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Re: 550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203
Hi Brasscat,
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Yes but the duty cycle is infinitesimal. The pulse lasts less than 100nSec and it repeats every ~100uSec. So the ratio is at least 1:1000. That would make 5KW act more like 5W. But I didn't detect any heating of the 50 ohm termination I used at all. It was a standard Tek 2W terminator/feedthru. Dennis Tillman W7PF -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of brasscat Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 7:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203 My goof! That's 5.5KW. -- Dennis Tillman W7PF TekScopes Moderator |
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Re: Typefaces in Tektronix manuals, was Re: [TekScopes] Protecting button labels
Hi Toby,
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Thank you, That is a very detailed list. Dennis Tillman W7PF -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of toby@... Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 5:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Typefaces in Tektronix manuals, was Re: [TekScopes] Protecting button labels On 2018-03-18 5:55 PM, Dennis Tillman W7PF wrote: Does anyone know what font they used in the manuals? I always thought it would be nice to make the manuals in the same font Tek used when my project is something that other Tek users can use on their equipment.I can't speak for all manuals, but of ones that I have, this is typical: e.g. 465 Service Manual * Front cover: Eurostile extended (bold and light) - TEKTRONIX and "INSTRUCTION MANUAL" * Title page: Univers Condensed Bold ("465 OSCILLOSCOPE") and Univers Roman ("SERVICE"); Univers Roman weight for small body text * TOC and internal pages, All Univers, apparently bold except chapter headings which are Roman weight * Subheadings, image captions, folios, headers and footers are Univers Bold FWIW, the body text of the manual appears to be set on an IBM Selectric, so this is Selectric Univers. Headings are probably photoset separately (like the instrument front panel art). Some especially bold headings (e.g. "ELECTRICAL PARTS LIST" and the "CAUTION", "WARNING" headings) appear to be Franklin Gothic Heavy Oblique, or a very similar gothic. The text on the parts list cover pages (apart from the typewritten text in Courier), including the table headings, is in Futura. Foldouts are all in Univers and Univers Bold, like the rest of the manual. If somebody has a manual from a different period or style they'd like me to look at, please post page images in the gallery section and reply. --Toby Dennis Tillman W7PF -- Dennis Tillman W7PF TekScopes Moderator |
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Re: 550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203
Hi Brasscat,
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Good point. I was so busy figuring out how I was going to measure the voltage that I forgot about the current going into the 50 ohm resistor. I was really amazed at the amplitude. I first tried it on a 7A24 and I had to keep adding attenuators to get it on screen. Eventually I had a stack of about 6 attenuators in a row before I finally reduced the amplitude to a few volts. It is a good thing I always test signals on a 7A24 first before I connect them to a sampling head. Dennis Tillman W7PF -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of brasscat Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 6:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TekScopes] 550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203 Hey Dennis, that's one heck of a pulse! 11A 550V! -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dennis Tillman W7PF Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 4:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [TekScopes] 550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203 For more years than I can remember I have been collecting, or at least documenting, the odd-ball TM500 / TM5000 plugins I come across. But I don't always try them when I get them to see what they do. Kurt Rosenfeld (TekWiki) asked me to bring a bunch of my unusual plugins to the VintageTEK Museum to photograph a few weeks ago. That got me curious about several of them. Out of curiosity I decided to try a few of them to see what they do. A couple of the plugins contained some real surprises. The Metrotek MP 203 Pulser is definitely one of them. You can see a picture of what this looks like on TekWiki at It is obviously a pulse generator, but I had no idea how unusual it was until now. It puts out 10V negative going pulses at first glance but that is not how it is supposed to be terminated as I discovered. When you connect a 50 ohm termination to the output the pulse suddenly becomes a negative going 550V monster. The fall time of this huge pulse is 3.2nSec. The repetition rate can be varied up to about 11.7KHz. The only I could figure out how to measure the actual amplitude of a pulse this large and still indicate the edge speed was with a P6009 100X 100MHz probe. I measured the actual fall time of the pulse with a 7S11 / 7T11 / S4. To do this safely I had to attach 45dB of attenuators between the generator and the sampling head to reduce the amplitude of the pulse to 700mV to protect the S4 sampling head from being blown out. The insides are VERY unusual. I certainly have no idea what the design is based on other than there must be a very high voltage avalanche transistor in the heart of this plugin. If it is an avalanche transistor then it must be contained in the small 2" x 2" blue square marked Pulse Generator. I sent Kurt pictures of the pulse it generates and of the insides of this very unusual plugin. He has added them to the web page he has for it. Dennis Tillman W7PF -- Dennis Tillman W7PF TekScopes Moderator |
