Re: Blown 150 Mhz Oscilloscope (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:47:29 -0700
From: Barton B. Anderson <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Blown 150 Mhz Oscilloscope (fwd)

Hi Dave,

My condolences to you and your scope. Overvolted I suspect. As far as a 
new scope, well, that all depends on your ambitions. The basic low MHz 
scopes will do just fine for coiling measurements. Unless your planning 
on using the scope for higher frequency and higher resolution, I 
wouldn't bother with something extreme unless money is no object.

You can probably pick up something off eBay reasonable for the "coiling 
purpose". Obviously we would all like to have the top of line scope, but 
do we really need it? Not for this hobby. Our coils run in the 400kHz or 
less range and unless you want to measure higher mode harmonics, (say 
f3, f4, etc...), then you may want a scope capable of 2Ghz, but anymore 
than that is nice to have, but will probably not be used. I think other 
uses you have for the scope will dictate what you get.

BTW, how close was your 1" antenna from the spark gap?

Take care,
Bart



Tesla list wrote:

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:17:50 EDT
>From: Davetracer@xxxxxxx
>To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Blown 150 Mhz Oscilloscope
>
>I was dumb enough to use my oscilloscope to watch the output of a spark-gap  
>Tesla Coil. I used a 1 inch piece of wire as an antenna and thought I was 
>safe,  but, my 'scope is dead. It looks like channel A is completely fried, 
>channel B  is completely out of whack, and the horizontal timing circuits are messed 
>up as  well.
> 
>I feel smart, not.
> 
>I'm looking for advice. If you were picking up a new oscilloscope these  
>days, what would you get? I hear you say, "What do you need?". I had a nice 150  
>Mhz Kenwood 'scope. I've seen the USB scopes that plug into PC's but have never 
> used them. I'd love to get digital storage if I could keep it under a 
>thousand  dollars.
> 
>Anything I should look for? Anyone have a scope in this range they're  
>looking to get rid of? Advice?
> 
>Let me gently suggest that using a 'scope to look at a Tesla Coil is best  
>done more carefully than I did.
> 
>Thanks,
> 
>   Dave Small
> 
>
>
>
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