10 Nov
2009
10 Nov
'09
12:41 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
I'm not reading here much at present, not until I
eventually get all my
collection moved, but I did just get offered a Tek 545A
which is languishing
in a garage down in Texas, so figured I'd ask about
shipping it safely.
Cool! I had a similar one, a 543 IIRC, that was the only
major piece of tech-junk I lost to hurricane Katrina.
I still grin thinking of my complete panic when I looked
at one side panel and saw a big orange glow in the tubes
next to the power transformer. Got the side off and
realized it was a neon filled voltage reference tube,
not a glowing plate.
Anyway, the things are a treasure trove of interesting
tubes. I like the tiny soldered-in (baseless) HV
rectifiers, tube regulated B+ system, and the
electromechanical time delay "tube" that lets the
thing warm up before applying HV. It's interesting to
see tube design in "cost not much of an object" mode.
I used to have Stan Griffiths' book "Oscilloscopes:
Selecting and Restoring a Classic".
I don't remember it being particularly technical, but
it has tons of info on the Tek tube-era product line,
and was fun to thumb through, if you're into that
kind of thing.
John Finigan