still in a good shape – no burn-ins except the typical wear-out areas (horizontal trace, annotation areas).
Measured rise time of Tektronix 7104 with Leo Bodnar pulse generator on a 7A29 single channel vertical amplifier plugin: approx. 300 psSine wave at 1.0 GHz, approx. -13 dBm into 50 Ohm
Bandwidth test with Leo Bodnar pulser on one of the 7A29 plug-ins gave me a rise time of 300 ps with an estimated bandwidth of approx. 1.16 GHz. This is my fastest oscilloscope now. I’ll check the innards in a couple of weeks.
I’m still in the process of building my electronics lab. After two years of acquiring test equipment, it will still take some time to get it to a satisfactory level. The measurement capabilities have been extended to electrical quantities such as voltage, current, resistance, impedance, capacitance, inductance and frequency. Unfortunately, I’m reluctant to buy new general-purpose parts like BNC connectors or electrolyte capacitors. Luckily I was able to find some useful components in the dumpster, which is currently my main source of electronics components. The components are still useful and of value. Those were doomed of being thrown away.
I have few days off right now and some spare time to desolder and sort the components. They will be very useful for future my projects! It’s been a while since I’ve been (de)soldering and this takes forever. It’s hard to forget how to solder but if one doesn’t practice, it takes some time to get the muscle memory back.
Everything one needs for desoldering action: JBC CD-2SE soldering station, Keysight U1733C LCR Meter, soldering pump and some pincers and pliers.Few of the desoldered components which have been saved from the dumpster/landslide.More work: There is certainly something meditative about desoldering and sorting electronic parts… 😉
About 2 weeks ago I traveled through the country in order to pick up – as one may guess – another Tektronix oscilloscope! Who would have thought? This unit was very special: a Tek 7904A with many high-speed plugins such as 7A19, 7A24, 7B92A… just to name a few.
The seller was very kind and showed me more stuff laying around in the basement. There were some vintage instruments on a dusty shelf but the Tektronix R556 dual-beam oscilloscopes really caught my eye. We discussed about the future of some of the test equipment and we agreed to “dispose” it the “proper” way: load it in my car and drive it to a place where it will be treated with love and respect… my apartment! 😉
Those are beefy and heavy… boat anchors… err oscilloscopes 😉
I’m a TEA with somewhat heavy GAS, that’s for sure. But I have never possessed anything like a Tektronix 556 dual beam oscilloscope. Two of them. It was very difficult to carry them around because of its mass of approx. 30 kg per unit.
Nevertheless, the units made it to my home without problem. Initial visual inspection showed a somewhat pristine condition! Besides dust, all vacuum tubes were present and all knobs/plugins/parts were without any visible damage.
Side view of Tektronix R556 Dual-Beam oscilloscope. Amazing piece of late 1960’s/early 1970’s technology!
I was lucky to get two fitting bezels from Matt@Wellenkino and a proper AC power cord from eBay (type NEMA 5-15R). I’ll have to wait with power-up until order has been restored in my apartment. 😉
The back side of the Tek R556 oscilloscope. It has a standard NEMA 5-15 AC power plug.Receptacle of a NEMA 5-15R cable.Waiting for power-up! I’ll have to check the unit first and replace old and leaky electrolytic capacitors before powering this unit up.
