Info/docs on tube tester?

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Sun Apr 26 11:05:49 1998

> EICO was considered higher quality than Heath Kits audio gear and made
> excellent test equipment for the home-tech market in the tube era. Many
> old-tube enthusiasts still use them .

Yes, better than Heathkits, but these days even the high quality stuff is
cheap and available (HP, Tektronix, Boonton, General-Radio, etc.). Of
course, the one place where you will have to spend money on old test
equipment _is_ that of tube testers, mostly due to the audiophiles. If you
can get a good old Hickok for less than $150, you should jump on it.

> Bill I'm shocked. Hope that list name was chosen in derision of the throw-away
> generation. : ^ ))

The name came about by all of the smartass hams at the hamfests that would
watch some of us lug 90 pound tube radios back to our cars ("hey, where
did you get the boatanchor!"), while they had whole Kenwood stations that
would fit in a fairly small box. Of course, they would really start
laughing when we would have to go back to get the 40 pound power supplies.

Anyway, I really wonder how good most (all?) tube testers would be for
digital logic applications. All of the good testers I can think of do a
fine job on emmision, shorts, and gas, but the gm test generally is fairly
dumb - a steady 60 Hz (sometimes 1 kHz) fed into the grid, and look at the
output. That is exactly what logic circuits do not do.

The Tek tube curve tracer (model 577 or 565 - help! I can not remember)
would be very good, but you would have to sell your Imsai and Altair to
pay for one.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Sun Apr 26 1998 - 11:05:49 BST