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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Inside a Tek 465


The TEK 465 'scope is as they'd say back in the Bronx "a piece of work."  It has real character.  Perhaps a bit too much.  If you look closely, you'll see transistors in sockets.   I had kind of gotten my head around that, when I noticed that many of the transistors were not in sockets.  They looked like they had been soldered to into the holes in the PC boards.  But NOOOOO!  They are snugly in the holes, but they are NOT soldered in!  You can pull them out, then (if you are lucky!) slide them back in.  There is even quite a bit of "ugly construction." with connections floating in the air.  You can really see the influence of tube era thinking in this instrument.

I think I have narrowed the problem down to the HV supply.  Alan Wolke is lending me a high voltage probe.  I hope to be able to get it fixed this weekend.  I need to get it working because my BITX 17 is nearing completion and I'll need the 'scope for the lineup and de-bugging.

The picture above is from:  http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/tektronix-465-repair-and-restoration/   More pictures of the scope are available there.  Also see http://www.spurtikus.de/basteln/repair/tek465/index.html for more scenic views of this instrument.


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2 comments:

  1. Gorgeous hardware isn't it. We used to practically worship Tek hardware. I had a 545 scope that was before printed circuits. Long ceramic terminal strips holding axial components side-by-side, all in silver solder. Like a work of art.

    You do have the service manuals of course? Link to KO4BB's site here. A nice bunch of well-written circuit "porn". Good luck!

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  2. I've talked to experts in TEK 'scope repair and the problem is likely caused by bad cap's. in the PS section.

    Time to build an ESR meter ;-).

    Someone already recommended the Tek YahooGroup site. An excellent resource.

    73.......Steve Smith WB6TNL
    "Snort Rosin"

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