Vintagetek Museum

06/20/2026

"Tektronix Products on Magazine Covers"
This January 1957 issue of Radio and TV News features a Type 114 oscilloscope on the cover.
More magazine covers featuring Tektronix products at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-products-on-magazine-covers/

06/19/2026

"100,000th Tektronix 7A26 Plug-In"
This unique 7A26 is not part of the museum exhibit but was brought into the museum by the owner Tom Rousseau. It is the 100,000 7A26 Dual Trace Amplifier plug-in produced and was built with a special gold-plated panel and presented to him.
You can find the complete story of this special plug-in and Tom's contributions to the Tektronix product line at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/100000-7a26-plug-in/

06/18/2026

"Oscillo-WHAT? What IS an Oscilloscope?"
This is a vintage educational video produced by Tektronix TV/Media Services in 1986, describing in basic terms the usefulness of analog and digital oscilloscopes of the time. The video is 17 minutes in length. Click on the link or on the image below to be taken directly to the video at the vintageTEK Museum YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/bkVHdgolB3s?si=qKm7wPgRfBZJm9dG

This 1986 Tektronix film promotes the features and capabilities of ...

06/17/2026

"Tektronix 7854 Waveform Processing Oscilloscope"
The 7854 Waveform Processing Oscilloscope was the first microprocessor-based oscilloscope by any manufacturer. It was introduced in 1980 and is a 400 MHz analog/digital 7000 series mainframe. It contains an equivalent-time sampling 10-bit digitizer and a programmable waveform processor with GPIB interface based on the Texas Instruments 16 bit 9900 microprocessor. 7854 design engineers Clark Foley and Jack Collins are featured in this promotional photo.
At this page you can find much more history on the 7854 Waveform Processing Oscilloscope:
https://vintagetek.org/7854-waveform-processing-oscilloscope/

06/16/2026

"Classic Photo of the Month"
From the vintageTEK Museum Photo of the Month series in June, 2019, "Tektronix Cable Operations: This is a flexible coax shield winding machine. These were repurposed shoelace weavers from the turn of the century."
https://vintagetek.org/photo-of-the-month/

06/15/2026

"Grass Valley Group 40th anniversary pins"
vintageTEK Museum acquired some Grass Valley Group 40th anniversary pins and listed them on our eBay store. The Grass Valley Group was formed by Dr. Donald Hare in 1959, so the 40th anniversary was in 1999. GVG items and information are fairly rare. They went public prior to the Tektronix acquisition in 1974 and we have been unable to find annual reports.
https://ebay.io/m/YN80rw

06/14/2026

"Tektronix in the Movies"
The 2009 Midsomer Murders Season 12 Episode 8, A Rare Bird, features a 2445A oscilloscope around 25 to 30 minutes. It is on top of a non-Tektronix oscilloscope.
Want to see more movie and show appearances by Tektronix products? Check out our sightings at these pages:
https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-in-movies-shows/
https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-in-movies-shows2/
https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-in-movies-shows3/

06/13/2026

"Tektronix News from Heerenveen", by Gerrit de Vries and Aletta van Meurs
This article was published in 1986 to celebrate 25 years Tektronix Heerenveen. I have added some pictures and personal notes.
Writing August 24 in the year of 1964 I remember even after 50 years to this day very well when I knocked at the door of Tektronix in the Heerenveen plant for my first working day. At that moment I could not imagine that this wonderful American company would shape my life for the next 35 years.
Hi folks, my name is Gerrit de Vries and I am looking forward to share some stories with you about the former Tektronix plant in the Netherlands. The publications will cover some history details of Tektronix Heerenveen from the start in 1961 untill closure of the factory in the year 2000. Also development of the rural city of Heerenveen will be touched slightly because Tektronix has accelerated its development. During this period several Tektronix Inc. people have been part of the Tektronix Heerenveen organization or visited us, and this aspect will also be highlighted.
In spite of closure of the factory and lay-offs which was caused by a worldwide changing economic and technological developments there are no hard feelings by the former Tektronix employees, there is an active Facebook site where we share the good memories and where now and then a reunion event will be organized...
Please see this link for the remainder of this story:
https://vintagetek.org/heerenveen-news/

06/11/2026

"TekWeek Quizzes"
In 1979 TekWeek ran a series of electronic quizzes. This page features several of those quizzes, and the answers. Give it a try!
https://vintagetek.org/tekweek-quizzes/

06/10/2026

"The Phantastron Circuit"
Several Tektronix products used the Phantastron circuit which can generate very linear and very long ramp signals and displays. The Phantastron was originally used to generate a comparison pulse for use in timing radar returns thus estimating the distance to the target. The Type 512 and the Type 524AD oscilloscopes utilized Phantastron circuits.
In 2021 volunteer Phil Crosby gave a presentation on the Phantastron circuit to TERAC (Technology Radio Amateur Club). You can download a complete pdf of the presentation here:
https://vintagetek.org/phantastron/