Buying a tube HP 140a Oscilloscope

[Humner]

I have a good opportunity to buy a HP 140a Oscilloscope in excellent condition that has been well maintained. It is also local to me and at a very good price.

I've never owned an oscilloscope and have been on the search for a cheap analogue unit just to play around with. Will it be silly of me to start with something like this?

It will only be used for basic testing of audio circuits etc so my main concern is keeping it maintained, It will be completely out of my scope(excuse the pun) if it were to stop working etc, I've read that voltages in tube scopes are in the thousands which I definitely don't want to go near.

But on the other hand I have read that these units are well built to begin with.

 

[ruffrecords]

The first 'scope I bought was an old Gould one with a CRT screen. Like the HP140a its electronics were transistor based. It worked fine for quite a few years until the mains transformer went wrong. I then sold it for spares or repairs on eBay.

Bottom line is it will do fine as a first scope and could give you  a good few years of service.  HP gear is particularly well built, probably better so than Gould.

Cheers

Ian