first, i bit of background.i was a bit into electronics in my 20's. i havent done anything in a loooong time. im 35 now and starting to get back into it. id prob. put my education level right now at the avg early teen.
back in the day, i never got much further than multimeters and breadboards, but i did pick up 2 "vintage" scopes to mess with. i never did. lately, ive dug them back out again, looking to pick it up where i left off.
that leads up to today. as the title says, the older one is an rca wo-33a. looking on the web, i see a lot of complaints about the old machines, afa caps leaking down, bad resistors, ect... and the general widespread dislike of anything with a tube.
i was thinking, for a project, of updating this unit. this would have the advantages of possibly making it a bit more reliable and/or accurate, allow me to get a more intimate knowledge of it to facilitate the learning, and be a project to get my feet wet, as it were.
so my questions are twofold. ive been looking around the net, and i see these things going for $25 up to over $100, and everyone i see is missing parts and/or non-functional, compared to other scopes of the era that go for as low as $5 in working order. does the fact that, other than 2 of the original 10 knobs are missing, this is a fairly good shape piece with all of the nessicary parts and fully functional make it more of a "collectible" that id be best not screwing with?
secondly,if not, and i do tear into this. other than replacing the caps and other solid state components, would it even be possible to determine the ratings and purposes of the tubes and retrofit suitable solid state components into it in their place? (making small "plug and play" units to replace the tubes without dismantling the original tube sockets)
tia