So I have been looking to replace my venerable old Tektronix 465 20MHz oscilloscope. The Tek 465 is a heavy beast and the limited bandwidth sort of makes it less useful. Granted it is a dual channel scope. I’ll put it up on Craislist for $10 and see if I get any takers.

I’ve looked at Owon, Rigol, and a few other vendors. I settled on the Rigol DS1054Z. It’s a 4 channel 50MHz scope. And the hack is already out there to turn it into a 100MHz scope with a simple procedure.

For $399 it’s not a bad deal. Be very useful for some of the radio and oscillator projects I’m planning on building too. Plus two advantages it has over the Tek 465: the first is a 7″ color display, and then the two extra ports. Also has USB, and network connections too. Plus the form factor – it’s about 1/4 the size of the Tek 465 and weighs considerably less.

click to see bigger version

Just for comparison here’s a Tek 465 with the covers off. It’s huge and heavy.

The Rigol weighs all of 7 pounds. The Tek 465 tipped the scales at about 25-30lbs. So you can see how the Rigol will be a better scope for me.