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Typefaces in Tektronix manuals, was Re: [TekScopes] Protecting button labels
On 2018-03-18 5:55 PM, Dennis Tillman W7PF wrote:
Does anyone know what font they used in the manuals? I always thought it would be nice to make the manuals in the same font Tek used when my project is something that other Tek users can use on their equipment.I can't speak for all manuals, but of ones that I have, this is typical: e.g. 465 Service Manual * Front cover: Eurostile extended (bold and light) - TEKTRONIX and "INSTRUCTION MANUAL" * Title page: Univers Condensed Bold ("465 OSCILLOSCOPE") and Univers Roman ("SERVICE"); Univers Roman weight for small body text * TOC and internal pages, All Univers, apparently bold except chapter headings which are Roman weight * Subheadings, image captions, folios, headers and footers are Univers Bold FWIW, the body text of the manual appears to be set on an IBM Selectric, so this is Selectric Univers. Headings are probably photoset separately (like the instrument front panel art). Some especially bold headings (e.g. "ELECTRICAL PARTS LIST" and the "CAUTION", "WARNING" headings) appear to be Franklin Gothic Heavy Oblique, or a very similar gothic. The text on the parts list cover pages (apart from the typewritten text in Courier), including the table headings, is in Futura. Foldouts are all in Univers and Univers Bold, like the rest of the manual. If somebody has a manual from a different period or style they'd like me to look at, please post page images in the gallery section and reply. --Toby Dennis Tillman W7PF |
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550V 3.2nSec Pulse Generator Metrotek MP 203
For more years than I can remember I have been collecting, or at least
documenting, the odd-ball TM500 / TM5000 plugins I come across. But I don't always try them when I get them to see what they do. Kurt Rosenfeld (TekWiki) asked me to bring a bunch of my unusual plugins to the VintageTEK Museum to photograph a few weeks ago. That got me curious about several of them. Out of curiosity I decided to try a few of them to see what they do. A couple of the plugins contained some real surprises. The Metrotek MP 203 Pulser is definitely one of them. You can see a picture of what this looks like on TekWiki at It is obviously a pulse generator, but I had no idea how unusual it was until now. It puts out 10V negative going pulses at first glance but that is not how it is supposed to be terminated as I discovered. When you connect a 50 ohm termination to the output the pulse suddenly becomes a negative going 550V monster. The fall time of this huge pulse is 3.2nSec. The repetition rate can be varied up to about 11.7KHz. The only I could figure out how to measure the actual amplitude of a pulse this large and still indicate the edge speed was with a P6009 100X 100MHz probe. I measured the actual fall time of the pulse with a 7S11 / 7T11 / S4. To do this safely I had to attach 45dB of attenuators between the generator and the sampling head to reduce the amplitude of the pulse to 700mV to protect the S4 sampling head from being blown out. The insides are VERY unusual. I certainly have no idea what the design is based on other than there must be a very high voltage avalanche transistor in the heart of this plugin. If it is an avalanche transistor then it must be contained in the small 2" x 2" blue square marked Pulse Generator. I sent Kurt pictures of the pulse it generates and of the insides of this very unusual plugin. He has added them to the web page he has for it. Dennis Tillman W7PF |
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Re: What calibration items to buy.
On 18/03/18 19:29, Brad Thompson wrote:
On 3/18/2018 11:39 AM, Tom Gardner wrote:Google informs me that you call it burlap - it the traditional old fibrous (=> high surface area) jute sacking used for agricultural produce. I'd heard of "burlap", but didn't know what that was. ..Re: your unseasonable weather-- this AM, the outdoor thermometer read -9F (-22C)The devil here is that (thanks to the N Atlantic thermohaline circulation) often snow thaws during the day and the water then refreezes overnight; the resulting "black ice" is not pleasant. In contrast, staying below freezing is, in some ways, much easier - although then the train companies use "the wrong type of snow" as an excuse. |
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Re: What calibration items to buy.
