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That's a beautiful antique. Older electronic equipment has more of a design charm than the streamlined modern variants.

Mr Carlson in his version of hilarious mode tonight. Very enjoyable.

Cool to see such an old piece of electronic equipment still working.

You have some of the most fascinating electronics. I really enjoy seeing the old radios and test equipment. Thanks for showing these things off. I would never see any of this, otherwise.

Not too dissimilar to my first scope about 55 years ago age 12. It had 5 or 6 tubes in it and was made by RCA. Full of original wax caps and old parts but it worked. One of the sweep settings needed a new cap to work. I polished the rust of the front panel with steel wool and the old bakalite knobs were cracked and broken so I replaced those. I could connect to a radio speaker and see audio, I could build oscillators, amplifiers and see signals. A mic and amp was non stop fun I had a few germanium transistors in those days. Years later I got something a lot better. I owned a Phillips and Tek scope then. The Phillips was vastly superior to the Tek. I got my first digital scope a LeCroy in the early 80's. It too was lightyears ahead of Tek. It did cost more than a new car but was worth it. I measured and captured millions of lightning strikes with it. I have owned several LecCroys since. I have abandoned LeCroy after buying a new scope for $24K that had tin lead edge connectors in it (prototype pcbs). Their service policies were terrible even though I had spent well over 150K with them over the years. My current scope is a Rhode & Swartz which has great features and some unusual limitations, and they are overpriced. Now for a few hundred you can get a great scope from China. Tek no longer owns the world like they did in the CRT days. Now a good scope costs less than a Tek scope probe.

i'm here to say only one thing - WOW! GREAT JOB!

For being from 1938 that chassis on top and underneath are really clean obviously that spent its life in a dust free environment. Getting life out of it with the old caps and even one burned resistor is actually amazing and a testament to how that equipment was built. Thanks for sharing Paul.

Thanks Professor Carlson for taking us along with this "oscillograph". Nothing like having then testing this piece of electronic history from the days gone by. Makes you wonder how many "benches" this was on!!

"Troubleshooting electronics is too easy." -Mr. Carlson 2021

That burned resistor must have decided that resistance was futile!

Mr Carlson: "Let me know if you guys want me t-" Me: Yes "Well, what about this o-" "Yes please"

Thank you sir! That’s my brain fed just enough to keep it going until bedtime. 👍 from me. 🇬🇧

Soy técnico reparador de la vieja escuela, y la verdad, al ver éste aparato siento el olor característico de la electrónica a bulbos (válvulas) de aquellos artefactos. Tiempos bellos, tiempos en los que era todo un desafío encontrar las fallas de las radios, las TVs. Gracias por traer a mi mente recuerdos entrañables

Would love to see this restored, and used for troubleshooting.

Will be a patron soon!! I have been watching and learning with you for years! Thanks again!

Thank you. A neat piece of equipment. I worked on vacuum tube, hybrid tube and transistor equipment and solid state/optical cable equipment. A lot of changes in the last 70 years. Thanks again.

Exciting and relaxing to watch at the same time!

Testing compromised equipment with compromised testing equipment is definitely at an advanced level.

Cant wait for the restoration on this one, very unique. Thanks.

In the later 1980s I was gifted a 1949 Hallicrafters S-40a by a friend who had bought a new Yaesue HF set... The S-40a needed only a new power cord For safety's sake I worked until the early part of Desert Storm.... When it stated making wax... Smoking.... Caching FIRE! I passed it to to a repairman friend Bought a R.S. DX-390 on sale for $150 Which lasted until about the Columbia disaster... Ending the NASA Radio club retransmission from STS and ISS... The S-40a was my second one I had one, on loan, from mid-1960s... Vietnam news from Europe! Today I have a Sangean ATS-818 and an ATS-818CS Both found on eBay for $36 and $42 ppd. MINT After my DX-390 got too DAMP! In my bathroom! LESSONS! J.C. Age 72.. Retired camera repairman.. Mechanic! 73's...

Thomas Edison Jr? Your amazing! I wish that I had you as teacher in my younger day. Better late than never. I love the way you explain things. Your love for electronics is undeniable. Your child like passion for this trade is quite evident. I been following you channel for a while now and really appreciate all the time and energy you put into your vids. Thank you

Thanks for the nostalgic trip.

