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Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

 

开云体育

Maybe not.? On page 58 of the 1958 photo album, we find the same photo of Ms. Lusk, with the same calendar.? Perhaps the photo was taken in 1953?

?

Also, I got one of the possible years wrong; it would be 1942, not 1943.? But, as Don Black commented, Tek did not yet exist in 1943.

?

Regards,

?

Tony

?

From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of sipespresso
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 4:07 PM
To: TekScopes@...
Subject: [TekScopes] Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

?

?

Thanks. Seems right. -Kurt

--- In TekScopes@..., "Tony Jacobson" wrote:
>
> I see calendars on (PDF) pages 32, 56, 82, 88, and 112. I can't make out a
> year in any of the photos, but the one on page 56 appears to be from
> December, with Christmas on a Friday. This would suggest that photo was
> taken in December of 1943, 1953, 1959, 1964, or 1970. (I don't think it
> would be older or newer than these years.)
>
>
>
> I would put my money on 1959.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Tony
>
>
>
> From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf
> Of sipespresso
> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 PM
> To: TekScopes@...
> Subject: [TekScopes] Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel
>
>
>
>
>
> Here is another photo album similar to the one I posted before.
>
>
>
> Can anybody figure out the date of this one? thanks, -Kurt
>


Re: 2445 CPU Address line failed

 

Interesting story, I find this statement a little humerous:

"In late 2012 a dog next door bit my wife and I needed a scope"


Tektronix DMM-4020 Opinions?

 

开云体育

Hello:

?

I have the opportunity to buy one of these far below the list price. I wonder if anyone has used this DMM, and what were your impressions of it> While I know it is not a Keithly, it seems like a lot of Bench Top DMM the $200.00 I am going to pay for it.

?

?

Thanks


Rich


Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

Don Black
 

开云体育

Nicely spotted. Pretty good if it's 1943, thats before the company existed.

Don Black.

On 20-Jan-13 7:18 AM, Tony Jacobson wrote:

?

I see calendars on (PDF) pages 32, 56, 82, 88, and 112.? I can’t make out a year in any of the photos, but the one on page 56 appears to be from December, with Christmas on a Friday.? This would suggest that photo was taken in December of 1943, 1953, 1959, 1964, or 1970. ?(I don’t think it would be older or newer than these years.)

?

I would put my money on 1959.

?

Regards,

?

Tony

?

From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of sipespresso
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 PM
To: TekScopes@...
Subject: [TekScopes] Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

?

?

Here is another photo album similar to the one I posted before.



Can anybody figure out the date of this one? thanks, -Kurt




Re: Bench Built Isolation Transformer

 

开云体育

Ah, Dave,

But the electrical system in the US is grounded. What you are referring to is the ability for the GFCI to work without the presence of a ground conductor attached to the GFCI. The electrical system? in the building is a grounded system, defined as neutral connected to gound at one point for reference, even though a green or bare ground wire is not present at the receptacle.

Remember, for current to flow there needs to be a complete circuit. Once an isolation transformer is in a circuit, there is no longer a current path between sides.

You think this is hard to get a mental picture, Some rural places used to use a distribution system of 15 to 30 killoVolts three phase, one phase GROUNDED! This was for lightning protection.

On the opposite side we have Navy ships with neither conductor connected to ground. No ground reference, just monitors for if a wire becomes grounded. Gives time to fix the wire without a circuit going down when it is needed....? And no electrocution hazard until the first wire becomes grounded, hence the monitors. The GFCI won't work on this circuit either, just like after a GFCI/RCD.

Frank DuVal

On 1/15/2013 1:52 AM, Dave C wrote:

?
Stefan,
The GFI works on differential measurement, regardless the presence of ground.

Here in USA these GFI's are legal to use in an ungrounded electrical system in residential buildings, as long as a label is attached to the face plate stating "ungrounded".?

Dave

-=-=-=-

On 14 January 2013, at 10:41 PM, Stefan Trethan wrote:

And obviously it won't work after an isolation transformer, the GFI
needs a grounded grid.

_


Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

sipespresso
 

Thanks. Seems right. -Kurt

--- In TekScopes@..., "Tony Jacobson" wrote:

I see calendars on (PDF) pages 32, 56, 82, 88, and 112. I can't make out a
year in any of the photos, but the one on page 56 appears to be from
December, with Christmas on a Friday. This would suggest that photo was
taken in December of 1943, 1953, 1959, 1964, or 1970. (I don't think it
would be older or newer than these years.)



