What a great story! Many thanks Colin.
73, Bill W6WRT
>________________________________
> From: k7fm <k7fm@teleport.com>
>To: Bill Turner <dezrat1242@yahoo.com>; amps@contesting.com
>Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 6:54 PM
>Subject: Re: [Amps] Oscilloscope Purchase
>
>Speaking of Tek scopes, I am reminded of a departed ham friend of mine who
>worked for Tektronix. In the late 1950s, the state of the art Tek scope went
>up to 30-50 MHz. The Atomic Energy Commission went to Tektronix and wanted to
>examine nuclear particles and needed a scope that would go to 1 gHz. This was
>a 20 fold increase in badnwidth. Most of the Tek engineers said it was not
>possible. But Cliff Moulton, W7MFW, thought he could do it. Cliff was a bit
>different. He was a true genius and exhibited some characteristics of a mind
>that works at a different level (perhaps a characteristic of all hams). The
>Tektronix campus was large and Cliff rode his unicycle between buildings.
>Like Rudolph, some of the other engineers did not treat him as an equal and
>were upset when he got permission from Jack Murdock to take his unicycle into
>the buildings.
>
>So, Cliff began working on the 519. Some time later, no results and someone
>complained that Cliff was building a ham amplifier on company time and with
>company funds. Parts ordered by Cliff were 4CX250F tubes and hardline coax
>cable - certainly not for a Tektronix scope. Soon, the 519 appeared, which
>had a bandwidth of 1 gHz, all before 1960. Of course the 4CX250F was used for
>the sweep generator and the hardline was the delay line.
>
>Cliff retired early and Tek tried to discontinue the 519 many times, but
>demand kept it returning from its grave. The last catalog appearance was 1973.
>
>Cliff used a Collins 75S-1 and 32S-1 along with a Johnson amplifier.
>
>73, Colin K7FM
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Amps mailing list
Amps@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
|