#tektronix

Tektronix - 113 Delay Line

"A delay line is used in an oscilloscope to view the leading edge of the trigger event. The trigger signal is usually derived from the vertical signal path.  The trigger and sweep circuitry need about 60 ns to start so there is no signal display during this time.  A delay line placed in the vertical signal path after the trigger signal will result in the ability to display the trigger portion of the signal.

The Type 113 was a large stand-alone suitcase style 50 ohm delay line introduced in 1960 to augment sampling applications such as a Type 110 pulse generator and trigger, and a Type N sampling plug-in which does not have a built-in delay line.  The Type 113 continued in production until 1973.

The actual delay line, called “Spir-o-line”, was not manufactured by Tektronix. It was called Spir-o-line because the large center conductor (about the size of a pencil) was held inside the line with a spiral of polyethylene tubes (largely air). This image is of the 519 delay line which has a much smaller center conductor."

This Tektronix 4051 vector terminal is absolutely gorgeous. But upon closer inspection, it's also been moused. As in mouse-infested. One of the unfortunate commonalities if vintage computing is that sometimes a long-abandoned machine in a basement or attic becomes a rodent nest, and mouse piss is corrosive, not to mention a ☠health hazard☠. Far too often, this has resulted in a machine with nasty internals, and in this case, it happened to a terminal far too valuable and cool to give up on.

Solution? BLAST IT WITH THE HOSE

A little bit of suds and some rinsing off later, and this machine will be ready for a complete tear-down, and hopefully, repair.

Workstations at VCF Southwest 2025

For anyone needing to do more than basic computing, there was an assortment of high-power workstations on display this year, such as these AT&T and HP Unix machines. There was even an entire room dedicated to Unix workstations, including this row of NeXT computers and some Sun UltraSPARC machines.

[Wave Design] uses vintage tools, such as these SGI workstations, to create new artwork. [Wave Design] was a VCFSW 2025 Silver Sponsor.

One of the oldest high-power workstations on display this year was the Tektronix 4054A vector graphics computer [Monty McGraw] demonstrated. [Monty] used a workstation similar to this one in his first job with the USAF in the late 1970s.