Re: Oscilliscope recommendation

[Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>]

Hi John,

	I have worked with everything from cheap Asian scopes to "secret" Tek
developmental multi-zillion sample storage jobs.  Even though they jacked
the price $200 recently, the Tektronix TDS 210 is still, by far, the best
bang for the buck out there!  About $1200 bucks, but 50 times better than
those odd $499 analog things you see around.  You may be able to find them
used for less now...  

If you like fancy glitzy stuff but really no more functionality, the 3000
series is a second choice.  The floppy drive is super nice but
sloooooowwww.  The color and the persistence thing is cute but after
playing with ones at work, I need hard data, not menu after menu of
"colorful confusion"...

http://www.tek-dot-com/Measurement/Products/catalog/tds200/eng/index.html

I would consider nothing else.  I have not tested power arcs to the screen
or anything :-), but they seem to like Tesla coils just fine.

Being able to have frequency, peak to peak, true RMS, average sampling...
at the press of a button is extremely handy...  You can freeze a wave form
right out of the noise with ease (Harvey, are you listening ;-))).  

Cheers,

	Terry 


At 08:18 PM 9/9/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello esteemed coilers,
>
>I have a background in electronics, (Ham radio in high school, radar in the
>military and so on), but since that time I have not worked in the
>electronics industry and therefore am pretty much out of the electronics
>loop. I still enjoy electronics as a hobby, (Tesla coils, HV experiments,
>simple projects, repairing things, etc).
>
>I am somewhat familiar with the operation of a scope, (I still have an old
>Heathkit that I use from time to time).  I have tried to use the Heathkit to
>scope my coil, but the results were not very good. It seems pretty hard to
>watch the scope while the sparks are flying! I see quite a few references to
>storage scopes on this list, sounds like something that may help me scope my
>coil.
>
>Now for the question: Keeping the above in mind, what are your
>recommendations for a decent scope that I could use to further my knowledge
>about the operation of my coil? I really would like know more about the
>quenching. Earlier today I looked in one of my many electronic catalogues
>and saw some scopes that went for $4500.00!! Holy cow! Hopefully I could
>find a used scope for a lot less!
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Jon
>