Bench gear guides

The buying advice the SERPs are missing: decoders for the confusing model schemes, honest specs where vendors stretch them, and the counterfeit checklists.

• Which oscilloscope should you buy first?The 2026 answer without a listicle — why 4ch + 12-bit are the specs that matter, and the DHO804 vs SDS804X HD call.
• The Rigol DHO decoder (+ Siglent naming trap)What the model digits actually mean, and why Siglent’s bigger numbers can mean older, worse scopes.
• Oscilloscope firmware unlock trackerA living summary of which scopes the community can unlock for more bandwidth/memory — status, risks, ethics.
• Are FNIRSI specs real?What a “100 MHz” tablet scope actually delivers (~25 MHz), and when a FNIRSI is still worth buying.
• The fake bench gear problemCounterfeit Hakko/JBC tips and fake Fluke meters — the weight tests and tells to verify what you received.