Jerome contacted the museum regarding his history 549 oscilloscope. In the early days of Tektronix, production serial numbers started with 101 so this is the first production 549.

This Tektronix 549 serial number 101 was acquired by me through a post on Tekscopes.io. The gentleman who had the scope had purchased it some ten years before with the intent of doing electronics work after he retired. He decided to let it go and posted it for free on the forum. I was early in replying that I was interested. Although the shipping was outrageous at over $400, I decided it was worth the cost. The previous owner had sent some photographs of the oscilloscope and I realized it was an early version due to the black round, CRT bezel. He packed the oscilloscope well and when I  unpacked it I discovered it was serial #101. Thus began my communications with vintageTEK regarding this historical piece of equipment.

Since I have had the oscilloscope I have replaced the one paper capacitor in it, C335, which holds the trace off-screen during warm up. It was dusty, had some cigarette tar residue and the controls were quite dirty. I have slowly been cleaning and revitalizing the poor contacts. The left side internals (as you face the control panel) has been completely cleaned. The right side stills needs the "treatment" (using mild detergent and piles of swabs). The exterior has been thoroughly cleaned, and exhibits virtually no scratches. I have not had to replace any tubes although I am sure there are weak ones. The oscilloscope operates well, but still has some issues with the upper storage screen, and needs to be calibrated. The power plug in the rear was missing the ground prong, but I was able to obtain one from a scrapped 500 series oscilloscope from the Antique Radio forums.

I am a lifetime resident of Indiana, and a tool and die maker. I took a turn in the U.S. Navy in the 1970's where I was trained in electronics. Due to the economic period of the early 1980's, I was unable to find employment in electronics so went to work in the family machine shop. However, I never lost fascination with most electronic devices, especially tube-based, that I acquired while in the Navy. I began collecting radios from the 1930's and 1940's, and some test equipment, mostly from an obscure equipment maker by the name of Clough-Brengle. Deciding that most of my vintage test gear wasn't quite cutting it, I began to acquire a bit more modern equipment about 14 years ago. In 2011 I bought my first Tektronix oscilloscope, a 564 Mod 121N. Needless to say, I was smitten. To this day I am still looking for Tektronix devices to acquire and restore. My Tektronix interests involve the instruments made from the mid-1950's to late 1960's.

Going forward, I intend to continue with the cleaning and calibration of the 549. As for use, my intent is to power it on quite sparingly, just often enough to keep controls working and electrolytics formed. The historical nature of this device demands that I do whatever it takes to preserve it in working order. The CRT appears to be fine, and there isn't any evidence of the dreaded HV transformer issue. Since replacement CRT's for this oscilloscope are virtually non-existent, I will only employ the 549 when I absolutely need the bandwidth. I also own a 545B that I can get going and use (which does have the HV issue), and I own two 561A's, a 561B, and my trusty 564. Additionally, I have sampling plug-ins for those 560-series oscilloscope.