I am working from home today while some burst water pipes are being repaired. So the plumber and I start talking... he is interested in audio and has a Cambridge amplifier with B&W speakers. He then turned the discussion to valve amplifiers so I offered to show him my Mullard 5-20 valve amps, currently residing in an outside workshop.
It was then that his eyes fell on a large hunk of metal, stored sideways on a shelf. "Is that an Oscilloscope?" he queried. Buggered if I knew, first time I even recall having this monstrosity. With huffing and puffing, we removed it from the top shelf where it had been stored, looked at it, it was indeed an oscilloscope of very long ago. I have no recollection where I even got this from, I think it was included in a job-lot of electronic goodies that I bought from a retired Radio Amateur about 20 years ago.
Anyway, we heaved it over to the workbench, shifted the Mullards out of the way, and placed the very vintage Solartron CD1400 Oscilloscope on its base plate (no room for any other way of placing), plugged it into the 220v AC mains (surprisingly, Eskom allowed this) and switched on. Nothing - no pops or crackles either. I figured it was probably 30 years plus since this thing was last used so I was not expecting anything except perhaps smoke.
But hey! - after a few seconds, a blurred green line showed up on the tube, fiddling with the controls displayed yet another, and adjusting the focus produced two beautifully bright green traces - dual-beam nogal! Full-screen width, not only half as shown in the poor photography depicted hereunder. And of course the scope is valve-powered, hence the 15-second delay before we saw anything.
Googling this model shows it was manufactured sometime in the 60s, so it is 60 years old and seems to perform as good now as it did then. I am impressed
Apologies for the crappy pic - the scope was standing upright on a workbench and I was holding the cell-phone at higher than eye-level, I had to just 'mik 'n druk' and hope the pic came out OK.
-F_D
It was then that his eyes fell on a large hunk of metal, stored sideways on a shelf. "Is that an Oscilloscope?" he queried. Buggered if I knew, first time I even recall having this monstrosity. With huffing and puffing, we removed it from the top shelf where it had been stored, looked at it, it was indeed an oscilloscope of very long ago. I have no recollection where I even got this from, I think it was included in a job-lot of electronic goodies that I bought from a retired Radio Amateur about 20 years ago.
Anyway, we heaved it over to the workbench, shifted the Mullards out of the way, and placed the very vintage Solartron CD1400 Oscilloscope on its base plate (no room for any other way of placing), plugged it into the 220v AC mains (surprisingly, Eskom allowed this) and switched on. Nothing - no pops or crackles either. I figured it was probably 30 years plus since this thing was last used so I was not expecting anything except perhaps smoke.
But hey! - after a few seconds, a blurred green line showed up on the tube, fiddling with the controls displayed yet another, and adjusting the focus produced two beautifully bright green traces - dual-beam nogal! Full-screen width, not only half as shown in the poor photography depicted hereunder. And of course the scope is valve-powered, hence the 15-second delay before we saw anything.
Googling this model shows it was manufactured sometime in the 60s, so it is 60 years old and seems to perform as good now as it did then. I am impressed
Apologies for the crappy pic - the scope was standing upright on a workbench and I was holding the cell-phone at higher than eye-level, I had to just 'mik 'n druk' and hope the pic came out OK.
-F_D
