Vintagetek Museum

09/01/2026

"Photo of the Month"
The September 2026 Photo of the Month comes from the November 12, 1966 Interim Quarterly Report. After Tektronix was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1963, the company was required by the SEC to publish both an annual and a quarterly report to shareholders. At the museum we have a complete collection of annual reports through 2000, but the interim quarterly reports we have are less complete. A recent donation to the museum included several interim reports missing from our files and we feature this interesting photo from the November 12, 1966 report.
With a Boeing 727 from Eastern Airlines in the background, we see a video cart incorporating a Tektronix RM529 television waveform monitor in front. The RM529, was introduced in 1964. Phil Crosby, former Tektronix Chief Engineer and current museum volunteer, was the designer responsible for the product. He recalls:

The RM529 was the first thing of mine that made it out the door. Charlie Rhodes had me doing some stuff for a "527T" in late 1962. He had wanted a mostly transistorized waveform monitor to replace the RM527 and 527 (earlier Tek TV waveform monitors). After handing some specific design tasks, he handed me a bunch of stuff about sine squared pulses and bar testing to assess picture quality, which I studied intensively over a weekend at home.

My job, in designing the RM529, was to achieve the flat frequency response demanded by customers who didn't know better and good sine squared response. In bringing out the RM529, we were educating the market about sine squared testing and much of the 'ringiness' of early TV pictures went by the wayside.

At that time, I was working 25-30 hrs/wk and going to Portland State College (not a university then).

Then, he put me in charge of the whole thing, reporting to Larry Biggs, shielding me from knowing about the criticism he was getting from his management (he's a technician, not even an engineer!). We got the 529 out in the fall of 1964. It was pretty intense and I learned a lot about vertical amplifiers, DC restoration, sweeps, trigger circuits HV supplies, etc.

It was probably the best assignment I could have gotten at the time. Thanks, Charlie!

Phil commented on why the RM529 was used for the Eastern Airlines video:

It was probably used to set up the cameras for the shoot. The cameras used to drift quite a bit, particularly on outside shoots. It's not clear if the cameras were monochrome (probably) or color (doubtful). The recorders used FM for the video, as did the Western Electric microwave system which handled 4 channels using microwave links, each link being 60-70 miles long to bridge the US.

Analog TV was a serious challenge and (Tektronix) waveform monitors and vector scopes enabled it. I was proud to play a part.

We have more information about the RM529 on our Television Products page:
https://vintagetek.org/television-products/

We also have this article on the RM529 from the June 1965 ServiceScope. Click on the image to view the PDF.
https://vintagetek.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/RM529-ServiceScope_Jun1965-300x174.jpg

We also have information on the 529 on our 529 Waveform Monitor Used On Fox Spud Goodman Show:
https://vintagetek.org/529-spud-goodman/

https://vintagetek.org/photo-of-the-month/

08/30/2026

"Tektronix Liquid Crystal Light Valve R & D"
This bizarre-looking liquid crystal light valve (LCLV) CRT prototype was conceived by Duane Haven in Tek Labs in the early 1980's. The objective was to create a high resolution projection display component suitable for a wide range of applications. Various products were envisioned, including a computer aided design workstation, an all in one monochrome computer projector using an Apple computer (Mac In A Box) and a high definition, full color projector. During the life of the LCLV development effort support came, at different times, from Tek Labs, the Tektronix TV Products group (two different periods) and the Eastman Kodak company. This work spanned the entire decade of the 1980s. Prototypes or proof of concept devices were built for all of these applications.
The two electron guns, one for writing and the other for erase, were used to create an image by scanning the backside of a six micron thick sheet of dielectric mica (a standard piece of paper is ~100 microns thick) constituting one side of a liquid crystal cell that was incorporated into the body of the CRT.
You can learn more about this device and other CRT developments at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/crt-time-capsule/

08/29/2026

"Tektronix 80th Anniversary Celebration"
The vintageTEK Museum was invited to participate in the Tektronix employees 80th anniversary celebration of the founding of the company. The celebration was held on August 26th in front of Building 38 on the Tektronix Campus near Beaverton, Oregon. A meeting preceded the celebration so the crowd arrived right at 11:30am and the event lasted until 1:30pm. There were exhibits, games, and food. There were a number of familiar faces as well as new employees who introduced to the museum.
The complete story, and more photos, at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/tek-80/

08/28/2026

"Dave Jones' EEVblog Review of the Curvebug"
Check out this YouTube video review of the vintageTEK Museum's Curvebug by the legendary electronics engineer Dave Jones, of EEVblog fame:
https://youtu.be/-ON1AdmAMOY?si=3X44-GJofs-x9AG3

Extract from the mailbag, the CurveBug signal debugger / curve trac...

08/26/2026

"Classic Tektronix 'Photo of the Month'"
From the vintageTEK Museum's August, 2020 Photo of the Month, the caption "Mysterious vintage dual CRT instrument. We have no idea."

https://vintagetek.org/photo-of-the-month/

08/23/2026

"ASA-Oregon Summer Camp 2026"
Earlier this month, vintageTEK Museum hosted a STEM event for twenty-one 6 to 11 year old old students from the ASA Oregon Sports and Academic summer camp.
More photos and a special Thank You note from the school, at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/asa/

08/21/2026

"Tektronix Patent for Packing 'Popcorn'"
Everyone is familiar with those little beads of loose fill packing "popcorn". But did you know where it was invented and under what conditions?
Sometime in the 1950s Tektronix was looking for a better way to cushion products for shipping. Someone came up with the idea of using actual popped popcorn. We don't know for which products and for how long they did this. We believe they used hot-air popped corn from a local vendor in Beaverton. This excerpt is from John Kobbe's story on Oscilloscope Patents:
"Shortly after I came to work at Tek, during the winter of ’51-’52, I was working in the test department. After we got through checking and calibrating the scopes, we would put them on a cycle rack which turned them on 45 minutes and off 15 minutes so we would catch early failures. After about 24 hours, Paul Belles would prepare and ship them. Paul decided he would save some money. He apparently had a neighbor or knew some farmer that grew popcorn. He made a deal to get some popcorn and use it for packing material. I don’t recall anybody in Beaverton thinking or knowing about it, but it seems it caused quite a stir when some east coast customers opened the box from Ory-Gone. Back in those days, everyone at Tek was trying to be frugal."
More articles, excerpts on this story, at this page:
https://vintagetek.org/packing-popcorn/

08/19/2026

08/16/2026

"Classic Tektronix Photo of the Month"
The vintageTEK Museum Photo of the Month for August, 2019 captioned: "Howard at the Organ".
Tektronix Co-Founder Howard Vollum was known for his love of good music and had a studio built at his home for his pipe organ. Howard's organ was built around the former San Francisco Granada (Paramount) 4/33 style 285 Wurlitzer. After Howard's death the organ was sold to the Regent Theater in Melbourne, Australia.
At this page you can download PDF articles about Mr. Vollum's interest in music and the construction of his home studio, and listen to a 3 1/2 minute high quality stereo sound recording from his pipe organ:
https://vintagetek.org/howard-vollum-pg-3/

08/14/2026

"Experimental Scope"
We have this oscilloscope at the museum but unfortunately have not been able to restore it to operation yet. It has a larger CRT and direct readout for the horizontal and vertical controls using film with a chain driven backlight from the controls.
The only information of the Experimental Scope we have is this photo from the 1966 Annual Report showing Joe Burger evaluating circuit performance.
Source: https://vintagetek.org/experimental-scope/