Scope Month 2017 Megathread

[continuo]

The vast majority of the giveaway scopes seems to be a secret new 100 MHz model, perhaps a upgraded 2000 series with touch screen. IMHO this would be a good thing because it greatly reduces the appeal to sell it right away and the tax is not a problem, even for private individuals 

[madires]

After entering my details, clicking "submit" and answering the captcha, the captcha is closed and no feedback is provided. Is this intended?

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

After entering my details, clicking "submit" and answering the captcha, the captcha is closed and no feedback is provided. Is this intended?

You should get to a confirmation page and a non-mandatory "share on Facebook" window. (Don't hate me for the Facebook share thing).

[Ice-Tea]

I managed to get an entry in even though my country is not listed (Belgium). It got it in under "Other(my country is not listed)". Is that entry then forwarded to the nearest virtual garbage bin? Or will this actually do something?

I can't understand why there would be a legal issue with Belgium. My guess? The legal department is very slowly working down a list of possible countries and they are ordered in a "large market first" fashion.

[madires]

After entering my details, clicking "submit" and answering the captcha, the captcha is closed and no feedback is provided. Is this intended?

You should get to a confirmation page and a non-mandatory "share on Facebook" window. (Don't hate me for the Facebook share thing).

Thanks. Unfortunately it works neither with Firefox nor with Seamonkey under Linux.

[TheSteve]

You should get to a confirmation page and a non-mandatory "share on Facebook" window. (Don't hate me for the Facebook share thing).

No hate - just a little judgement

[Brumby]

You should get to a confirmation page and a non-mandatory "share on Facebook" window. (Don't hate me for the Facebook share thing).

No hate - just a little judgement

Get Australia on the eligible list and we'll even forgive you!

[bitwelder]

From the T&C page:
"All entries become the property of Keysight and will not be acknowledged or returned. By entering, the entrant hereby assigns to Keysight all IP rights, including copyrights."

Eh?

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

I managed to get an entry in even though my country is not listed (Belgium). It got it in under "Other(my country is not listed)". Is that entry then forwarded to the nearest virtual garbage bin? Or will this actually do something?

I'm not 100% sure what that is about, but if your country is not in the T&Cs you won't be winning a scope in the sweepstakes.

I can't understand why there would be a legal issue with Belgium. My guess? The legal department is very slowly working down a list of possible countries and they are ordered in a "large market first" fashion.

A little bit of this is inevitable, but Belgium is big enough to be considered. I actually asked about Belgium specifically during Cyber Week, but it wasn't legally doable.

You should get to a confirmation page and a non-mandatory "share on Facebook" window. (Don't hate me for the Facebook share thing).

No hate - just a little judgement

Fair enough

Get Australia on the eligible list and we'll even forgive you!

Australia will have their own independent contest (not sweepstakes) beginning 1-March. Tune in then for details!

[Brumby]

From the T&C page:
"All entries become the property of Keysight and will not be acknowledged or returned. By entering, the entrant hereby assigns to Keysight all IP rights, including copyrights."

Eh?

Boilerplate T&C's.

Covers the situation where you might have to prepare something for submission - such as a video - so that Keysight can use it freely.

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

From the T&C page:
"All entries become the property of Keysight and will not be acknowledged or returned. By entering, the entrant hereby assigns to Keysight all IP rights, including copyrights."

Eh?

This basically means we own your entry. You can't put IP in instead of your first name and then sue us for it. We don't on all of your IP & copyrights, just anything you submit to us as an entry into this sweepstakes.

[Brumby]

Get Australia on the eligible list and we'll even forgive you!

Australia will have their own independent contest (not sweepstakes) beginning 1-March. Tune in then for details!

[mubes]

Daniel,

At the risk of looking a gifthorse in the mouth....

One perennial problem of these kinds of competition is that some of the scopes end up being resold pretty quickly; OK, so that gets them out, eventually, to people who can actually make use of them, but its frustrating to the rest of us and, quite frankly, doesn't do a great job of market intelligence collection either, which is presumably one of the reasons you do this....it also means you've lost a potential commercial sale when a 'real' customer finds a bargain offer on eBay or whatever.

So, how about a selection option for what 'class' of scope you'd like to be in the draw for?

That reduces the chance of someone winning a scope that's either hugely above or below their use level, which would hopefully reduce the chance of them wanting to resell it.  You're going to have more low end scopes than high end ones, so provided punters are only allowed to enter for one 'class' or the other then they would self select according to their need.

Personally, I'd be happy with a smaller chance of winning a MSOX4104A than a bigger chance of getting something that wouldn't be a step up for me and would deprive someone else of the chance of getting a step on the ladder.

DAVE

[bitseeker]

If someone enters a contest with the intent to sell their winnings, hardly anything is going to stop them from doing so.

Everyone who submits an entry knows what they could potentially win. So, those who claim they have to sell their winnings because it's too much for them or they can't afford the tax is either lying or not paying attention.

Contests such as these are fundamentally about branding. It doesn't really matter how the devices get out there or where they end up as long as people see or hear about the brand. Barbecuing oscilloscopes, anyone? Thus, it's working as intended or Keysight would stop doing it.

[Brumby]

So, those who claim they have to sell their winnings because it's too much for them or they can't afford the tax is either lying or not paying attention.

Rubbish.

