Day 43, My Rigol oscilloscope
I'm mostly a software guy, but occasionally I have dabbled with hardware in the form of both microcontrollers like the Espressif ESP8266, ESP32, and Arduino, but also a variety of simple radio circuits. For a while, I used an old 20Mhz Philips analog oscilloscope that I got at a swap meet, but a few years ago I decided that getting something with a bit more capabilities would be good. After digging around, I settled on this: a Rigol DS1102E.
An oscilloscope basically samples an analog voltage as it varies over time. This is a two-channel model which can sample signals up to 100M samples per second. This is adequate for my audio and high-frequency radio work, and is easy to use. This is a dual channel model, meaning it can monitor two different circuit points. I suspect that if you were to buy a model in a similar price point today, you might be able to get a four channel model (Siglent appears to have some good offerings) but this remains sufficient (or even overkill) for most of my needs.
One more thing about these digital oscilloscopes: they are vastly more compact and lighter than old Analog models. I built a little nook that I hang on my pegboard that this nestles into, so it's always quite convenient. Most old models were deep, and/or needed a cart to store them.
Happy Saturday!