I was wasting time on ebay. I reminded myself that I was done buying stuff until I finished fixing what I had and also cleared some of the RTTY gear out. But tt was like a stray puppy that I couldn't resist. So I made a low offer, figuring it would be rejected.
Of course the seller accepted it forty-five seconds later. So now I have two TDR 1503s to repair.
The case on this one is in bad shape (the front panel cover is shattered on one side) but it has the strip recorder option and the front panel looks to be pretty good. Seventy-five bucks shipped for a parts mule.
Tee hee. I have a fetish for the 1502s, have got all of mine working, sold two, still to sell one, keeping one.
Good luck finding the thermal paper with sprocket holes for timing. ISTR someone saying that you could use some modern thermal paper, provided you used a 555 to synthesise the timing pulse.
Personally I prefer the XY output option, since I can stuff that up a digitising scope. I also prefer the 1502, since it can resolve small distances (140ps -> a couple of cm).
The 1502B's LCDs are a standard problem area, which is a shame since they are used for aerospace maintenance. That implies $ $ $, to the extent that an enterprising company makes direct replacements for the 1502B.