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THE CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPE
The cathode ray oscilloscope, abbreviated scope, is used most frequently by the service technician as a visual signal
tracer. Defects are located by observing the amplitude and wave shape of the signal at any point in the receiver.
Fig. 29. The essential parts of a cathode ray tube.
A fine beam of electrons is emitted by the electron gun. This beam passes between two pairs of deflection plates and
strikes a fluorescent screen. The fluorescent screen glows wherever the beam strikes it. If no signal is applied to the
deflection plates, a bright spot will appear on the center of the screen. If an ac signal is applied to the horizontal
plates, the beam will move back and forth across the face of the tube, tracing a horizontal line. If an ac signal is
applied to the vertical plates, the beam will trace the vertical line on the face of the tube. If voltages are applied to
both sets of plates, the spot can be made to move anywhere on the screen. The signal supplied to the horizontal
deflection plates usually comes from a circuit called a sweep generator. It gets its name because it sweeps or moves
the electron beam across the face of the tube. The sweep generator stage in the oscilloscope produces a signal having
a sawtooth-shaped waveform. When this signal is applied to the horizontal deflection plates, it moves the beam at a
steady speed from the left to the right side of the screen. At the right side, the beam moves rapidly back to the left,
and the cycle starts over again. The sweep generator should be able to produce a sawtooth of variable frequency.
The variable frequency is required so that you will be able to view signals over a wide frequency range by applying
the unknown signal to the vertical deflection plates. The suitable frequency range for the horizontal sweep in radio and
TV service work should be from about 10 Hz to around 100 kHz. When the signal is applied to the vertical plates, it
causes the spot to move up and down at a speed that depends upon the wave shape of the signal.
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Fig. 30 Block diagram of an oscilloscope.
When the spot is deflected by the action of both the sawtooth signal on the horizontal plates and the input waveform
on the vertical plates, the waveform of the signal on the vertical plates is traced out as a bright line on the screen.
A greatly simplified block diagram of an oscilloscope showing the waveforms on each pair of plates and the trace on
the screen is shown in Fig. 30.
To produce a waveform, the sweep frequency can never be greater than the input frequency.
When the sweep frequency is the same as the input frequency, one cycle of the input signal will appear on
the screen.
A sweep frequency of one-half the frequentie of the input signal will produce two cycles of the input
signal on the screen.
Usually in service work you operate the sweep generator at one-half or one-third the frequency of the incoming signal
to display either two or three complete cycles.
Using your oscilloscope
In servicing radio receivers, the scope is used most as an audio signal tracer. It is particularly useful in servicing high-
fidelity receivers to locate causes of distortion. When you use the oscilloscope in this way you usually use it in
conjunction with a high-quality audio generator. The output from the audio generator is fed into the amplifier and then
the oscilloscope is used as a signal tracer to trace the signal from the point at which you feed the signal into the
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amplifier on through to the speakers.
Somewhere in tracing through the amplifier you will find a stage in which the wave shape is distorted. When you
locate this stage the tube or transistor used in the stage should be checked, and the cause of the trouble can usually be
determined. Two types of audio distortion are shown in Fig. 31. In Fig. 31A we have shown clipping. You will
remember that the common cathode stage (which is the most frequently used vacuum-tube amplifier stage) and the
common-emitter stage (which is the most frequently used transistor-amplifier stage) invert the signal 180 graden. In
other words, the negative-going input signal produces the positive-going output signal. If the positive-going output
signal is flattened as in Fig. 31A, it is usually an indication that the stage is being driven beyond cutoff. This is usually
due to incorrect operating voltages on the stage. On the other hand, if the negative half of the signal is flattened, it may
be due to a defective tube or transistor or incorrectly operating voltages. When the negative half of the signal is
flattened it is a sign that the tube or transistor is being driven into saturation. If both the top half and the bottom half of
the signal are flattened off, it is frequently due to overdrive.


Fig. 31. Two types of distortion: (A) Clipping. (B) Strong harmonics of fundamental.
This may be simply due to the fact that you have the output from your audio generator too high, or there could be
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some defect in the stage. Low operating voltages will cause both halves of the signal to be clipped. An other type of
audio distortion is shown in Fig. 31B. This indicates strong harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion may be
produced by operating a stage on the nonlinear portion of its characteristic curve and can also be produced in
transformer-coupled stages by transformer defects.

Linear-Portion Nonlinear-Portion-1 Nonlinear-Portion-2
The oscilloscope is also useful in locating power supply hum. You simply connect your oscilloscope to the output of
the power supply and then measure the amplitude of the hum. In inexpensive table model receivers, the hum level can
be quite high without causing any problem, but in high-fidelity receivers that have good low-frequency response, the
hum output from the power supply should be very low. You can locate noises in the audio system due to defective
components with the oscilloscope. Fig. 32 shows what noise will look like. If you have a good clean signal at the
input to the stage and an output like that shown in Fig. 32B, you can be sure that that stage is generating the noise.
Fig. 32A Noise when no signal is present.
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Fig. 32B Noise on a sine wave.
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