Readers speak out about their favorite instruments

Ask any musician about his or her favorite instrument, and you’ll get a mix of old and new, but mostly old.

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 1/23/2012 1:17:39 PM

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Ask any musician about his or her favorite instrument, and you’ll get a mix of old and new, but mostly old. The same goes for engineers. Several engineers voiced their opinions about their favorite test instruments on my “Rowe’s and Columns” blog (Ref. 1).

The question “What’s your favorite test instrument?” drew responses for oscilloscopes, multimeters, signal/spectrum analyzers, a logic analyzer, and a few other instruments. As you might expect, engineers mostly mentioned old, obsolete equipment as favorites, with some claiming that nothing built today is as good. Several engineers, including former EDN editor Paul Rako, picked an analog oscilloscope as the favorite. “For a single choice, I would have to say my Tek 3465B 400MHz analog scope” Rako wrote. Several engineers commented that they like HP analog oscilloscopes such as the Models 180 and 1740.

Many engineers still like analog oscilloscopes, such as the HP Model 185, built in the 1960s. Courtesy of Agilent Technologies.

Reader BobL also prefers analog oscilloscopes. He’s managed to keep two Tektronix 7904 analog oscilloscopes running in his lab. “Transients are sometimes impossible to see with a digital scope, but analog display is great.” An engineer using the name Opcom also has two Tektronix 7904s. “Lets face it,” Opcom wrote, “digital ones update sloppily and nothing is as good looking as an electrostatic deflection CRT. Digital scopes are useful for many things but the trace on a CRT can be interpreted in more ways than the digitized LCD image.”

Based on the comments, I conclude that there is a whole group of engineers who still prefer analog oscilloscopes no matter how much digital oscilloscopes have advanced. Dave McGuire even had a message for the oscilloscope makers when he wrote that his favorites are “My Tek 2465A and 7904A oscilloscopes. Yes I have some fancy digitizing scopes (the Tek 222 is very handy on the road!) but nothing beats an analog scope for fast transients...analog and digital scopes are completely different instruments. Are you listening, Tektronix and Agilent?”

Newer digital oscilloscopes such as the Tektronix TDS2024C also have fans. Courtesy of Tektronix.

Of course, not everyone engineer’s favorite instrument is an old analog oscilloscope. Some engineers actually like modern digital oscilloscopes. David Danielson commented that he likes his LeCroy Waverunner 44Xi, which is still available as the 44Xi-A. Another reader favored the Tektronix TDS2042C.

Handheld instruments also made a showing. Several people pointed to handheld multimeters as their favorite instrument. William Ketel commented that his favorite instrument was a Radio Shack 30,000 ohms per volt multimeter. “Not only was it able to do all kinds of continuity, and ‘sort of continuity’ checks with its low ohms scale, but the very low voltage 0.6 volts full scale range was good for evaluating small voltage drops in connections and connectors.” Ketel also likes his Fluke 77 handheld multimeter. The Model 77 series IV is still available.

Ketel is not the only engineer who likes a Fluke handheld multimeter. One engineer said he likes his Fluke 87, which is still available as the Fluke 87 V.

A few bench digital multimeters made the list, too: the Keithley 197, Fluke 8060A, and HP 34401A. The 34401A is still available with the Agilent Technologies name.

While most respondents commented on general-purpose test equipment, some mentioned specialized products. An engineer named Buzz said, “When analyzing QAM I like the Sunrise Telecom AT2500rqv, and for 8VSB I use a Rohde & Schwarz FSH3 with a DVM-400 Digital Video Measurement System. A Triveni MT-40 supplements the DVM-400.”
What’s you favorite instrument? What instrument have you bought that you wish you hadn’t? Leave a comment on my blog post at tinyurl.com/6vhaovd. T&MW

REFERENCE
1. Rowe, Martin, “What’s your favorite test instrument?” Rowe’s and Columns blog, Test & Measurement World, December 6, 2011. tinyurl.com/6vhaovd.

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