Right now he could get a fully unlocked 1Ghz RTM3K for 10K, but I agree, a new scope likely isn't worth it for him. Even the RTB2K fully unlocked is 3700 and would require he lose 200Mhz bandwidth.
Well, that would be an upgrade, but at the price that is 250% over his budget, a full 6000 USD more.
That is what I said, that is not "a bit more saving"...
In my country there are many people that work for 500USD a month. 6000USD is somebody's yearly salary.
I'm sorry, that is why "a bit more" statement rubs me the wrong way..
Any way, rants aside, I agree with you, even if it was much less to "upgrade" it is not an upgrade if you don't gain new measurements and usability enhancements that you will actually use..
That is why I shared my experience that most of the time, you get more if you invest money into capabilities that you really miss and not incrementally upgrading what you already have. Unless your existing equipment is obviously limiting to your work, in which case it is obvious that you need to upgrade.
As far as scopes, to go further, if you have SA , FFT migh not be really important. If you have LA, you will decode better with that. Etc etc..
I have MSOX3000T as fast general purpose scope, supplemented with Pico 3406DMSO for 512 MPoint long mem, and a 16 bit Pico 4262 for low level, low noise, low frequency measurement (less than 8uV noise floor
). I also have Zeroplus LAP-C 16128.
There is not much I cannot see, measure or decode with that combination in my work.
That is my perfect scope. There is no instrument that does all that in one box, at least not at the prices that are not paid by Department of Defense.