BEB #62: Tektronix 519 Vintage 1GHz Oscilloscope (Part 1)

[@MaxKoschuh]

Buy this scope: www.koschuh.com/Tektronix_519/index.htm (with your purchase you are supporting my channel)

[@johnbiggio1117]

Spent 20 years on the bench at Tek in the 80’s and 90’s. I saw exactly one of these 519 ‘s come in for repair in all those years. It was so unusual that I have recollections of exactly what was wrong with the unit. The high voltage circuit for the EHT CRT drive was inoperative. When you showed the high voltage section buried inside a shielded area inside the delay line loops I recalled that this plastic enclosure housing the HV oscillator and rectifier tubes was full of an electrically Inert oil. If this oil is missing, don’t power the unit up! The unit I was working on had had the oscillator tube crack and the sudden loss vacuum caused tube to suck up the oil into the tube killing the EHT. You always remember the strange problems/fixes!

[@marksowers5041]

Dear Max, I once owned a 519 but could not use it for any practical purposes. It was shown to me that they were used for underground nuclear testing-I don't know. I bought mine at the auction yard at Lawrence Livermore yard in the mid 1980s. Many of the guys lining up at the gate were employees of LLNL and had foreknowledge of the type of gear that was sold to the public. These guys would line up at the gate and scope out the gear in the yard and would run to the most desirable stufff and lay a claim on it. It was funny to witness. I made friends with some of the regulars and was once invited to his house; he had about twenty 519 scopes scattered about his yard in various condition. Such a sight to see. Yes, these devices were the pinnacle of tech in its day. Thanks for your great work! Mit freundlichen Grüsse, Mark

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you so much for your comment! Youa re welcome! (sorry for my late reply)

[@GroverCricketDaisy]

Thanks for sharing this with me I appreciate watching your explanation and find vintage electronics very interesting.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you so much !!

[@gordon9042]

I am pleased to find this on You Tube. I understand your attraction to the instrument as I too have that feling. I worked at TEK, in final assembly, when the first of these was produced. Shortly after that I was given the task of coordinating the modifications process for many of the products. Trying to track all of the mods and be sure that the additional manual pages occured at the correct serial number kept me quite busy.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Iam extremely happy to hear from you. That's very interesting. Didn't expect someone from Tek to see my video. The thing with the manuals and their correct serial numbers always made me wonder.

[@adamwolfram6126]

Wonderful video! I owned and used a Kenwood oscilloscope for years. It is a scope. I bought my first Tektronix 5 scope weeks ago. I now own 4 Tektronix scopes...they are beautiful instruments!

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you for your wonderful comment

[@wolfmath8615]

"no one touched this since ages - amazing"... I love this channel, because this is a guy knows exactly what makes an old object so interesting! Its a mix of fascination of things telling stories and which great tools where made back in these days. The words amazing, how beautiful, are are so often used, because it is beautiful piece of technique we can see here - it IS really beautiful!

[@robertw1871]

The amazing thing is after all the advances in electronics a 1Ghz oscilloscope is still pretty rare and expensive, I didn’t even know they achieved these speeds in scopes of this vintage. It must have taken huge effort to design, and even more to actually calibrate in those days.

[@MaxKoschuh]

yes, that's the point, and it's really amazing

[@paulocarvalho7877]

That kind of camera was also used to capture analog satellite imagery in the 60's/70's. The signals were much like B/W TV signals but much slower and with much higher resolution. The role of the oscilloscope was to display the scanlines one by one (signal's Y was connected to scope's Z/intensity) while the camera's shutter was held open for several minutes until the entire frame was photographed. As for your scope, it seems designed for higher frequencies than 1GHz and the power rivaling some S or C band radar equipment to drive that little screen. Anyway, things in the past were oversized since they didn't have the tools we have today for more efficient designs.

[@JH-yu6yf]

Wow. Rare 519 in great shape.

[@scottyb069]

Those old Tek's are a real work of art. Still working on my 564 which has a new screen bezel thanks to you Max. 6.25 uF 500v caps are hard to find though. Keep up the good work buddy.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hi Scotty. Thank you !!

[@diabolicalartificer]

Do they need to be 6.25u? Wouldn't a 10u do? F&T make a good range of HV caps and you may find Vishay might do something. Good luck with the 564.

[@dougferrell7047]

Awesome piece of engineering. Thanks for sharing!

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you so much! You are welcome! Cheers, Max

[@bloguetronica]

It is amazing to see a vintage 1GHz oscilloscope. Kudos to the engineers that designed it, especially because the tools they had were not as good as the ones engineers use today. It sure required ingenuity!

