This month we thought we would look back over 2017. This time last year we had just moved into our new location in Building 13 on the Tektronix campus. The move took place in December and we were hampered by winter weather. These pictures show the state of the museum a year ago and now. It is quite an improvement!

 

 

As can be seen in this photo, we are still unpacking and organizing from the move. The center row of tables is inventory that we need to assess and assign as to the best use and then organize it.

One of the upsides of the new location is much increased foot traffic. The downside is our volunteers are spending more time giving tours and have less time to work on improving the museum. Again, if you or someone you know would like to volunteer, please contact us through the email on the website. We can use volunteers in a number of different areas.

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We made some major accomplishments at the museum this past year.

• Completing the move and setting up the museum sufficiently to open in early March.
• Successful grand opening for Tektronix employees on July 20th
• Successful public grand opening on July 22nd
• A number of youth STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) tours and demonstrations for elementary through high school students
• Two youth STEM classes on using an oscilloscope
• A number of private group tours on non-open museum days
• A travelling booth display and demonstration at MESA Demo Day (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement)
• A number of travelling booth displays and demonstrations for Tektronix at Sales and Application Engineer and Engineering events
• Special tours for Tektronix interns and new hires
• A donation of three lab bench setups including oscilloscopes, power supplies, and function generators to Saturday Academy
• Use of our conference room for special community events including NWVRS (Northwest Vintage Radio Society) and SID (Society for Information Display) organizations
• Hosting of special out-of-town visitors including Professor Tom Lee from Stanford and Professor Greg Kovacs, also from Stanford
• The design of an oscilloscope demonstration board which alternately displays the Tek Bug and the Wizard
• Opening of an eBay store (in addition to the vintageTEK store) to increase sales of manuals, oscilloscope demo boards, and refurbished instruments
• Migration of over 60 videos to our YouTube channel which now has over 6,000 subscribers and 85,000+ viewings

 

Internal to the museum we have significantly organized our documentation library and are creating specific web pages to host the material. We continue to expand our website and have added these pages, including two videos, since last month's post. The result of our website expansion is a significant increase in our website traffic.  The home page has links for this newly added material until next month.

• 1966 Calendar Photos
• 11K Series Introduction (video)
• 11403 Digitizing Oscilloscope
• CRT Manufacturing
• Electrochem
• Factors Affecting Scope Value 1961
• Fundamental Electronic Concepts for Oscilloscope Use & Maintenance
• Miscellaneous Engineering Groups-Engineering Groups/Awards/Recognition
• Phaser 340 Color Printer
• Plastics
• Professor Tom Lee Visits The vintageTEK Museum (video)
• Scope Carts
• Tektronix 40th Anniversary and Book
• Tektronix 50th Anniversary
• Tektronix In Movies And Shows
• TekWeek Electronic Quizzes
• Using The Oscilloscope As An Instrument Maintenance Aid 1958
• and a number of employee articles located at "Information and Resources" > "Employees"

 

We would like to thank all our volunteers for making this possible and making this past year a tremendous success for the museum.

Our STEM efforts to date have been responses to requests to the museum for tours, demonstrations, remote booths, classes, and equipment. We really want to advance our STEM efforts from responding to requests to a proactive and regular STEM program. This is our most critical need for a volunteer. If you would like to help support the youth of our community, please contact us. We need additional volunteers to continue the success of the museum.

Another special need the museum has is for a microfiche scanner. Our current scanner no longer works and we get requests for information that is only available in microfiche. Our only option now is to send the microfiche out and have it professionally scanned which is quite expensive. If you know of a microfiche scanner that could be donated or purchased for a reasonable price please contact the museum.

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We would like to highlight another volunteer this month, Bob Haas.

Bob worked on Tektronix graphics systems in Wilsonville from 1977 to 1984, including the 4051, 4052/4, 4105/7/9 and 4041. After leaving Tek he was an independent consultant for 10 years, then 5 years at OrCAD, and finally 14 years at Maxim Integrated, from which he retired in 2013.

He has been associated with the Museum for several years, serving as Chairman of the Board for the last year and a half. He was project manager for the move to our current location. He currently manages eBay sales and his favorite activity is restoring 465 and 475 oscilloscopes and TM500 plug-ins.

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Please stop by in person if you are in the area for a tour of the museum.  If you have time to contribute, we'd love to have you as a volunteer.  Stop by to discuss opportunities and needs.