A worthy cause it seems, and please don't think I am trying to discourage anyone.
But I wonder, when was it the last time anyone here needed to actually replace the U800 chip in their scopes that died of "natural" causes?
Just wondering if there is really still a big demand for these, or a substitute replacement. Not too long ago I remember to sometimes see a listing for an original working Tek chip on ebay, at around BIN $125-150, but no takers for weeks or months. I was once close to buying one just as a future rainy day spare, but given the high price and apparent reliability of these chips, never did. If it has been in place for 30+ years and is still working fine, seems unlikely it might suddenly fail out of the blue. Unless of course the scope suffers a fan failure or airflow intake block. Or people insisting on messing around with the chip and damaging it by trying to attach an unneeded heatsink on them. But otherwise these chips appear to me to be pretty stable.
But if anyone has indeed a damaged U800 story, I would certainly like to hear about it.