Always interesting stuff in your videos, thank you so much for bringing us those beautiful rare things!!! Watching you from Italy ^^

This piece of equipment will be a fun project to see how it responds to a re-cap. I love that unique smell of old tube equipment. I'm working on a Heathkit HW-100 and HP-23a power supply.

Fascinating! I grew up with tubes and thought they were great learning tools. I see this oscillograph from 1938 and I have to say WOW! So cool :) Thank you for the look at this great piece of equipment.

That looks beautifully built. The old saying they don't build them like they used to applies. Looks built to military specs.

What a great looking and cleverly designed scope! Sad truth is, it's almost impossible to find any "Made in Canada" electronics nowadays.

Now that was interesting - and I'd love to see your demonstration of using a compromised piece of equipment to troubleshoot other equipment. I am also looking forward to the rebuild of this great piece of history - I'm sure we can learn a lot about how "modern" scopes work in that series.

I'm looking forward to the rebuild. Love to see how it works when it is restored. Thanks.

Love the vintage equipment, as soon as my bench is ready I will be joining patreon.

Very nice video 👍 I've seen old electronic parts, thanks for sharing..

Lovely little waveform indicator :) I'd definitely love to watch you restore it, even though for obvious reasons it's no use for any measurements. By the way, I've got a little Polish tube oscillograph from 1960/70s named Mini 4 and even though I'm not gonna use it, I'll keep it for sentimental reasons. It was the first thing resembling a scope in my lab, back in 2004 or so. Oh, and I did a vectorscope / curve tracer conversion on another '70s junk scope named ST310A (ST315 is similar and more common if you're curious), completely redesigning the electronics and using your designs for curve tracer & Wien bridge oscillator. It's so nice and indeed it helps in my lab :). I'm gonna add a vector clock to it, and it has X-Y inputs on BNC jacks and 1/4" TRS for stereo audio in when I want to show people some oscilloscope music.

Another excellent video, and the transitions as you were taking the cover off were a nice touch.

Thanks so much for all this amazing content.

That is a very nice piece of equipment. Thank you Paul!

Damn coyotes warbling in the background at 12:40, got me excited!

I would love to see you use this in its current state to troubleshoot another piece! I am still hesitant to work on or use older tube equipment that I know isn’t functioning properly for fear of really damaging some hard to get parts. Thanks for the great content!

Nicely laid out inside, of course you may need to access under the two boards. It seemed to wake up as it soaked. Nice video Paul, I look forward to seeing it restored, cheers!

I admire your ability in finding goodies like that...

4:30, I didn't know what you were saying at first "baudy". lol Cool stuff.

Next up, Mr Carlson shows you how to build a digital storage adaptor for this oscillograph using 12AX7 valves. 😊

Excellent! Thanks for exciting vid.

I think it is indeed a rare man who wants to make trouble-shooting more "Challenging." I tip my hat.

Can't wait till its restored thanks Paul from Michigan

Mr C everything you do is a learning experience for some of use! please feel free to continue my education sir.

The old electronics are very interesting, enjoyed as always.

I really appreciate your shorter videos I can watch them on my breaks or in my free time without having to sit down for hours

Super cool ! I’m watching all your videos so I learn enough to restore a classic car radio

Amazing that the old beast functioned to some extent. Would be a worthy restoration candidate for sure!

So cool. Love that display!

Nice find and a great bit of kit Paul! TFS, GB :)

Wow Paul! Nice piece I am a bit jealous. You are living dangerously these days!

Can't wait for the upcoming restoration. I've been missing your longer (even) more in depth vids. And yes, would definitely like to see using a compromised piece of year gear to troubleshoot another compromised device. Great idea!

Nice video clip, keep it up, thank you :)

That's the sort of stuff I learnt my electronics on in the mid 70s :) Everyone else was talking transistors and early i/c's, my task was 1960's RADARs.

It's absolutely stunning that works at all, much less as well as it does. Very, very cool.