I would put my money on 1959.



Regards,



Tony



From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf
Of sipespresso
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 PM
To: TekScopes@...
Subject: [TekScopes] Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel





Here is another photo album similar to the one I posted before.



Can anybody figure out the date of this one? thanks, -Kurt


Anybody know the difference between a 475M and 475?

Matt Jodz
 

Looking at picking up a Tek 475M oscilloscope locally.? Anybody know how it differs from a regular 475?? Is it just the military model?? Are the specifications the same as the plain 475?? Any opinions as to reliability etc?? Thanks ahead of time.


Re: Need for Termination Feedthrus

 

On Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:19:08 -0000, "Philip" <ndpmcintosh@...>
wrote:

As I gather up all the stuff I need to test and maintain my newly purchased 2235 I am wondering how necessary it is to use a 50 ohm feedthru termination when sending test and calibration signals into the scope. Can one not construct their own device that perform the same purpose as a factory-built feedthru?
A T-connector with a termination on one end will work for
oscilloscopes that lack internal switchable terminations which
generally only have a bandwidth that extends to 100 MHz anyway.

And, can anyone recommend a good book that goes into detail on the theory of construction and operation of oscilloscopes? The ones I have gotten at the library are pretty superficial.
Jim Williams' book has a great section on oscilloscope vertical
amplifiers among other things:


Re: 7587 Nuvistor Tetrode Substitutions in the Tektronix 184 Time-Mark Generator

 

What I think is happening is the control grid circuit is rectifying
the positive input peaks to set the bias. A JFET replacement would
operate in the same way although I may have to change the grid bias
resistor or in the worst case, add a paralleled resistor and capacitor
for source biasing.

Vacuum tube design is before my time so I am just having fun reverse
engineering. The time mark outputs which work fine do most of what I
need.

The screen grid series resistors are 27K and connect to the 125 volt
anode supply so the currents are all about 1.8 milliamps which is well
under the 3.6 milliamp maximum. That makes the total cathode current
less than half of the 20 milliamp maximum at least on the 20 MHz
amplifier. The 50 Mhz and 100 MHz amplifiers operate with self biased
grid voltages closer to ground so their anode current should be
higher. On later units like mine, the screen grid voltage of
oscillator V10 is fixed by a zener diode at about 52 volts.

None of the carbon composition resistors I checked were out of
tolerance. Of course, everything up to the 100 MHz output *does*
work.

The 200 MHz doubler at least sort of works but the output looks low
and distorted to me. I may try replacing the germanium diodes with
1N270s or RF schottky diodes. The only information I have on the
152-0075-00 diodes Tektronix used is from the Tektronix parts book.

On Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:44:49 -0000, "Ed Breya" <edbreya@...>
wrote:

Wow - that means the grid currents must be over -100 uA to get that much on 100k grid leak resistors. I don't recall what the screens were hooked to, but I think you should calculate the screen currents too, to see the total cathode currents.

If they only used 5 mA or so plate current, you can easily replicate that with modest JFET and cascode NPN current.

Ed

--- In TekScopes@..., David wrote:

I added a 10 ohm current shunt to the anode circuit of V20, the 20 MHz
amplifier, and used it to test all of the tubes. The anode currents
varied from 4.8 to 5.7 milliamps, the gate voltages varied from -10.3
to -12.6 volts, and the screen grid voltages varied from 72.2 to 76.0
volts except for one 7587 which had a screen voltage of 63.5 volts for
some reason.

That one also had the highest anode current but not the highest grid
voltage. I don't know if that is significant.

I can get 2N5950 JFETs and MPSH11 NPNs cheap at the moment so I will
start off with them.

On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:06:30 -0000, "Ed Breya"
wrote:

You may want to try swapping tubes from the other spots too, although it seems they're all biased for the same operating conditions, so should wear at the same rate - but if they are only on when needed for their specific function, then it all depends on the history of use. I think the only one that's always on then, would be the 10 MHz oscillator, so it should have the most wear.

I looked up the 7587 and see that it's rated for 20 mA max cathode current, but there were no charts showing what it should be near zero grid bias - unless the grid current gets pretty high, it doesn't seem that it will make much into 100k. It would be interesting to see what it is if you measure it and the actual plate currents.