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you for commenting. it is amazing how they were able to pack so much electronics in that enclosure. the 519 was a milestone in so many ways. 50 years later, it is still a breathtaking machine, outperforming many scopes built today. Even though, it is not very useful in practice, with it's tiny CRT, and passive input.

[@bloguetronica]

I would assume that it has a special, very low capacitance CRT, to allow such frequencies. I would like to see that scope tested with several high frequency signals, to see it if is still within its specs.

[@Instrumentals-music]

Yes, I would like a part 2 video! Keep up the good work. You do not deserve thumbs down on any video.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you !!

[@LiquidAudio]

Fantastic stuff, I will never tire of looking inside wonderful test and measurement gear!

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you for your comment. I am happy you like this video. Please check my earlier episodes for even more exciting stuff. And there are hundreds of other videos to come. High End Audio equipment too.

[@MrWhite2222]

That is a beautiful machine. Looks just as good on the inside as the outside. Amazing.

[@38911bytefree]

RF BLACK MAGIC all over !!!. Nice TEK

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you very much !! :-)

[@materialsguy2002]

Yes, yes, Part 2 please. And the question we are all asking: Does it still function?

[@JWimpy]

That is amazing. I have never seen anything like that.

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you :-) yes, this is very unusual stuff. I love it.

[@chris1newbury]

please do a part 2 , this is amazing

[@DextersTechLab]

Cracking video Max, they don't build them like that anymore! Congrats on the 1k subs too!

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you !! Merry christmas.

[@gordon9042]

Another interesting fact about the 519 was that in order to capture a single pulse at 1 Ghz one had to use the camera with 10,000 ASA speed. you could not see a single pulse by eye. The process was to operate the scope in Single Sweep mode, open the shutter, trigger the pulse and then close the shutter.

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you, that's very interesting.

[@greenpedal370]

The thumbs down are people who worked in cheapskate workshops or labs whose bosses would not buy Tektronics

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you, and you are right I guess ;-)

[@ashkat64]

Dislikes are almost never because a video is bad really, If someone dislikes a video it's just because they can

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you!

[@alancordwell9759]

Very nice indeed Max! Merry Christmas!

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hi Alan. Merry Christmas!

[@qkitselectronics5415]

wow 4:42 looks like 5/8 copper pipe, awesome build for sure. 9:53 awesome clip from the past, someone tested and inspected everyone of those. So clean inside. 11:52 wow all that for those 2, royalty in the transistor world. 13:15 wow awesome detective work. Just amazing tech. I hope someday you have a lab in space and collect old satellites take them apart and show us whats inside! 14:27 there's another side?! more wow

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hi James. Thank you so much for your great comment. You are welcome. The 519 is so amazing, it was a pleasure to make a video about it. And then... comments like yours, make me smile. Thank you!

[@rrb6544]

the delay line kills me... that is a garden pipe man xD

[@lambertax]

Yes a tear down and repair, pleaaaase !!!

[@rot_studios]

It is mindblowing! *makes explosion noise* Ahh Max, this is why we love you :D

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you !!!

[@Tadesan]

Thank you so much for sharing! I read an article about cleaning Tek scopes with soap and water. Apparently if you rinse with DI water and let it dry completely it's safe to do. Hurrrrrrrr, could make a fun project?

[@MegaQwerty2000]

"....pull the tube out" that's real old school gear porn ;-)

[@MaxKoschuh]

I am servicing this unit right now.

[@paulpillau5858]

Subscribed in eager anticipation of seeing this thing in action!

[@MaxKoschuh]

yes, part 2 is already in production. Will take some time though.

[@VodMesa]

i want to work with you some day i love seeing how stuff works

[@MaxKoschuh]

thanks :-)

[@MLX1401]

Oh gosh it's so fast and so beautiful

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you! You are welcome!

[@Dr3x0w]

Das Oszi darfst ja nur am Sonntag einschalten. :)

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hallo Andreas :-) warum das?

[@Dr3x0w]

@@MaxKoschuh man fährt ja auch nicht täglich mit einem oldtimer einkaufen oder? ☺

[@stefwdy]

For sure, I used to use some of these Tektronix scopes when I was in University in 1974,. but where are they now?