On 18/03/18 22:08, David C. Partridge wrote:
I'm amazed no-one mentioned the 1271 that's in the auction - I'd buy that over a 1081 or 1082 any day - or are you all hoping everyone else missed it :) ?I did mention it, and it is already up to ?125 - which is double the price I paid for my 7081 :) We ought to hold a sweepstake on its actual sale price :) |
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Re: On the hunt for a 1A4
If the 1A4 is nonexistent in Connecticut, widen your search.
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Glenn On 3/18/2018 2:39 PM, thespin@... wrote:
Essentially nonexistent in my area (Connecticut)! Some places got slammed and some barely got hit. Go figure. --
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417 Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV wb4uiv@... AMSAT LM 2178 QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) USSVI LM NRA LM SBE ARRL TAPR "It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the license" |
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Re: What calibration items to buy.
I'm amazed no-one mentioned the 1271 that's in the auction - I'd buy that over a 1081 or 1082 any day - or are you all hoping everyone else missed it :) ?
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David -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brad Thompson Sent: 18 March 2018 19:41 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TekScopes] What calibration items to buy. On 3/18/2018 3:31 PM, Dave Voorhis wrote: On 18 Mar 2018, at 19:29, Brad Thompson <brad.thompson@...> wrote:Hello, Dave--For those of us located in one of the former colonies<g>, pleaseLike burlap. Thank you! 73-- Brad AA1IP |
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Re: Protecting button labels
Does anyone know what font they used in the manuals? I always thought it would be nice to make the manuals in the same font Tek used when my project is something that other Tek users can use on their equipment.
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Dennis Tillman W7PF -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of toby@... Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2018 8:10 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TekScopes] Protecting button labels <snip> They used Univers and Univers Condensed, in various weights, on just about all modern models (from late 1960s up to quite recently, e.g. my TDS460A) - examples: - Univers: /g/TekScopes/photo/12929/3?p=Name,,,20,1,0,0 - Univers and Univers Condensed: /g/TekScopes/album?id=14929 (this is my scope) --Toby * Some of the older scopes used Copperplate. e.g. /g/TekScopes/photo/12929/2?p=Name,,,20,1,0,0
-- Dennis Tillman W7PF TekScopes Moderator |
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Re: Tek 317 odd trace behavior after warm-up
1) All transformer windings were in range. I should note input from mains is 121V and the windings are set for 117V.
2) All diodes tested good. I removed D152A and D152B since the cathodes are facing each other and throwing off my DMM's continuity tester, but those were OK once taken out. 3) This was about +70. 4) Didn't test. Should have, but didn't. I removed C601 and C660 and tested them on the cap bridge. They weren't too hard to get to. Both sections of C601 are fine, but C660 appears to be dead. It's not registering any capacitance at all. I've got a line on a modern 160uf 450V cap that should work as a replacement. |
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PG506 Relays
Hi all,
As many before me, I need to replace the relays on a PG506. The original Potter & Brumfield T10-0010-2 are of course no longer available. Has anyone ever found a workaround, to replace those relays with models currently available on the market (e.g. Panasonic SF4D)? Electrically speaking it is a piece of cake; the issue lies with terminal layout. The relay PCB is pretty straightforward, shouldn't be too difficult to design a new one... Any experience with this? Thank you, Chris |
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Re: Help with PG506A Newer Model
Hi all,
As many before me, I need to replace the relays on a PG506. The original Potter & Brumfield T10-0010-2 are no longer available, of course. Has anyone ever found a workaround, e.g. to adapt a replacement relay currently on the market? Electrically speaking equivalents can be found. The issue lies with the terminal layout. The PCB is pretty straightforward, shouldn't be too difficult to design a new one. But I'd welcome a simpler way... Any experience with this? Thank you, Chris |
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Re: What calibration items to buy.
Hello,
to be honest, I would probably jump on RyanAir and fly in. I have a lot of business to sort in the UK anyways, am fine in coach and AirBNB is cheap. Of course, if someone wants to pack for me against €€€, I'd be game. But we should take this offline if anyone wants to for legal reasons - at least in Austria, it is illegal for bidders to collude before an auction. Tam -- With best regards Tam Hanna --- Enjoy electronics? Join 8300 other followers by visiting the Crazy Electronics Lab at |
David C. Partridge
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