TEKTRONIX 545A

A dual trace oscilloscope utilising plug-in units for the 'Y' amplifiers.

Apparently there are 102 valves in this thing ! Hell, there are 14 of 'em in just the power supply ! Yet its still lighter than the Cossor. Lined up in rows, hanging upside-down, valves everywhere ! And a ruddy great fan at the back trying to keep it all cool.

The scope was manufactured for a number of years, as illustrated by the April 1961 advert [138K] shown opposite. But check out the £600 price tag ! To put this into perspective, this represented half the yearly salery for a typical design engineer.

Whilst a manufacturing plant was set up in Guernsey (off the souther coast of Great Britain), I wonder just how much of the scope was manufactured there and how much was "simply" assembling modules built in the state ; these modules would no doubt be classed as components and I bet that dodged GB import taxes to some extent.