In last month's newsletter we reported the donation of a restored 545 oscilloscope to Site Summit for restoration of the Nike missile site near Anchorage, Alaska
The instrument arrived safe and sound and they sent us this photo of the instrument unpacked.
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Our new Photo of the Month comes from the 1964 Annual Report and is an aerial view of the Tektronix campus showing the construction of the Technical Center, building 50.
The Technical Center was to house the machine shops, engineering model shop, materials laboratory, research and display packaging design, environmental test and engineering production, semiconductor devices, materials and processes, advanced engineering, device application engineering, instrument engineering, systems, product evaluation, corporate offices, cafeteria, and a walkway to building 46/46A CRT.
We have a number of photos and articles on the construction and information on our Technical Center Building 50 page.
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Tektronix recently introduced a new 5 series MSO (mixed signal oscilloscope) with 8 analog channels. The features and performance of this instrument are impressive and it made us wonder when Tektronix first introduced an 8 channel oscilloscope.
Tektronix introduced the plug-in concept with the 531 and 535 oscilloscopes in 1954. Their first dual beam oscilloscope with plugins was the 555 introduced in 1959. This oscilloscope would accept two vertical letter-series plug-ins.
In 1962 Tektronix introduced a four channel M-Series plug-in. With two M series plug-ins installed, the 555 oscilloscope could display eight channels. In addition, each M-Series plug-in could operate with a different time base.
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We have an operational 555 dual beam oscilloscope on display at the museum. It is an amazing instrument constructed in two chassis with 111 vacuum tubes and weighing in at over 150 pounds including the scope cart to conveniently hold the two chassis. We also have M-Series plug-ins at the museum so we decided to try it out and it worked. This would be Tektronix' first 8 channel oscilloscope in 1962. The price in 1962 for a complete system consisting of a 555 oscilloscope, two 21 time base and two M plug-ins, and the 500 scope-mobile was $4350, or $36,888 in today’s dollars.
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We also have a smaller 556 dual beam oscilloscope which we used to take measurements with 8 channels. It is a lot of knobs in a small space and a lot of traces to put on a 5" screen, but it does provide 8 channels of analog input at 20 MHz bandwidth.
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Encourage your friends to sign up for our monthly newsletter and follow us on Twitter. We send out a couple of tweets each week with news items related to the museum. Instructions for both are on our website.
We continue to regularly enhance our web site with new resources, exhibits, films and videos. Recent website additions include:
1954 Anniversaries
1965 Anniversaries
1966 Anniversaries
1986 Anniversaries
Beaverton Campus has new photos
CRT Manufacturing has new content
Engineering Groups, Awards, and Recognition has new content
Jeff Bezos' Tektronix Oscilloscope
MESA Day 2019 (STEM)
Norm Winningstad has new content
Repair Tips and Reference Material has new content
TekTalk has new issues
Tektronix Federal Credit Union has new content
Warren "Dal" Dallas has new content
Please stop by if you are in the area for a tour of the museum. If you can't make it on an open day then please contact us and we will strive to accommodate your schedule.
If you have an item, story, documentation, photos, or videos to donate, please contact us. Our email is on our home page. Please do not reply to this newsletter as this email is not monitored.
If you have time to contribute, we'd love to have you as a volunteer. Stop by to discuss opportunities and needs. We sometimes have opportunities where you don't need to be at the museum to contribute.
vintageTEK
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