I'm thinking of buying a basic oscilloscope, perhaps 20 MHz
dual-trace.  In the U.S. are there brands to seek out or
avoid?  What features would you look for?

10 responses total.

Look around for used - the bottom really dropped out of the analog scope
market a few years back.

What does the "hold off" function do?  I don't remember ever
using that and notice that it's an option on some scopes.

What features to look for depends a lot on what you want to do with it.  
Pretty much any 'scope is going to have enough features for basic 
electronics work.  As for brands, it's hard to go wrong with Tektronix. 

Kenwood has made some good scopes, and the Tenma brand from MCM have
seemed decent, the bit that I have used them.

    I still don't have an oscilloscope.  Just like last year
I have a 10MHz single-trace analogue scope on my Christmas
wish list, just in case.

Get one yet?

Its amazing how affordable they've become. I did a simple google search and
you can get a Rigol 100MHz dual-trace digital Oscope for $359.99

That sounds pricey.

Re. 6: Yes!  I received one for my birthday this year! :-)

On the low-end, I think Siglent makes very 
nice scopes; better than Rigol. I like my 
Keysight MSO-X, but was sorely tempted when 
R&S ran a special on a 300MHz model a few 
months ago for the price of their 70MHz model. 
I thought I might trade up my old Tek DPO 
scope, but I thought their initial offering 
may be a bit immature, so I held off.

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