@med6753: With the first version of that bloody manual out for review, I did return to that matter.
Here is what I found so far:
My last post was insofar not precise as the mention of 'single shot' was instead meant to refer to single aquisition, that is all modes which do not use the 'repetitive' function.
I'm sorry that I can not include the missing parts, that is the table from page 3 of the catalogue excerpt and the block diagram from the maintenance manual, but those are PDFs which I obtained either from K07BB or from the TekWiki and they are protected, so that I can't print or snapshot from them. One day hopefully someone will explain to me how this can be resolved.
.......snip......
Thanks for taking the time to examine this and trying to figure out exactly what the manual says and how this 2430 is supposed to work. I have also read the same sections of the manual so I'm glad that I'm not the only one who is somewhat confused as to what exactly Tek's intention was in the design of this scope.
I think it's important to remember that we are dealing with a 1980's technology first generation DSO. The 1980's tech slaps you in the face as soon as you open the case. 2 logic boards completely stuffed full of pin-thru-hole IC's. Reminds me of the first time you open a 1980's PC/AT and stare at the enormous motherboard. And all those IC's today probably condensed into 2 or 3 chips with 100X the function. We have indeed been spoiled. And remember how the typical PC/AT would take upwards of 15 or more seconds to render a high resolution JPEG on the CRT a few lines at a time? Well that same lack of horsepower occurs on the 2430 too. When in REPETITION mode you have the option of selecting 2 samples/sec up to 256 samples/sec. With a high frequency waveform and selecting 256 samples/sec you can watch the scope slowly render just like the PC/AT does with the JPEG. My entry level Siglent SDS 1052DL renders instantly with absolutely no lag.
I wonder if the true analog B/W of the 2430 is indeed just 40MHz and with the digital sampling trickery it achieves it's intended 150MHz B/W. This is nothing new in the analog world. Tek for many years has offered analog sampling units which gave a good rendering of waveforms up into the GHz region.
So in real world test. 10 MHz square wave. How does a 150MHz 2430 stack up against a 300MHz 2465? Damn good I'd say even with it's digital wizardry. Slight increase in rise time (expected) and it attenuates the very high frequency ringing on the trailing edge. Also expected.