[@MaxKoschuh]

some of the old scoped were disposed

[@mr.amp0076]

Awesome.... Max.... Really... Costly man... Back in the days... 4ana half thousand dollar.... God... Awesome

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hello Ranjan :-)

[@Tangobaldy]

Bags of positivity sent to you from tangobaldy.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you Tangobaldy :-)

[@toni6618]

Please make a service video, it would be so nice. I never seen one of this before...

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hi Tonis. OK, I will do.

[@andrespecht8225]

"Althaaaa!" Selten so gelacht

[@Koschuh8401]

what does it mean?

[@MaxKoschuh]

Danke Andre :-)

[@frankkoslowski6917]

Hmm. Purchasing a house, and finding electronic stuff the value of a house inside the house. Not bad for someone buying just a house.

[@publicmail2]

Amazing to see the 519C goes to 3GHz with a different CRT but it was not made, from Wikipedia?? The best kinda find is other persons junk is your treasure. The previous owner I bet was a Tektronix field sales engineer.

[@MaxKoschuh]

The previous owner was a Siemens engineer with diploma.

[@byterock]

I bet this thing with run without any mucking with it. Most likely still in calibration as well. The one I remember seeing at BNR was being taken out of commission after 25+ years in 2002. On its yearly calibration card it had 'No Adjustments made' for each year except 1982 when 1 tube was replaced in the power supply.

[@kennynvake4hve584]

Alot of effort is right...........I see this is a hybrid scope,,,with transistors and tubes..Did I see 20K on the ANODE!!!!!!!!!!! wow. that would knock you off your feet for sure.............

[@Koschuh8401]

Max, your fan-base is growing fast. Congratulations. I have to mention that there are now several thumbs DOWN on every single Video you did. Seems like the hater-base is growing fast too. That's a shame. Here are THUMBS UP from me. Who are the haters btw? KZbinrs whom channels are not growing so fast? Large youTubers who don't want others to grow? People from other cultures who are mad about things in western countries? I don't get it.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thanks Rigobert. I'm glad you like my channel. Yes, it started today. Lots of hate on all of my videos. And 3 thumbs down on this one, only within the last 30 minutes. That's strange. It was zero before. But I don't care. No worries. Feedback from subscribers is so overwhelming and warm - it could possibly compensate a much larger storm of hate.

[@hullinstruments]

Fuck em. This content is great!

[@thomasm1935]

was macht der Gartenschlauch im Oszi? 🤔 Na klar Wasserkühlung! 😜

[@SusanAmberBruce]

What is this scope used to test?

[@adamnieznane749]

What camera do you use?

[@MaxKoschuh]

an old Windows phone, type 830, if I remember correctly

[@jimthvac100]

Laughing at the porn music but seems to go with this "electronics porn" LOL

[@diabolicalartificer]

Nice scope in VGC, indeed a work of art. BTW, do you ever power your gear up and use it or are you just a collector?

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you for your comment. I want to power up (and use) as many items as possible. But before I do that, I want to be sure that everything is fine inside, including the capacitors in the PSU. I can't wait to use the 519. I want to keep it as a display in ready condition, but I will not use it everyday on my bench. It's simply just too large and bulky. Maybe I have the chance to open up a museum someday, with items like this.

[@enriquegonzalez2802]

Nice guy

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you :-)

[@kabaczan8215]

I would love to see it in action O.O

[@jheissjr]

Power it up!

[@MaxKoschuh]

with already 30 thumbs up, there will be a part 2

[@PicaDelphon]

Power the Puppy Up..

[@MaxKoschuh]

ahh, yes, I will I'm working on some other topics now, but the 519 power-on video is planned

[@douro20]

I have a Tektronix avalanche pulse generator fast enough to test one of these. I wonder why they used such a big tube to generate the sweep.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Sounds interesting. Is this a DIY project?

[@douro20]

No. It's a Tektronix type 111 pretrigger pulse generator.

[@Koschuh8401]

I believe the 519 has a test pulse Generator built-in, or am I wrong?

[@douro20]

Rigobert Yes.

[@johnbiggio1117]

If you’re talking about a Tek tunnel diode pulse generator, yes this would be plenty fast to test at 1 GHz but would not have anywhere near the amplitude to be visible on the CRT. There is no vertical amplifier in this scope, vertical input directly drives the distributed CRT vertical plates. You need a lot more than a 0.6 V Transition to view the rise time on the CRT.

[@msylvain59]

It looks like you already had your Christmas present , that is a wonderfull find, this scope is probably extremely rare too, not like the regular series of Tek scopes which are still somewhat easy to find .

