oscilloscope help

[freak scene]

i have an ancient oscilloscope (an eico 460 i think its tube powered regardless) and i just nabbed a couple of signal generator programs earlier this week.  now, the oscilloscope doesnt take modern oscilloscope probes, it uses ones similar to the ones on a DMM i think (they work anyway).  is there a beginners guide to oscilloscope usage somewhere bearing in mind the age of my scope that would help me?  like what kind of probes do i need?  how do i calibrate it?  how do i know if it needs calibration?

[Sir H C]

For most guitar needs, you don't need calibration.  You want to see that you are getting a sine wave or not, noise on the line or not, mostly qualitative not quantitative.  Does it have 2 banana plug ins or is it a large screw-in jack like some old microphones?  If the latter, you can be sloppy with a shielded cable and use an alligator clip to the outer braid and solder the core to a probe point.  This is dirt cheap, not very accurate but heck you can see something wtihout much investment.

From there, you can get probes that work with that scope, e-bay and hamfests would be the way.

[freak scene]

it actually has 6 or so banana plug ins (v-in + and -, h in + and -, and a couple of others i dont remember off the top of my head)  i will try to post pics tonight or tomorrow. 

[12afael]

I don`t know if the conector is a good indicator of the age.
I have a 75khz RCA with BNC and a 500khz heathkit with bannana (both all tube)

[Night0wl]

I don't mean to hijack the thread in any way but....

I would appreciate the same info as asked by freak scene. I have just been given a Telequipment D33 (i think) loaded with Mullard valves. The scope is identical to this pic I found....

I haven't used an oscilloscope before and would appreciate any help/info on using these old types.

Thanks,
Shane

[Rob Strand]

>is there a beginners guide to oscilloscope usage somewhere bearing in mind the age of my scope that would help me?  like what kind of probes do i need?

Buy a BNC adaptor then use modern probes.  For hobby stuff you don't need good probes, just get ones that aren't too fragile.

Probably use a PL-239(I think) to BNC, see WJ908 (available from many places)

http://www.electrovision.co.uk/cat/CAT_PAGE/wj_section/adaptors_bnc_plso259_ntype.htm

[freak scene]

i didnt get a picture of it, but i found one.  this is exactly what i have.

[12afael]

look very old but good for guitar stuff.
the problem with bannana is that if you put a electromagnetic field near the bannana conectors the noise will rise up.

what is the maximum frecuence?