I think your cascode version with a JFET and an NPN would be best, since you can then assure cutoff by pulling the base to ground. The double-JFET form won't positively cut off unless you can pull the gate negative, making it more complicated. You will have to watch out for the voltage ratings of the NPN to make sure it can handle the cutoff conditions.

I'd recommend around +15V or so for the bases (via small R so they won't oscillate on their own), and about +25V for the collector supply. Those should work with many types of VHF JFETs and small signal RF NPNs. For parts I'd recommend something like 2N5109 or MPSH10 for the NPN, and a J300 with around 15-25 mA Idss.

Ed


Need for Termination Feedthrus

 

As I gather up all the stuff I need to test and maintain my newly purchased 2235 I am wondering how necessary it is to use a 50 ohm feedthru termination when sending test and calibration signals into the scope. Can one not construct their own device that perform the same purpose as a factory-built feedthru?

And, can anyone recommend a good book that goes into detail on the theory of construction and operation of oscilloscopes? The ones I have gotten at the library are pretty superficial.

Thanks,

Phil...


Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

 

开云体育

I see calendars on (PDF) pages 32, 56, 82, 88, and 112.? I can’t make out a year in any of the photos, but the one on page 56 appears to be from December, with Christmas on a Friday.? This would suggest that photo was taken in December of 1943, 1953, 1959, 1964, or 1970. ?(I don’t think it would be older or newer than these years.)

?

I would put my money on 1959.

?

Regards,

?

Tony

?

From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of sipespresso
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 PM
To: TekScopes@...
Subject: [TekScopes] Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

?

?

Here is another photo album similar to the one I posted before.



Can anybody figure out the date of this one? thanks, -Kurt



Re: 547 calibrator

Albert
 

R969, 0.25 Ohm.
Albert


Re: R7103 backplane repair

 

Il 2013-01-19 19:49 Peter Gottlieb ha scritto:
Sorry, Yahoo seems to be blocking the image, won't accept my login without
multiple layers of entering captcha codes, and generally being such a pain to
use that its not worth it.
Don't worry, there was no attachment,
comes from something wrong
with my mail.

Fabio.


Re: 547 calibrator

Albert
 

It's the isolated type, outer bus wired to GND via a << 1 Ohm resistor. That resistor sits nearly against the bottom panel of the 'scope. I guess that resistor is broken.

Albert

--- In TekScopes@..., "Alex" wrote:

Is the 547 "CAL OUT" connector from the calibrator supposed to be a normal BNC? According to the schematic it is. But on my 547 it's a "floating" BNC, with the barrel separated from the flange with a plastic ring... I never paid much attention to it until I connected a coax to a 1A4 directly and the trace was very noisy. Then I shorted the cable at the "CAL OUT" end with a key to the scope's chassis and the noise went away. Yet I measure continuity in DC between the chassis and the CAL OUT barrel (without the cable).


547 calibrator

Alex
 

Is the 547 "CAL OUT" connector from the calibrator supposed to be a normal BNC? According to the schematic it is. But on my 547 it's a "floating" BNC, with the barrel separated from the flange with a plastic ring... I never paid much attention to it until I connected a coax to a 1A4 directly and the trace was very noisy. Then I shorted the cable at the "CAL OUT" end with a key to the scope's chassis and the noise went away. Yet I measure continuity in DC between the chassis and the CAL OUT barrel (without the cable).


Re: scanned: 1958 Tek Personnel

sipespresso
 

Here is another photo album similar to the one I posted before.



Can anybody figure out the date of this one? thanks, -Kurt

--- In TekScopes@..., "Dennis Tillman" wrote:

Unfortunately it is not all that surprising that engineers, by and large,
tend to be male. Many of these engineers at Tek in the 1950s served in WWII
or Korea and got a college education, thanks to the GI Bill of Rights, paid
for by the US government. Discrimination, which was widespread in the US
prevented blacks from going on to earn college degrees. Engineering is still
largely a male dominated discipline although that is changing slowly.

The demographics of the Pacific NorthWest are quite different from the rest
of the US. I cannot speak personally for what it was like back in the early
1950s, but when I arrived in the Seattle Metro area (which has an almost
identical demographic to Portland) in 1985 it was mostly white Caucasian
with about 7 or 8% Asian, and just a few percent Afro/American.

