UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

David G4EBT · 21st Mar 2011, 9:46 pm

The PW Purbeck was my second major project, (the first being the G4DMP 200MHz freqeuncy counter in 1976 Radcom, which I use to this day). The Purbeck wasn't cheap to build at the time, (1978) even though I made the case and all the PCBs myself. Watford Electronics sold all the bits separately, or as a kit. I waited a few months before I built it, for the inevitable corrections to appear, as invariably happened with complex projects, and sometimes with simple ones.

The Purbeck gave a good account of itself as a hobbyist scope, using a 3BP1 3" blue persistence tube. I started to build the dual trace unit by the same author (Ian Hickman) but then a Gould 300 dual beam scope thrown into a skip by the Communications Dept where I then worked simply because it was 'time expired' came my way, so the dual trace unit never got built. The Gould soldiers on, and I still have the Purbeck as a back-up if I need it.

I could buy just about anything I wanted within reason in the test gear line, but as a hobbyist, I don't lust after equipment of any kind which goes beyond the purposes to which I'll put it. I enjoy building test gear, and I try to observe the motto of the G-QRP Club (based on Occam's Razor) ' 'Tis vain to do with more, what can be done with less'.

Most of my test gear is home-built - GDO, waveform generators, ESR Meters, zener diode tester, wobbulator, two frequency counters, RF probes, signal injectors/tracers, etc. Still got the very first bit of test gear I built in 1957 using two red spot transistors - a signal injector built into a Woolworth's plastic icing syringe, and it still works too and looks good on the scope!

David.

21st Mar 2011, 9:46 pm	#14
David G4EBT Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 5,761	Re: Oscilloscope Collection / Junky The PW Purbeck was my second major project, (the first being the G4DMP 200MHz freqeuncy counter in 1976 Radcom, which I use to this day). The Purbeck wasn't cheap to build at the time, (1978) even though I made the case and all the PCBs myself. Watford Electronics sold all the bits separately, or as a kit. I waited a few months before I built it, for the inevitable corrections to appear, as invariably happened with complex projects, and sometimes with simple ones. The Purbeck gave a good account of itself as a hobbyist scope, using a 3BP1 3" blue persistence tube. I started to build the dual trace unit by the same author (Ian Hickman) but then a Gould 300 dual beam scope thrown into a skip by the Communications Dept where I then worked simply because it was 'time expired' came my way, so the dual trace unit never got built. The Gould soldiers on, and I still have the Purbeck as a back-up if I need it. I could buy just about anything I wanted within reason in the test gear line, but as a hobbyist, I don't lust after equipment of any kind which goes beyond the purposes to which I'll put it. I enjoy building test gear, and I try to observe the motto of the G-QRP Club (based on Occam's Razor) ' 'Tis vain to do with more, what can be done with less'. Most of my test gear is home-built - GDO, waveform generators, ESR Meters, zener diode tester, wobbulator, two frequency counters, RF probes, signal injectors/tracers, etc. Still got the very first bit of test gear I built in 1957 using two red spot transistors - a signal injector built into a Woolworth's plastic icing syringe, and it still works too and looks good on the scope! David.