The wacky world of tubes...

[K7SGJ]

I have a TV-7 military surplus tester from fair radio, and it works great. I don't know if they are available any more. Yeah I know, lots of knobs.

Now all you need is a civilian tube tester and you'll be set.

[NQ6U]

Now all you need is a civilian tube tester and you'll be set.

Or, his tubes could just enlist.

[kb2vxa]

He's a drug store tube testin' ham
He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He'll be lucky if he's not in town

Well he's got him a shack on the hill
He plays country records till you've had your fill
He's an AM Gangsta, and an all night DJ
But he sure does think different from the records he plays

[XE1/N5AL]

Or, his tubes could just enlist.

After an honorable service, they could study under the G.I. Bill to become transistors.

[kb2vxa]

They don't have to study, haven't you made any of those plug in transistorized tube replacement things? No, not rectumfryers, appleflyers.

[koØm]

I have a tube tester, the Eico Model 628, tests all the small tubes FB but,



It has a 12 pin compactron socket but, no data for testing sweep tubes like the 6LF6, 8950 or other tubes like 7581, 8908, or 8950. No information on 6JE6-6LQ6 either.

By looking at the details of the switch positions for a known tube like a 6BQ5, I determined what state the tester was placing the various elements of the tube at when testing, and, I transferred the extrapolated info to that of the tube I needed to test whose setting were not on the roll.

It just taking up space and collecting dust; it's going on the table of the next ham flea market.

.

[w0aew]

What was to prevent the Rat Shack & drugstore testers from being intentionally set to bad (or allowed to go out of calibration) to sell more tubes?

[K7SGJ]

What was to prevent the Rat Shack & drugstore testers from being intentionally set to bad (or allowed to go out of calibration) to sell more tubes?

You always tested the new tube to make sure the tester wasn't fubared. As I recall, most all of the tube testers I ever had, or worked, on didn't have any internal calibration pots. All the variable pots/switches were user controls to set filament voltage, grid, screen and plate voltages. I suppose an internal resistor in the divider could go bad, but if it did, you would catch a problem when testing the new tube, or even testing your other tubes, as they would most likely test bad as well. At that point, I would have had someone at the store pull out a tube or two from stock and test it.

[kb2vxa]

Rat Shack wouldn't fiddle with a tester, they sold Gold Line tubes with lifetime guarantee (not that of the tube smarty pants) and gold plated pins. I had a transmitter that ate finals and returned them every couple of months. It took over a year for bright boy Ed Krisko the manager to ask "You're not using them as sweep tubes, are you?" I don't know if he came in a can, I never asked.

[K7SGJ]

Rat Shack wouldn't fiddle with a tester, they sold Gold Line tubes with lifetime guarantee (not that of the tube smarty pants) and gold plated pins. I had a transmitter that ate finals and returned them every couple of months. It took over a year for bright boy Ed Krisko the manager to ask "You're not using them as sweep tubes, are you?" I don't know if he came in a can, I never asked.

Yeah, they lost their ass on me, too, with that lifetime guarantee crap.