Hey Mr. Carlson if you're up for the challenge I think that would be a pretty entertaining video! With society so enthralled with the latest and greatest, to the point people become perfectionist and have anxiety about "just doing it", I think the novelty of using something in the condition you described would be a captivating video. I imagine it might enrage the aforementioned obsessive types but I think the rest of us could recognize the fun 😆 As always your efforts are much appreciated, looking forward to the next restoration. 🤙🏻

Beautiful sine wave....!!! I used a National Camera CRT Motion Annilyzer In my years as a camera repairman 1976 -1986.... Darkroom Aids, Chicago... It told one WAY more stuff than a solid state digital shutter tester Ever could. One just had to know how the read the trace Focal plane and leaf shutters.... I miss all that.... FILM! My DDR Dresden Exakta 35mm SLRs... Carl Zeiss Jena lenses.. J.C.

I’m not surprised it kind of works even I find it hard to destroy valve gear and I have really tried !

have you ever considered taking an old radio and replacing the inside with modern electronics so you can get all the performance of modern equipment while maintaining the old look? in the car world they call it "resto-mod" where you replace the engine, brakes, etc so you get modern performance while keeping the old look.

Would be a nice restoration. When it's completed how about a demo of how older test equipment can be used in troubleshooting. Always great videos Mr. C!

Amazing

You said the CRT reminded you of a Sci-Fi movie... I thought the same "There is nothing wrong with your test equipment... Do not attempt to adjust your oscillograph... We are controlling transmission... We control the Horizontal deflection... We control the vertical deflection" . . . and well, you know the rest LOL 🤣😁😜

When I was growing up in the UK we knew those resistors as BTS - Body Tip Spot!. Just a minor cultural difference!

You are like some sort of Wizard with electronics, very cool. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving:)

This looks like a mash-up of "The Outer Limits" and "The Way Back Machine".

Yes, I would love to see this one restored and used to troubleshoot gear as old as it is! I find tube equipment to be easier to understand and more fun to work on. The new stuff is harder to grasp and too often like smoke and mirrors. In the old days people must have thought "modern" tube gear was like smoke and mirrors so I guess we're even now.

Paul, I've seen you install new bus wire in some units and that reminded me of the time the electronics dept. that I worked in had a 25 lb. roll of 20 gauge tinned copper wire. The only problem was that one end of the roll came off and the wire started to unravel into many ,many loops that got completely knotted up. If you need a length of 20 gauge bus wire, you could try to get enough wire off the roll to do the job. They had to reorder another roll of wire and had to watch who handled it so a side didn't come off again.

"I may even have a Factory bezel", Paul Carlson, the man who has everything available in his lab from 1900 till today 😅 Thanks for another great video Paul ! 🙌

Great video, cool device too! Love the look of those toggle switches on the front!

That is so cool! I actually home brewed a similar device in the 1960's using the same 884 thyratron for the sweep oscillator. I still have it and may dig it out and restore it. I used it as an ocsilloscope. I used a 2 inch scope tube which was given to me. Can't remember where I got the schematic but it was probably a ham radio book. I also used it with an audio amp to display "music" which was impressive in the 60's.

Paul, I have the original RCA No. 151oscillograph with the original 1-inch CRT. Did a cap change is running fantastic for its age.

Very cool 👍🏻

Beautiful instrument

Thank you for making this video and letting it see me.

Nice little unit there. I have an old DuMont Oscillograph (model 304A) that's nice to fire up when I have visitors. I keep it set up with a pair of spare function gens and let folks play with Lissajous figures on it.

That thing is a work of art.

Saludos desde Cuba. Excelentes sus videos. Un Cordial Saludo.

It's beautiful. If I ever own an oscilloscope I hope it would be one like this. I love the brass toggle switches and the lovely industrial/artistic design. The CRT needs to have a 3D printed bezel that looks something like a Dalek eye. Don't hate me 😄, no disrespect intended.

Wonderful, I love the green on these displays! I have a thought for a project for you that might be fun. Create a cradle to hold the equipment so that you can tilt what you are repairing instead of tilting with your hand or propping up with a tub of solder. It would be skeletal and fully open so you can easily access everything but can be easily tilted on all axis, if there is anyone who could design that it’s you!

It’s insane to think about how much technology changes in a lifetime!

I wanna see you restoring things whith this compromised equipment! A great opportunity to see some clever engineering skills that we dont see that often!

