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Chuck Harris wrote: “With the exception of the late, great, Jim Williams of Linear Technology fame, big tube scopes, haven't been used for serious electronics work in 30 years.”

Au Contraire. There are still a few Jim Williams types out there who enjoy the use of a stable and reliable product that may have grown gray hair but is still a viable instrument.

Yes, the trend nowadays is to have the fastest, biggest and best of everything in the engineering world but it is not necessary for every application. I am fully aware that the academic institutions must prepare their students to hit the ground running when launched into their professions thereby being able to use state-of-the-art test instruments instead of archaic hardware. And I agree it is nice to be lazy, punch softkeys or click on a mouse to get what you want instantaneously but to come into the lab on a cold winters day with a steaming cup of coffee, hit the switch on that big fire breathing dragon, hear the fan wind up and smell the odor of pure legacy for me is rather pleasing. But if I need speed and easy accuracy I can always reach over and turn on that little solid-state rice box and continue on.

We’ve been obviously witness to the loss of older hardware through the advancements of technology and I have no objections about it happening. But there is that certain amount of tradition in some of us (me – 70 years old, design engineering for 50 of them, raised on tube-type equipment and still going strong) that harks back to those few people who were brave enough to start in their garages endlessly working to serve the engineering profession by manufacturing the best and most technically advanced products of their time.

Some day my 519, 547 and 581 will be relinquished either to a collector or the scrap heap but in the meantime I will still get usefulness out of them.

Greg