What if Tektronix made ham gear?

[N8YX]

Other than stratospheric prices, what benefits would come about?

I pondered this after an overnight burn-in of a recently acquired SG-502 generator that I fixed...which I thought might be down for the count. Thankfully, the only thing electrically defunct was its pilot lamp - but replacement of the pull knob/latch mechanism which locks the module into the mainframe required a total dis-assembly of the front panel.

Once complete I plugged the unit into a TM502 chassis and put a DC-504A counter next to it, connected the generator output to the counter then fired 'em up.

Last evening around 10PM I set the output frequency to 81.712KHz - and there it sits even as I type this. Not bad for a 1975-era, RC-tuned circuit.

If Tek were to have phase-locked such an oscillator to a higher-frequency (say, 5MHz) VCO then incorporated the thing into an HF transceiver of the day it would have given the synthesized rigs a darn good run for their money. But I doubt we amateurs would swallow the cost!

[NQ6U]

I think you've pretty much said all there is to say on that subject—superb quality, very high price. But, then, people do buy IC-7800s and FT-9000s.

[K7SGJ]

If they did decide to build ham gear, just imagine the built in high quality diagnostic gear that could be built into them. It would take a fork lift to move the rig around.