In Australia, we don't have the tax problem, but we are aware of the impact of it to our US cousins.  We are aware of the early days where someone would win a car on a TV show - and then have to sell it to pay the tax bill.  They were still ahead, but to a lesser degree.  Winning a scope is no different.

As for selling a scope because it is "too much" for someone, how is that from someone "lying or not paying attention"?

As I said earlier, if I had won a 6000 series scope, there's very little chance I would ever seriously explore it's capabilities.  100MHz would do me - and even going to 200MHz would be something I would have to think about.  Selling a 6000 series scope and picking up a 100MHz scope plus some other gear makes far more sense than sitting on the beast that would be seriously underutilised.


As for the marketing exercise itself, Keysight are not going to be overly worried about one or two ... or even 10 scopes getting resold.  The marketing effort is something that will engage thousands of people who will share it with thousands more.  That's the purpose of this exercise, the scopes offered are are done so for the interest they will attract.  The actual scopes themselves are almost inconsequential.

[bitseeker]

As for selling a scope because it is "too much" for someone, how is that from someone "lying or not paying attention"?

Although restating things doesn't always make things clearer, I shall attempt it.

Not paying attention: They entered not understanding what they would win and only figured it out later.
Lying: The key phrase from my comment is that these winners claim that they "have to sell their winnings". If they were paying attention, then they knew what they would be getting. They didn't "have to" sell it because it's "too much". They chose to sell it, for whatever reason, which may include because it was too much for them.

Your example is different because it's not someone who is claiming that they "have to" sell it. You entered knowing what you'd win and sell it in order to put the value to better use. That's prudent. Plus the one who purchases the prize from you can make better use of it.

[Brumby]

They didn't "have to" sell it because it's "too much". They chose to sell it, for whatever reason, which may include because it was too much for them.

Ah - you were being very specific in your choice of words.

Fair enough then.

[EEVblog]

The vast majority of the giveaway scopes seems to be a secret new 100 MHz model, perhaps a upgraded 2000 series with touch screen. IMHO this would be a good thing because it greatly reduces the appeal to sell it right away and the tax is not a problem, even for private individuals 

Well it seems the cat is out of the bag now, it's mentioned right on their contest page, a new scope will be released March 1st.
Actually, you'll be able to see it (or some of it) sooner on the EEVblog 

[Muttley Snickers]

I could do with a big screen Keysight scope so I could then tell she who doesn't know the difference that it is a special TV for my viewing pleasure only, with my luck though they will probably nominate to have the draw on the 1st of April and we all know what that means.    

[ProBang2]

_{From the "Scope Month 2017 – Oscilloscope Sweepstakes Rules":}

[...] Multiple entries are permitted, but only one entry per individual per day. [...]

I am curious: How that is done technically?

Only regarding the name/email-adress?
Is the IP-adress used to differentiate the entries? Or the MAC-adress?

Perhaps that is interesting for some ones to avoid the unintentional invalidating of their entries.

Somehow I see pros and cons for every of this procedures...   


And BTW:
I will totally accept the result of the next Scopemonth...
- if I win an oscilloscope! 

[Terrius]

I've seen the "math test" that they have to complete for Canada and South Africa, it's trivial. I don't know the specifics behind the legislation, but no one is failing that test.

Whew, good to know, I was actually a bit worried that it would be an actual skill testing question and almost didn't sign-up. I know most contests in Canada have a skill testing question such as (What is 2+2-1) archaic laws are fun!

This looks like a really cool contest, thank you for holding it!

[imidis]

Hmm, I forget which email I used and I think I've used two, all other info same, dunno if that disqualifies me. I forget a lot

Good luck everyone though!

[bitseeker]

I could do with a big screen Keysight scope so I could then tell she who doesn't know the difference that it is a special TV for my viewing pleasure only, with my luck though they will probably nominate to have the draw on the 1st of April and we all know what that means.   

Does displaying video on a scope screen work well on a DSO? I imagine that it, like the scope clock, wouldn't look as good as on a CRO. But perhaps it'd be good enough to corroborate the TV story?

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

_{From the "Scope Month 2017 – Oscilloscope Sweepstakes Rules":}

[...] Multiple entries are permitted, but only one entry per individual per day. [...]

I am curious: How that is done technically?

Only regarding the name/email-adress?
Is the IP-adress used to differentiate the entries? Or the MAC-adress?

Perhaps that is interesting for some ones to avoid the unintentional invalidating of their entries.

Somehow I see pros and cons for every of this procedures...   

We're intentionally vague about what/how we check. But, every winner will be vetted again post-draw to check for "unfair advantage."

Hmm, I forget which email I used and I think I've used two, all other info same, dunno if that disqualifies me. I forget a lot

Good luck everyone though!

Rules state 1 entry per individual [human] per day. Keep it to one from this point and you should be fine . I try to be lax on this type of thing, but blatant, everyday multiple entries just isn't fair to everyone else and violates the T&Cs.

[Brumby]

Just checking the definition of "Day" in regards to one entry per day....

From the T's & C's, I would expect it is from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 Pacific Standard Time (Continental USA, west coast).

Is that correct?


The extension to this is that a person could submit an entry at 23:59:30 one day and then submit another 1 minute later - and both would be valid.

Is this also correct?


(I know I can't win here - I'm just participating in the spirit of the event.)