Flea market vintage test equipment, September 2024 Swapfest featured vintage test equipment

The monthly “Flea at MIT” featured an abundance of vintage test equipment. We even bought some.

Cambridge, Mass. — The monthly Flea at MIT swapfest took place on September 15 in the Albany St. garage, and EE World was there. As usual, all kinds of vintage equipment, such as tools, oscilloscopes, musical instruments, and books, were on sale. This time, test equipment was in abundance. At other times, such vintage test equipment might be rather scarce, but not this day. Here’s what we saw, what we bought, and why.

The final 2024 swapfest takes place on October 20.

Power supplies

B&K Precision Model 1670 vintage test equipment — B&K Precision Model 1670 triple-output DC power supply

50 kV power supplies vintage test equipment — 50 kV power supplies made by Bertan Associates, Syosset, NY. The company was acquired by Spellman High Voltage.

Oscilloscopes

Tektronix TDS 794D 4-channel oscilloscope. A digital oscilloscope with a floppy-disk drive is considered new at the swapfest. Would you call this “vintage” test equipment?

Tektronix 454A oscilloscope — Tektronix 454A 2-channel analog oscilloscope. That’s typical at a swapfest.

HP analog oscilloscope vintage test equipment — HP 1720A analog oscilloscope, 275 MHz

B+K 1477 analog oscilloscope vintage test equipment — B+K Model 1477 analog oscilloscope, 15 MHz

Healthkit by Daystom analog oscilliscope. vintage test equipment — Healthkit by Daystom analog oscilloscope. All tubes, no transistors. **We bought it for $5** to use in a teardown. Hopefully, it’s in good enough condition to apply power, but we’ll keep a finger on the power strip’s on/off switch.

RF equipment

General Radio 720 frequency meter vintage test equipment — General Radio 720-A Heterodyne frequency meter. IET labs acquired much of the General Radio product line. This link takes you to the operating instructions, schematic, and parts list.

Marconi Instruments spectrum analyzer vintage test equipment — Marconi Instruments TF 2370 110 MHz spectrum analyzer

Meters, counters, and signal sources

Tektronix CFG280 11 MHz function generator produces sine waves, square waves, triangle waves, TTL pulses, and sweeps.	Philips PM 6680 programmable timer/counter operates at up to 225 MHz. Click here for the data sheet.
HP8112A pulse generator. We bought this for $20 to use in a future teardown. First, we’ll download the service manual for instructions, schematics, and parts list.	General Radio 1230-A DC amplifier and Electrometer. Get the manual from IET Labs.
Cen-Tech digital multimeter. We’ll open the case and show you what’s inside in a later article.	GPIB cables. How else can you connect your vintage test equipment to a computer?