Nice write up and gorgeous find. Reminds me of the Tektronix analog oscilloscopes we had a few decades back when I was at university. Great machines, built like tanks and guaranteed to work for many years as opposed to the modern expendable digital gadgets.
It may actually prove to be the opposite case as the capacitors in these old scopes self destruct and eat their own circuit boards and surrounding components.
I have a Rigol and an Agilent over 10 years old now and going strong. Honestly though, my Agilent overheated once and destroyed its own SMPS. This was terrifying given the price of the scope (and at the moment, just knowing -- it was dead and smelled like an electronics fire). I now have a circulating fan on my scope shelf moving air behind and across all my bench equipment.
I replaced that Agilent SMPS for $150? and then got a 2 year service plan for another couple hundred dollars.
The latest Rigol prices are pretty expendable, $299!! but I suspect they will be running for quite a few years.
"guaranteed to work for many years" if you don't need them calibrated I guess.
Also like I'm not sure? A lot of the discrete component and analog stuff on the old models is way more flimsy that the new system on a chip things on the signal path of the new instruments, specially for RF.
Plus if you need data logging it's not even worth to have the discussion on if older gear was better.
> "guaranteed to work for many years" if you don't need them calibrated I guess.
Unless you need traceability for contract or regulatory reasons, oscilloscopes don't need regular calibration. Most of the time, you're probably using them for rough visual confirmations (e.g. is this signal behaving like I expect it to) more than precise measurements. In any case, it's rare for an oscilloscope to go seriously out of whack without a physical insult (like being dropped or exposed to major overvoltage).
I'm pretty confident that I can check the calibration of my scope, with a DMM. I wouldn't do that if I worked in a regulated industry, but in a home lab, we make judgment calls like this all the time.
My main problem with the old analog scopes is that the controls get flakey over time. Also, I do like the measurement and data logging features.