[@MaxKoschuh]

yes, and the best thing is: I've got everything from that house, everything you see in this video, and a whole lot more

[@juanpascual5862]

Great video. Could you activate the automatic subtitles in other languages? They are only in English. It would be very useful for people who speak other languages. Thank you so much.

[@byterock]

Just watch out when you run it as the CRT is well know to generate what today would be considered dangerous level of X-Rays or if you prefer 'Röntgen rays'

[@vega1287]

how is that song from 0:00 - 0:55 called

[@martinhodge921]

The p*rn music during the close-ups is making me giggle! 👍

[@MaxKoschuh]

Thank you :-D

[@haraldlindohf4032]

reported for pornography!

[@swrzesinski]

Do not remove the tube and risk breaking it. Its not worth it. We have photos on Internet ;)

[@derwissenskiosk8041]

Der Wahnsinn wirklich, unglaublich das zu der Zeit es schon möglich war ein 1Ghz Signal mit einem so kleinen Oszilloskop darzustellen noch mehr unglaublich ist der Fakt das es zu der Zeit nur etwas über 4000$ kostete auch wenn das darmals ein vermögen war .... :d Aber ist der Bildschirm vom Oszilloskop wirklich nur so groß wie ne Briefmarke oder ist das davor ne Blende...? Was hast du dafür bezahlt... Kann man vielleicht Sachen von dem Herrn bestellen der dich angerufen hat ? :D Super Teil Hoff endlich läuft es Bald

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hallo, ja richtig. Ich lese gerade das Buch "Winning with People, the first 40 years of Tektronix". Es war der Wunsch von Howard VOllum und Jack Murdock die besten Geräte zu einem sehr geringen Preis anzubieten. Deshalb nur 4000 USD. Der ausgeblendete Bereich vom Bildschirm ist werkseitig nicht kalibriert und daher absichtlich nicht sichtbar. Ich habe im Burgenland ALLES mitgenommen was möglich war. Waren 7 Fahrzeugladungen mit Bus und Caddy. Was hättest Du von den Sachen gebraucht?

[@rapsod1911]

I think it's closer to 6 bitcoin in 2017.

[@douro20]

BTW...there's something wrong with the end of the video.

[@MaxKoschuh]

The last 10 or 20 seconds are a still picture frame, supposedly.

[@DolezalPetr]

Hello, do you still remember me? I offered you my help a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about video editing and stuff and I wanted to send you an email, but I totaly failed, I just have no time and I am really sorry but it looks like I just cant help you, i thought I could manage my time better, but it is impossible sorry. I hope someone else will help you with your videos insted of mee, your videos are great.

[@MaxKoschuh]

Hello Petr. Everything is fine. You did not fail. I'm glad to have you back on my channel. Missed your comments on the last videos.

[@DolezalPetr]

Are you selling any parts or devices on the internet, would like to buy something from you

[@MaxKoschuh]

I'm selling Tektronix and other things on my website www.koschuh.com , and on ebay (maxkoschuh).

[@DolezalPetr]

Thats cool, I hope you will get a lot of new subscribers for christmas hehe

[@peekpt]

WOW

[@youdonotknowmyname9663]

A 1GHz analog scope? Mmmmmhhhhh ...

[@MaxKoschuh]

It's one of the most exciting things I own

[@youdonotknowmyname9663]

@@MaxKoschuh So you still have this thing? Two years since you made this video and nobody has bought it yet? Wow, that is really surprising ...

[@isoguy.]

Great vid gave thumbs up, however, please dont put music over your voice because i cannot hear what you are saying which really defeats the point of the video. Cant wait for power up

[@Koschuh8401]

can't wait for the power-up too. Could you clarify at which Point you can't hear Max? I went through the whole Video and had no Problems to hear everrything.

[@HAL_9k]

First WoW! :D

[@MaxKoschuh]

congratulations :-)

[@HAL_9k]

And happy christmas to you Max and your family ;)

[@MaxKoschuh]

thank you 😊

[@jpcaretta8847]

Amazing ! A woke connector, indeed a no sex connector !

[@OverUnity7734]

17:03 99% signal voltage output + 10% signal voltage to trigger = 109% signal voltage input ?

[@MaxKoschuh]

with voltage, you can decouple as many outputs in parallel as you want, and could still have 99% (or even 100%) voltage at the final output. Like with the mains socket in the wall. If you put the 100% voltage into a powerboard, and one device uses 100% of the voltage, you still have 100% at all the other sockets.

[@OverUnity7734]

Thanks, it makes sense now, that is a great analogy.