Farnell DTC12 oscilloscope.

[lightning]

l've had a customer bring in a Farnell DTV 12 oscilloscope that he wanted me to test.
Apparently it was in the cellar of a house that he bought.

l powered it up and it comes on and appears to work OK.

Can anyone tell me if this instrument is any good, and how old it is? l tried looking on line but couldn't find much, except past sales on auction sites.

He wants to sell it, how much should l offer, £50? Having got into old radios it may well be useful. lt also has a component test facility and there's a little book with it, showing waveforms to expect when testing various electronic components.

[Andrew2]

We had a DTV-12 as a 'second scope' at work and I actually preferred it to our Telequipment one. Although it was a basic, budget instrument it was 100% reliable, easy to use and had enough b/w (12 MHz) for pretty well everything at the time. It would trigger nicely on video too.

[Boulevardier]

I'd say that £50 is way OTT for a 12Mc/s scope. IMHO, £20 at most - if it's working well.

Mike

[lightning]

Thank you for the advice, l will offer him £20 but l think he may expect more!

[CambridgeWorks]

If he wants more, ask about a 3 month guarantee! If none, just return it.

[factory]

Are you sure it has the component tester? as that model is DTC 12.

Originally Posted by Boulevardier

I'd say that £50 is way OTT for a 12Mc/s scope. IMHO, £20 at most - if it's working well.

Mike

You get very little for £20 these days unless it's something unpopular, looking at completed listings; two bidders were prepared to pay around £35 for a DTC 12, and one bidder paid £43 for a DTV 12 with only 80% horizontal deflection. Okay a DT 12 with missing knobs, a dent & rust could have been bought for £20.

David

[lightning]

Sorry my mistake it's a DTC12

[factory]

Looks in reasonable condition from the picture, good luck with your offer.

Old forum thread with a link to the service manual: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=147266
Another thread mentions that the separate manual for the component tester is not on the web anywhere, a scan might be useful to others with this scope.

David

[Uncle Bulgaria]

Something's always worth what someone's willing to pay for it. When you're considering an offer, think about what you'd have to pay to get something in comparable condition, posted, and not broken on arrival - with this one you've even had the chance to play around with it at your leisure!

As long as you can come to some agreement about how long the string is, it'll be a good deal.

If you can imagine yourself thinking 'I should have paid that' when the job comes in where that model would have been ideal, the day after you didn't buy it, it was probably a good price. Value remains when cost is forgotten!

That said, eBay 'sold items' is a good gauge of what other people are prepared to pay at a given moment, so I'd suggest he'd be lucky if he wanted more than £50, considering what great strides test equipment has made in the last few decades. Whether that progress is useful to the average hobbyist or repairer is another discussion.

[lightning]

l'll offer him £40 and see what he says. At that price it doesn't matter if it's not regularly used, it would be nice to have it just in case.

[lightning]

Well, the guy decided that £40 wasn't enough and advertised it on an internet auction site, where it sold for £43 !
lf l had known it was only a matter of another £10 l would have paid him £50, but he never got back to me to tell me, only after it had sold, to come and collect it back.

l imagine that not knowing anything about scopes he looked online and saw similar looking units selling for £100 or more.
l guess they all look the same to the layman.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by lightning

Well, the guy decided that £40 wasn't enough and advertised it on an internet auction site, where it sold for £43 !
lf l had known it was only a matter of another £10 l would have paid him £50, but he never got back to me to tell me, only after it had sold, to come and collect it back.

l imagine that not knowing anything about scopes he looked online and saw similar looking units selling for £100 or more.
l guess they all look the same to the layman.

I wouldn't worry about losing this scope! I certainly wouldn't have paid anything like that much for it. About 15 years ago, I bought for £20 on e-bay a Farnell DTC 20 (double beam, 20 Mc/s and fully working, so much more advanced) , and I reckoned that was a fair price. I'd say the seller was very lucky to get £43 for it.

Mike

[jamesinnewcastl]

There is a variable gap between 'worth' and 'want'. You are lucky if what you want costs less than it might be worth. If it goes the other way you simply have to decide how much you want something and be prepared to bridge the financial gap - and be happy about it afterwards.

I may have a load of junk in my lab - but it's junk that I want!

Cheers
James

[lightning]

My workshop is full of "junk" that l've bought over the years, often because l used to have one.
That's what started me collecting pocket radios.

And sometimes because as a kid l wanted one but never got one, hence my small collection of radio controlled cars.

[Radio Wrangler]

Just keep your eyes open, go to some radio rallies when they reappear and bargains can be found. I paid about £20 for a working HP1740 once. They never turn up if you're in a hurry.

David