In the 26 years I have been here, the Pacific NorthWest has seen the Asian
population grow considerably due to political unrest and to increased trade
with the Far East.

The Bellevue/Redmond suburbs of Seattle where I live are a true melting pot
due to Microsoft. It is quite common that I find myself the only white
Caucasian in the supermarket. The ethnic diversity, the variation in dress
and the variety of languages spoken as I walk among the aisles of Safeway is
a continuous reminder that our rich cultural diversity is once again being
refreshed with a new wave of immigrants, cultures, and customs.

It is a fascinating place to live. I am continuously reminded of what a
special place the US is, by all these people whom we welcomed here.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Sawyers, Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 3:09 AM

Real sign of the times though. Almost entirely white anglo saxon. The only
two exceptions I found was someone with a Chinese name, and one black guy in
building services. I recall the first black person I saw in the North East
of the UK in maybe 1970 (I was 14) - he was a lab technician in the Biology
lab of our school. I was, shame to say, totally bewildered, and somehow
embarrassed to talk to him. Thank heavens that times, and my small town
attitude, have changed dramatically in the intervening decades.

Craig


Re: R7103 backplane repair [1 Attachment]

Peter Gottlieb
 

Sorry, Yahoo seems to be blocking the image, won't accept my login without multiple layers of entering captcha codes, and generally being such a pain to use that its not worth it.

On 1/19/2013 1:40 PM, Fabio Eboli wrote:
[Attachment(s) <#TopText> from Fabio Eboli included below]

Il 2013-01-18 14:07 Peter Gottlieb ha scritto:

I think it was worth the several hours it took me to do this repair,
and
it was
something I think others can do as well even if for the first time,
so
don't
despair if you find yourself in a similar situation, it is quite
repairable if
you can find a source of the contacts such as I did and have a little
patience.

Peter
Hello Peter, excellent work, my 7704A had many contacts bent
or broken, they are thin, fortunately the broken pins were not many.
There are many unused pins on the connector (on the 7704A
at least) and I used these as spare. Not a nice repair,
now the connectors miss some contacts, but is working again :)

By the way the R7103 (and the 7104) for me is wonderful machine,
since there is no anymore a too low repetition rate signal
to visualize at fast sweeps, the 7704A becomes dim soon
at fast sweeps (but probably my unit needs to be checked...)

Fabio.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <>
Version: 10.0.1430 / Virus Database: 2639/5543 - Release Date: 01/19/13


Re: 7587 Nuvistor Tetrode Substitutions in the Tektronix 184 Time-Mark Generator

 

Wow - that means the grid currents must be over -100 uA to get that much on 100k grid leak resistors. I don't recall what the screens were hooked to, but I think you should calculate the screen currents too, to see the total cathode currents.

If they only used 5 mA or so plate current, you can easily replicate that with modest JFET and cascode NPN current.

Ed

--- In TekScopes@..., David wrote:

I added a 10 ohm current shunt to the anode circuit of V20, the 20 MHz
amplifier, and used it to test all of the tubes. The anode currents
varied from 4.8 to 5.7 milliamps, the gate voltages varied from -10.3
to -12.6 volts, and the screen grid voltages varied from 72.2 to 76.0
volts except for one 7587 which had a screen voltage of 63.5 volts for
some reason.

That one also had the highest anode current but not the highest grid
voltage. I don't know if that is significant.

I can get 2N5950 JFETs and MPSH11 NPNs cheap at the moment so I will
start off with them.

On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:06:30 -0000, "Ed Breya"
wrote:

You may want to try swapping tubes from the other spots too, although it seems they're all biased for the same operating conditions, so should wear at the same rate - but if they are only on when needed for their specific function, then it all depends on the history of use. I think the only one that's always on then, would be the 10 MHz oscillator, so it should have the most wear.

I looked up the 7587 and see that it's rated for 20 mA max cathode current, but there were no charts showing what it should be near zero grid bias - unless the grid current gets pretty high, it doesn't seem that it will make much into 100k. It would be interesting to see what it is if you measure it and the actual plate currents.

