I agree. There is little, IF ANY, correlation between the "consumer" price
of components and the commercial (manufacturers') pricing. Besides the
quantity discount, there are other factors: One is that Drake may have, and
probably did, buy other tube types from the same supplier (which may not
have been the tube manufacturer!) That can leverage prices downward on one,
a few, or all types. Other components come into play too, for different
tube types may not use the same sockets, and may require different designs
for stability, etc so that a particular tube might require, say, a more
expensive bypass capacitor (just an example). Then there might have been
power supply consideratons involving the different voltages/currents for the
different types. These decisions are made in the early stages of design,
and usually revolve around what is the cheapest way to achieve the desired
result. Even if, at a later date, experience factors dictate using a
different tube, I doubt that (in this discussion case) the cost/benefit
tradeoff would favor going to the 6146. In order to know whether Drake was
smart, we need to know all the decision factors and conditions at the time.
Of course, hindsight always has 20-20 vision.

In the good OLD tradition of Hamming, those who so desired could do their
own engineering redesign. Yank out the sweeps and associated
circuitry/components if you didn't like 'em and build out with 6146s.

73,
Dube K4DWW






"RadioGuy" wrote in message
...

Antonio Vernucci wrote in message
...
I don't recall the 6146 was that expensive. We could find them at the
hamfest, surplus and they were routinely given away from one ham to
another... heck,

What you say is true for a ham in need of just replacing a pair of tubes.
But it would not have been true at all for Drake.

A company producing ham gear cannot depend on tubes found at a good price
here and there. They have to place a contract with a tube manufacturer who
can guarantee delivery in time and in the required quantities. Prices are
then market prices, not surplus prices.

73

Antonio I0JX

Well, the tube (6146) was in constant production during Drakes operation
(about 30 years) so it would imply that they were very common and
cheap---practically every other amateur equipment manufacturer was using
the
6146. Large numbers were used by the military and commercial services.
My
gosh... if Heath was using them they certaintly couldn't have been that
prohibitive to design with. So it begs the question why Drake was using
them.

RG