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So, I am a new member and maybe this topic been discussed before....

I recently was trying to use a 1A1 plugin in my 1956 type 531... Have some issues with it.... Reason for joining.

While I was working with the 1A1, I recalled when and where I got it. Purchased from a coworker at a former employer about 25yrs ago. I got it along with 2x 547 scopes and a couple of 1A2 plugins and a type W. Stuff came originally from (at the time) our employer Zytec and was at the mfg plant in Minnesota. I worked there from '94-'96. This coworker was a long time employee and probably got it in the 80s... It was in his damp garage.

So, Zytec, was a spin off from Control Data Corp, one of the mainframe computer companies from the 60s/70s. The plant were I was working in the mid 90s (Zytec) originally was a satellite power supply plant for CDC. Later merged and morphed and now is Artesyn but the plant I was working at is owned by someone else making other stuff.

I would expect all the stuff I had got at that time originally was CDC assets from the '60s.

I was looking at the last cal sticker on this plugin and noted the initials of the cal tech. I knew who that was from my time working there a decade later in the mid 90s ( cal from 9-1985). Googled the person and found out they passed away in 2020 age 69 :(

Getting all nostalgic now...

I have a small collection of vintage tek stuff...

The type 531 I have owned since 1986 and was in the clear-out sale from my tech school. At that time it had a sticker on it stating "IBM Technical Gifts" and was probably a donation to the state (Minnesota, USA) schools from the Rochester, MN IBM plant. Most likely IBM was the original owner. Cal tag from 1970 on the front, although I have been through it a a few times over my ownership.

I have also a 535 from that same sale but I don't recall any tags on it and its not at hand to look. Not working at this time.

I also have a few plugins from that same sale, and their asset tags are interesting. One is from AEC Sandia Corp (aka Sandia National Labs). Another is North American Aviation. I believe these were all acquired as surplus by the school in the 70s. One wonders where they were and what they were used for back when!!!

Then, I have a circa 1957 type 545 that also probably came from Control Data Corp. Got from a surplus outlet in St Paul in 1992. I remember they had a couple 514AD scopes there at that time that I passed on.

So, one thinks about the unknown engineers and techs of decades past that used this stuff.

Seems like the gear at work now is not going to end up anywhere but the landfill eventually. I have seen even 10-15yr old RF gear in the dumpster at work as they upgrade the EMC test lab. I am sure it probably worked.

JH

My interest in vintage Tek gear comes from my first two scopes, which belonged to my father: a 475 from his time working as a service engineer for Varian MAT, and a 2213 that he bought when he went self-employed after Varian sold off MAT to Finnegan (and divested other divisions to other buyers).

I acquired a TM503 Opt. 1 from my university's surplus outlet, though it bears a property tag from the local community college that I attended before transferring to the university. It came with three plug-ins: a DM501, a DC503, and a PS502. The PS502 has some malfunction that I have been trying to diagnose and fix for most of the past year (with much enthusiasm or success).

Since then I have acquired a small stable of 475 parts mules (though several of them are probably in full working order, and I may sell them off after I've given them a good once-over), a pair of 475As (one a parts mule for the other, which is getting repaired, recalibrated, and upgraded to a 475A+DM44), two 2215As (one a parts mule), a 2235 parts mule, a 2236 (my current bench scope), a 2465 DMS (my future bench scope), one 5103N, one 7623A, two DMM916s, a TM506 with plug-ins (DC503, DC508, DM501, DM502, PG502, and SG503), AM503 and DC505 plug-ins, a 1101A probe power supply, and a host of probes (P6022, P6062B, P6063B, P6075A, P6105, P6106, P6121, P6122, P6131, P6202A, and P407) all from eBay.

Some of the parts mules had property tags from the Navy and Army, and others appear to have been lab units, bearing ID stickers. The DMM916s both came from Virginia Polytechnic University. The rest of the equipment bears little if any evidence of its origins. My interest in all of this, however, stems directly from my childhood memory of my father's use of the 475 and 2213.

-- Jeff Dutky

I have a lot of interesting property tags on stuff, from all over. Naval Underwater Systems Center (doesn't exist anymore, absorbed into something else), LANL, Sandia, Boeing, IBM, Bendix Kansas City Division, Eitel-McCullough (aka Eimac, a Type CA plug in), and probably more I can't remember,

It's interesting to ponder what the gear did in it's prior life for sure...

Sean

I bought a 547 from a retired Radio Canada tech sometime in the early 90s. I think it was either because Don Lancaster mentioned these old scopes or I bought the 547 then I read about the 500 series.

Either way soon after I bought the Stan Griffiths book which then became like a guide to the then-nascent eBay...

I bought the book because Hardware Hacker listed Stan's contact info. Must have been one of the last times I wrote a postal money order...

I have a fair number of items with asset tags from SRI, Lawrence Livermore, Ampex, Nasa, etc.? I really hate tags all over front panels, and usually remove them, but will leave them if they are interesting.? It's also interesting to see the variation in marking- from crude etching to fabric tags, decals and aluminum plates.
-Dave

My first Tektronix which i bought recently, a 475, has Hughes Aircraft Co / Delaware Corp tag on it. The colors blend in well so I left it. I bought it from some locals off FB Marketplace that was cleaning out the barn of property their dad bought that belonged to a Dr. It was filthy but I cleaned it up and cleaned all the controls. No other issues so far. It looks and works great now. Made me ponder how it made it down to the hills of West Tennessee.

Chuck

On 3/8/21 10:53 PM, Charles Plunk wrote:

Made me ponder how it made it down to the hills of West Tennessee.

A 475 with Hughes Aircraft tag might have been something to do with Oak Ridge Labs,
since Hughes was a govt contractor with capital C.

When I was in high school a retired professor who had a long-time habit of buying electronic equipment at military surplus () heard I was interested in electronics and gave me an RM45 along with a CA and 1L5. The devices lived in various basements for years until I decided relatively recently to attempt to bring them back to life. Now I am somewhat addicted to buying 1950s/1960s era Tektronix gear off of eBay. My gear has tags from the Air Force and McDonnell Douglas but may have had many other owners.

That or Y-12, but I don't recall if Hughes was ever involved with Y-12.

Sean

Probably came from a hamfest, the yellowsheet, gift from friend, etc. Stuff I sold on eBay made it to Hawaii, Japan and Europe....

Also lots of stuff from St Louis migrated eastward. then there is Huntsville, full of Govt Contractors and all that surplus way back when.?West Tenn? No real mystery, just movement.??In a message dated 3/9/2021 9:00:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:?That or Y-12, but I don't recall if Hughes was ever involved with Y-12.

Sean

I went to work during summers of 1955, 56, 57 and 58 before going to Univ of Florida. I worked at Radiation INC in Melbourne FL.
Each summer they assigned me to different groups. The first group was test equipment repair and calibration. Tek scopes were my favorite with silver solder inside for the terminal strips. Cleaning the inside of the scopes was with a water hose outside and covers removed. Let it dry completely and it worked just fine. The last summer was with Bill Eddins who was a Master Engineer and I learned a lot from him. I was involved in building the telemetry system installed on Dr. John Stapp's sled and his experimental sled experiments at Whitesands Proving Grounds in New Mexico, I believe. Memory not as good as it used to be at age 84. Always loved Tek equipment and when I taught undergrad electronics at Univ of Fla EE Dept. one of my students caught the Tek Bug and actually went to work at Tek for many years. Still love electronics and just got my 70 year certificate from QCWA for being a ham since 1951.