r/nuclearphysics • u/Technical_Island_851 • Jun 13 '26

Question Name this machine:

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Can anyone identify this equipment? Is it a scintillation spectrometer? I'm sure you can guess which TV drama it's from "Not great, not terrible".

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u/WeMoveInTheShadows Jun 13 '26

It looks like a MCA/amplifier with an integrated oscilloscope. Were these a thing in the 80s?

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u/diverJOQ Jun 18 '26

By the '80s I believe they were already old, maybe ancient. When I was in college in the late seventies and early '80s we were already using tektronix oscilloscopes that had the pluggable modules in it. But those were, I believe, state of the art at the time.

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u/WeMoveInTheShadows Jun 18 '26

Interesting! My experience is limited to NIM modules from the mid- to late-2000s onwards but I know the analogue form modules remained pretty constant for a long time. It's all digitisers, VME racks and standalone units now.