[Amps] Oscilloscope Purchase

[Bill Turner]

What a great story!  Many thanks Colin.

73, Bill W6WRT




>________________________________
> From: k7fm <k7fm at teleport.com>
>To: Bill Turner <dezrat1242 at yahoo.com>; amps at contesting.com 
>Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 6:54 PM
>Subject: Re: [Amps] Oscilloscope Purchase
> 
>Speaking of Tek scopes, I am reminded of a departed ham friend of mine who worked for Tektronix.  In the late 1950s, the state of the art Tek scope went up to 30-50 MHz.  The Atomic Energy Commission went to Tektronix and wanted to examine nuclear particles and needed a scope that would go to 1 gHz.  This was a 20 fold increase in badnwidth.  Most of the Tek engineers said it was not possible.  But Cliff Moulton, W7MFW, thought he could do it. Cliff was a bit different.  He was a true genius and exhibited some characteristics of a mind that works at a different level (perhaps a characteristic of all hams).  The Tektronix campus was large and Cliff rode his unicycle between buildings.  Like Rudolph, some of the other engineers did not treat him as an equal and were upset when he got permission from Jack Murdock to take his unicycle into the buildings.
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>So, Cliff began working on the 519.  Some time later, no results and someone complained that Cliff was building a ham amplifier on company time and with company funds.  Parts ordered by Cliff were 4CX250F tubes and hardline coax cable - certainly not for a Tektronix scope.  Soon, the 519 appeared, which had a bandwidth of 1 gHz, all before 1960.  Of course the 4CX250F was used for the sweep generator and the hardline was the delay line.
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>Cliff retired early and Tek tried to discontinue the 519 many times, but demand kept it returning from its grave.  The last catalog appearance was 1973.
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>Cliff used a Collins 75S-1 and 32S-1 along with a Johnson amplifier.
>
>73,  Colin  K7FM 
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