Walked into a repair shop in Phoenix that still uses old analog test gear on purpose

Honestly, I stopped by a small avionics shop off the I-10 last week and the lead tech had a rack full of HP 8903A audio analyzers and analog scopes. He told me digital all-in-one testers miss certain signal noise that analog catches for his older fleet. Has anyone else switched back to analog gear for specific bench work, or is this just old timer nostalgia?

3 comments

3 Comments

amyh123d ago

No way, I totally get it. A buddy of mine runs a vintage radio restoration shop and swears by his old Tektronix scopes because they show him the ghosts in the signal that his fancy digital stuff just smooths over.

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stella223d agoMost Upvoted

Ghosts in the signal" sounds dramatic but honestly I wonder if it's really that serious. Old scopes have their own issues like drift and noise that can fool you into thinking there's a problem that isn't actually there. I bet a good modern scope with the right settings can show you the same stuff, people just get attached to their old gear. Plus digital stuff can do way more analysis and math on the signal that you can't do with a tube screamer. I'm not saying analog is useless but let's not pretend it's magic either.

fiona_hunt713d ago

My grandpa had an old Grundig shortwave from the 50s he'd mess with, and he always said the crackle and pop was the radio "breathing" in the history of the world. He'd tune it to some random frequency and just listen to the static for an hour like it was a symphony. I think digital sets just filter out all that character, you know?