Info/docs on tube tester?

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com>
Date: Mon Apr 27 05:17:52 1998

On 26 Apr 98 at 12:05, William Donzelli wrote:

> > 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.
>
 People who view me and my puters fixations as stange anyway have thrown the
doorstop thing at me many times. A more novel suggestion has been using my
my 8580 full tower case as a coffee table. I considered it. My 3 5meg 8'' TRS
HDDs would also make a good base for a futon . I have a Qume daisy wheel
printer PS that will dim the lights in the neighborhood. ; ^ 0

> 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.
>
 Because of the inexactitude of tube output it would almost be necesary to
test each one in circuit and then tweak I would think.

> 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.
>
 It might be cheaper to buy a used Cray. :^))

> William Donzelli
> william_at_ans.net
>
>
 ciao larry
lwalker_at_interlog.com
Received on Mon Apr 27 1998 - 05:17:52 BST