I think your cascode version with a JFET and an NPN would be best, since you can then assure cutoff by pulling the base to ground. The double-JFET form won't positively cut off unless you can pull the gate negative, making it more complicated. You will have to watch out for the voltage ratings of the NPN to make sure it can handle the cutoff conditions.

I'd recommend around +15V or so for the bases (via small R so they won't oscillate on their own), and about +25V for the collector supply. Those should work with many types of VHF JFETs and small signal RF NPNs. For parts I'd recommend something like 2N5109 or MPSH10 for the NPN, and a J300 with around 15-25 mA Idss.

Ed

--- In TekScopes@..., David wrote:

On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:55:38 -0000, "Ed Breya"
wrote:

It looks like the required RF power levels aren't out of reach for JFET substitution of the 7587 tubes. The tricky ones will be the 500 MHz multiplier and the 100 MHz driver for the 200 MHz diode doubler.
Coincidently those are the stages that have been giving me trouble. I
have to break out one of my faster oscilloscopes to see what is going
on with them. It is possible that the 500 MHz multiplier just needs
tuning but so far the output from the 200 MHz diode doubler has been
low and not real symmetrical. Swapping V40 and V30 made no difference
but maybe both are weak.

The diodes in the doubler do not test as obviously bad in circuit but
I may try and find higher performance replacements.

None of the tubes use any cathode degeneration, and are only biased by grid current through the grounded 100k resistors, so dropping JFETs in their place means that they'll just run at Idss. For the 500 and 100/200 MHz circuits, the more, the better - in this case, high gain and nonlinearity are your friends. If you get a bunch of JFETs like U300, with Idss near the top of the range (>40 mA), they should be OK in those spots. If you come up short on power, you can try paralleling two devices with the same Idss for each spot. The other three tube spots have more modest power requirements, so lighter JFETs can be used there. For drain supplies, the +12V is the only other positive supply already available, which should work OK in place of the original +125V plate supplies.
I guess I should go through and measure the operating points via the
grid voltages and maybe plate currents to get a better idea of what is
going on.

For the drain supplies, I was thinking of just adding a low quiescent
current series regulator to the 125 volt plate supply and dropping it
directly to a voltage compatible with JFET operation. Normally I
would eschew such a wasteful configuration but the original design
does essentially the same thing via the plate resistance and quiescent
current of each stage anyway which may be why the design only enables
each stage as needed.

One thing that will complicate matters is the disabling of certain sections when needed. The 100, 50, and 20 MHz amplifiers appear to be cut off when deselected, by grounding their screen grids. You would have to replicate this action in the new circuitry if you want to keep it operating the same as original.
I noticed that every stage is disabled when not in use either via the
screen grid or in the case of the 500 MHz multiplier, both the screen
grid and anode supply. That is one of the reasons I wanted to try
using two JFETs or a JFET and bipolar per stage in a cascode
configuration which would allow the screen grid circuit to disable
each stage as designed.

Cascodes would also offer much higher performance at least as far as
gain at high frequencies. The higher needed voltage is obviously not
a problem in this case.


Re: R7103 backplane repair [1 Attachment]

 

Il 2013-01-19 19:40 Fabio Eboli ha scritto:


to visualize at fast sweeps, the 7704A becomes dim soon
at fast sweeps (but probably my unit needs to be checked...)

Fabio.

Attachment(s) from Fabio Eboli

1 of 1 Photo(s)

[1]
blocked.gif [1]
Sorry for the attachment, probably I messed up
with html/text in mail...

Fabio.


Re: R7103 backplane repair

 

Il 2013-01-18 14:07 Peter Gottlieb ha scritto:

I think it was worth the several hours it took me to do this repair, and
it was
something I think others can do as well even if for the first time, so
don't
despair if you find yourself in a similar situation, it is quite
repairable if
you can find a source of the contacts such as I did and have a little
patience.

Peter
Hello Peter, excellent work, my 7704A had many contacts bent
or broken, they are thin, fortunately the broken pins were not many.
There are many unused pins on the connector (on the 7704A
at least) and I used these as spare. Not a nice repair,
now the connectors miss some contacts, but is working again :)

By the way the R7103 (and the 7104) for me is wonderful machine,
since there is no anymore a too low repetition rate signal
to visualize at fast sweeps, the 7704A becomes dim soon
at fast sweeps (but probably my unit needs to be checked...)

Fabio.