Given that most or all of the caps will have become resistiors by now, I'm pretty impressed you could get any kind of trace on that screen! Lovely old piece of gear.

Super !

Greetings: I think you will agree that the existing SYNC function is similar to the more modern horizontal TRIGGER function. If this oscillograph has no external trigger input I would add one as well as add a LINE (mains) trigger input. They can be relatively simple as external filters (e.g. video H/V sync separator, etc.) can be added separately. I hope you do not think these mods are too advanced for this vintage gear.

Thank you very much . Please fix this beautiful little old radio . Some this pretty should work an be safe for those in the future . because sooner or later someone like me that thinks all old radios should work an be safe . The only reason I can think one should be left in the original way it came from the manufacture would be as a educational piece to teach a person such as myself how dangerous it came when new . But on this radio please make safe so I can hear it play . Thank you sir I love your channel . Once again thank you very very much . Your saving history an making it safe . I always think no matter how silly that they are a time machine an I’ll be listening to 1955 again . Lol beautiful old radio . I think that about all old radios and tvs basically anything that’s old an electric . Lol

I sometimes question the practice of supplying a piece of equipment with reduced voltage. The trivial assumption is that everything should just experience less stress at reduced supply voltage, but in some circuits it may not be so. A comparator that expects certain voltage levels may erroneously trigger some part of the circuit to go into some high current mode when dealing with undervoltage. A voltage reference may be insufficiently biased and thus signal another high current mode somewhere else. Or a capacitor that was meant to charge quickly to keep a driven active element conducting for a minimum time, now charges slowly and keeps the active element on much longer , overheating it. I know this is just hypotheticals and conjecture, but sometimes, it may happen.

I too have a LOT of test equipment in my lab. 3 Benches full and 2 store rooms as well. I have mostly Tek, HP and Fluke but lots of Heathkit, RCA, Eico and others as well. I have a few new Digital scopes and a Rigol Spectrum analyzer However, I prefer using my older gear mostly. It's hard to beat a Tex 465B, HP 410B VTVM and an HP 8640B sig gen. Though, when I am aligning a more complex receiver like an R390, I can get the same results, more or less, with my older, Heathkit O-10 scope, at least for power supply and low freq stuff., RCA Voltohmyst and Eico sig gen scope etc One problem is it seems like one piece or another of my test gear is always in need of repair, or cal check. The old problem of a guy with a watch can tell you the time, a guy with 2 watches is never quiet sure...lol Thank goodness for Ce standards and GPDO technology. I enjoy your video's and it's nice to know I am not alone in my test equipment fetish. I also enjoy watching your videos as if its part of shop talk, even if it is cyber initiated. 73 WA4AOS

This is a neat bit of kit. Thanks for showing it us. You haven't convinced me to retire my two oscilloscopes yet, but I still look forward to you rescuing this one. I love the exposed terminals on the isolation transformer. I know its not quite shango or electoboom levels of fun but it still triggers my OCD haha.

I learned about transformer windings today.

Neat that this one was tastefully modified and not a total hackjob inside. I always start a unknown oscilloscope with the focus control all the way to one end, that way you mostly eliminate risk of getting a bright phosphor burning dot if there is some problem with the horizontal and sweep stuff.

Maybe an enterprising repair tech found a CRT 902 used in the RCA 151-2 variant and just substituted it into this particular piece of equipment to get the larger display. I noticed the 25 Hz AC frequency. Niagra Falls project used 25 Hz which set the standard for parts of northern US and parts of Canada at that time. I noticed in the manual, the 25 cps version is 1.5 pounds heavier ... more iron in that power transformer!!!!

Toilet roll oscilloscope! The Tol-roll-scope! Excellent! :D

Love the very good construction and how neat it is. No wires willinilly.

can't wait for the full restoration

I had the RCA variant of that scope. The Power Transformer was burnt up and the same Resistor was cooked.

18:00 The "faster moving signal" of course is a flyback trace. Maybe there isn't any flyback blanking on this simple design?

Stop keep saying about the smell, I'M JEALOUS! I LOVE THAT SMELL! Great video, fascinating!

I think there definitely is a market there for a new aftershave Mr C's ode cologne vintage Electrical smell aftershave.