COLIN LAMB wrote:
Many transconductance testers have multiple switch decks to move each
element around. This represents a number of additional steps, over the
emission tester.

And, I often can get the radio back up and running in 20 minutes - and speed
is important since I do not charge for it.

Chuck no doubt is more thorough than I am - but I am only servicing an old
radio and not a 50 Mhz precision scope. Incidently, one of my close friends
designed many of the circuits in the 585, and single handedly designed the
519 and 130, and I have a row Tek scopes and other Tek equipment.

Colin K7FM

Hi Colin,

My first emission style tester had a bank of switch levers, one
for each of the 12 possible pins on a tube. Each switch had
several possible positions:

1) Heater +
2) Heater -
3) Plate
4) Cathode
5) Open

The Hickok testers arrange the pins by using a bank of rotary switches,
with a separate rotary switch for each of the following elements:

1) Filament
2) Filament
3) Cathode
4) Grid
5) Plate
6) Screen
7) Supressor

For setup, it becomes a 6 of one, half-dozen of the other situation.
Either way, you have to account for all of the elements in the tube.

As to fixing a radio in 20 minutes, or less... Sure, since most radios
have fewer than 20 tubes (KWM-2 has 18). A minute a tube is very realistic.

I've done it both ways, and for me it takes as long to use an emissions
tester as it does to test the tube correctly with a transconductance
tester. There isn't a significant difference in the number of steps
either way. There is a major difference in the quality of the test.

-Chuck