Here's the thing:
I have 4 pallets of tektronix scopes taking up space in my
warehouse. One pallet is mostly 7000 series, with a few
5000 series mainframes, another is a mix of 7000 and 5000
series rack mount scopes, with a 564. The third is mostly
453's, 454's, and a few odd 434, 464, 465, 466, 475, and 485's.
And the fourth has a 585A, 545A, and 535A on it... the '45
and '35 were beautiful before the tube whores stripped them...
but recycler's don't get the luxury of judging, they just take
what they get.... ixed in with all of this are several large
boxes of plugins... nothing sexy, but the usual 7B53A's, and
7A16, 7A26, 7D14, kind of stuff...
I love cleaning, fixing, calibrating and restoring scopes
into good working condition. I have all of the Tek specified
gear for doing this, but judging by ebay sales, buyers don't
seem to value that effort at all.
To give you an example. I found a DOA 434 in my stash, and
because it was so cute, I cleaned it up, fixed a power supply
problem that stumped the original owner, replaced a tantalum
on one of the boards, fixed a really nasty trigger problem,
that was caused by the power supply problem, lubed all of the
pots, cleaned and lubed the panel switches, and fan, cleaned
the attenuator contacts, and did a complete calibration. It
took me a week of evenings to do the work. When it was put on
ebay, as cleaned, calibrated, and guaranteed, it got a couple
of $15 offers, and it remains unsold... as does its twin that
I did in hopes of a better result...
At current US scrap prices, I can get $17 per pound for gold
plated circuit boards, which is the standard price recyclers
are giving these days... I work with a recycler, so I am very
sure of these prices... There is easily 2 pounds of circuit
boards in a 434 [vertical, horizontal, storage, preamps, and
power supply are all gold plated]. The 453's and 454's have
easily 5x more...
Considering how much you folks are yipping and yapping about
tunnel diodes, and how hard they are to find, I could have
gotten more than $15 if I simply removed the two diodes in
this 434, and sold them on ebay. And I would still have a
good CRT, the aluminum from the chassis and can, the gold
plated circuit boards, a bunch of special IC's, etc... I have
gotten $5 just from a knob, and $15 from just selling one CRT
filter!.... to sell.
What's the answer? I keep hearing about how much you guys
love Tektronix and their scopes, but when one sells for less
than a tankful of gas, I have to wonder if it is all just
dreamy nostalgia talk. When a couple of days worth of cleaning,
repairing, and calibration is worth less than you would pay
for a dinner out with someone you don't even like all that
much... Where is the love?
What's it to be? Do I fix them, or Do I scrap them?
What shall I do with these scopes?
-Chuck Harris
