CuriousMarc Repairs the French Oscilloscope of His Youth -- ACHTUNG!

It was very cool to watch CuriousMarc go back and repair the French Oscilloscope that he used as a kid. 

I was reminded of my work on a Tek 465 scope.  There is a LOT of high voltage around those CRTs.  I needed to measure the HV on my Tek 465 -- Alan Wolke W2AEW lent me a high voltage probe. Thanks again Alan.  I eventually gave up on the Tek 465 but that was because mine had plug-in transistors.  Yuck -- one bump of the elbow during troubleshooting and you could easily inject new problems into the broken machine. 

Marc's work also caused me to think about working on the HAMEG 10 MHz scope that I have in the shack.  Also there is the older Eico scope that was so bad and so limited in bandwidth that it has been banished to the basement.  But I must say, watching Mark move around high voltage made me realize why so many of us have migrated to solid-state scopes.  I have modern Rigol scopes in both my shacks. 

As with Mr. Carlson, I must say that Marc should be more careful with energized gear and capacitors that hold their charge.   Marc seems to think that those insulating gloves protect him from HV, but he still grabs that beast with both hands and makes skin to metal contact with at least one arm.  Yikes!  Don't do that!  Volts jolt but mils kill OM!  One hand behind your back!  Marc does recognize the danger, and displays this sign at least three times during the video.  (Marc is obviously NOT a dummkopf!)     

Google Gemini said this about the sign: 

The language is German (though it is a bit grammatically jumbled and misspelled).

Translated to English, it roughly means: "Is it not for work by blockheads!" or "Is this not for use by fools!"

A Quick Breakdown

The phrase looks like a slightly mangled variation of a classic piece of old internet joke-lore known as "Blinkenlights."

Back in the early days of computing, tech rooms often had mock-warning signs posted in broken, comical German (often called "Mock-German" or "Germlish") to warn non-technical people not to mess with the machines.

If you are looking at a quirky warning sign or an old tech joke, the proper full phrase usually goes something like this:

"Achtung! Alles Lookenspeepers! Das computation-machine ist nicht für gefingerpoken und mittengrabben! Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und popencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht für gewerken bei dummköpfen!"

In short: "This is serious equipment—no touching, and it's definitely not meant to be operated by fools!"