Dear Rudra,

I fully understand your predicament but let me make certain things clear - lest someone should come to the conclusion that in India things are SO difficult.

This situation you described did exist a decade back. After the liberalization policy, things have changed for the good. To day you can buy oscilloscopes from INR 25K ( USD 500 ) upwards. A dual trace 30MHz is what you can get for about INR 33K. I am talking about a model from Scientific. OK maybe thier probes are nothing to shout about - but that you can buy from Tektronix. And if you so want you can buy the top of the line Tektronix DSO or a Sony stuff. Really the choice is entirely up to you.

And service ? Not a problem again - my oscilloscope has been with me the last three years now and this never was an issue. And if you go with Tektronix they have a full fledged setup for this - not that it is needed.

The issue really boils down to one of investment / utility ratio. Apart from that, I dont think any company worth its name in electronics can do without a Oscilloscope + Freq. Generator + Frequency meter to start with.

And your statement that oscilloscopes are needed only in 0.1% of the cases is incorrect. Once you have an oscilloscope, you will find that it kind off grows on you. You start using it more and more. Yes. Trust me.

Raghu