Tek's list of BNC plumbing tackle for lining up oscilloscopes?

[Chris55000]

Can anyone tell me if you can get a kit of all the BNC plumbing tackle that Tektronix say you have to use to properly performance check their oscilloscopes?

I'm sure there was a Tektronix Part Number for all this lot in a small carrying case, but I can't remember where I saw it !

I have the Tek Calibration Gear so that's half the battle won, but I didn't get any leads or connectors, etc., & the manuals ask for:–

a) TWO 50 Ω terminators ;
b) One female to dual male BNC thingy ;
c) One BNC T–piece ;
d) TWO 20 cm BNC–BNC cables ;
e) TWO 50 cm ditto ;
f) TWO 20dB BNC Attenuators ;
g) One 14dB BNC Attenuator ;
h) One 6dB BNC Attenuator ;
i) One Tektronix TC–3 Trigger Coupling Adapter !

All this plumbing comes well into three figures on eBay, so if any Member can assist with some of this lot secondhand , please PM me!

Chris Williams

(Admittedly, I'd only have to get all this plumbing once of course, and with five 465/465Bs in my collection it's worth doing it correctly, especially as I have the specified equipment that I won during my spring break at my Sister's!)

[Oldtestgear]

The 50R terminations are available from Rapid Electronics or their shop on eBay for £2.59 ea with free postage. The Tee pieces are also cheap on eBay.

Cables are more of an issue but can be found fairly cheaply if you accept generic cables rather than an offering labelled Tektronix. Unless you are planning to check their more exotic scopes you can almost certainly manage without the rest of the kit specified by Tektronix.

What calibration fixtures have you bought? Always interesting to know what other enthusiasts have bought.

This is my opinion based on my experience with checking oscilloscopes & others may well have a different opinion. I use a Bradley 192 for most scopes plus a Tek TM500 setup when I need to actually adjust a scope.

Hope this helps

Phil

[Craig Sawyers]

Do you mean CT-3 and not TC-3?

Craig

[Chris55000]

I was lucky enough to win the TM503/TG501/SG503/PG506 setup during my spring holiday and recently purchased a CT–3 kit, so that's six of the items crossed off Tek's list, I think I've one tee-piece and a couple of odd lengths of BNC cable, but none of the other BNC tackle, what does seem to be expensive are the attenuators – Tek call for 1 × 6dB, 1 × 14dB and 2 × 20dB – on eBay these came to over £100!

Chris Williams

[Craig Sawyers]

In the 1973 Tek catalogue, they were $16.50 - or around £150 each in today's money. They were specified to 500MHz.

Searching eBay comes up with this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271590984...UAAOSwVFlUAFTB at £12 each specified to 1GHz. So that would be £48 for the four attenuators you are asking for.

You simply do not need the Tektronix part - you just need BNC attenuators that go down to DC.

Craig

[G0HZU_JMR]

A lot depends on the accuracy you are expecting. A typical commercial 20dB attenuator might only be accurate to +/- 0.3dB even at low test frequencies. Often the accuracy of attenuators like this can be very disappointing.

Some of the attenuators from Minicircuits can be quite accurate although you have to check the datasheet and typical specs.

One option is to make the 500MHz attenuators yourself. This is what I do if I want a precision attenuator that is very accurate with very low VSWR.

[Chris55000]

Most Oscilloscope Vertical Amplifiers are only performance checked to ±3% at full screen deflection, so the accuracy of fixed attenuators is generally considered to be adequate enough for this purpose – none of the vast pile of Oscilloscope Service Manuals I have specify an accuracy for these, but a Tektronix data sheet I found gives an accuracy on ±0.4 dB for d.c. to 1 GHz and ±0.6 dB above 1 GHz, the Tektronix 485 and the Farnell PSG520 are currently the highest frequency equipments I have, but I do have a future plan to convert the AC13 board in my Marconi 2018 to a 1 GHz 2019 type using the parts from a burnt AC13 board I won cheap (both the Marconi's working AC13 and the damaged one have the same copper reference nos., so should be doable!).

Me thinks the ones linked to by Colin ought to do but I'll peruse the data sheets first to make sure!

Chris Williams