Straydog wrote:

You might want to think about the tube evolutions: the very early tubes
are harder to find and more expensive and particularly the tube sockets.

I just want to say that if you want to build your own tube gear, you
should look seriously at compactrons. Designed for consumer electronics
use, they have some excellent specifications and a lot of elements in
a package. And they are absolutely dirt cheap because there is no demand
for them on the surplus market at all.

Some of these things are absolutely wonderful performers and available
free for the asking. 12 pins good!
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Straydog wrote:

You might want to think about the tube evolutions: the very early tubes
are harder to find and more expensive and particularly the tube sockets.

I just want to say that if you want to build your own tube gear, you
should look seriously at compactrons. Designed for consumer electronics
use, they have some excellent specifications and a lot of elements in
a package. And they are absolutely dirt cheap because there is no demand
for them on the surplus market at all.

Well, I'm already committed to 7 & 9 pin miniatures, and 8 pin octals,
have plenty of sockets, and more than enough tubes for my lifetime.

Once, long ago, I had a filament battery portable AM radio. About half the
size of a cigar box. Four tubes, one D cell, one 90 v B battery, and lift
up the cover, and it goes on in about 1/2 second, and sounded good. If I
have time, I'd like to build that (if I can't find a replica, or a similar
set [I think the old Zenith trans-oceanic had battery filament tubes, too,
might be interested in one of those instead]). Just for nostalgia.

Some of these things are absolutely wonderful performers and available
free for the asking. 12 pins good!
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Straydog wrote:


On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Straydog wrote:

You might want to think about the tube evolutions: the very early tubes
are harder to find and more expensive and particularly the tube sockets.

I just want to say that if you want to build your own tube gear, you
should look seriously at compactrons. Designed for consumer electronics
use, they have some excellent specifications and a lot of elements in
a package. And they are absolutely dirt cheap because there is no demand
for them on the surplus market at all.

Well, I'm already committed to 7 & 9 pin miniatures, and 8 pin octals,
have plenty of sockets, and more than enough tubes for my lifetime.

Once, long ago, I had a filament battery portable AM radio. About half
the size of a cigar box. Four tubes, one D cell, one 90 v B battery, and
lift up the cover, and it goes on in about 1/2 second, and sounded good.
If I have time, I'd like to build that (if I can't find a replica, or a
similar set [I think the old Zenith trans-oceanic had battery filament
tubes, too, might be interested in one of those instead]). Just for
nostalgia.

Some of these things are absolutely wonderful performers and available
free for the asking. 12 pins good!
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I've got a few 6AR11's and 6AF11's that I've been meaning to use for
something. The 6AR11 puts two if stages in on bottle. I also have
quite a few 85khz command set IF cans, so that would be nice. The 6AF11
makes a nice dual af stage, plus the extra triode can be used as an agc
amplifier, smeter amp, or bfo tube. I was thinking of making an all
compactron clone of the Drake 2B at one time, using a last if of 85khz
instead of 50khz to make use of the command set coils.
It would use one 6AR11 as the rf / first mixer, and at the IF stage.
A 6D10 could be the vfo, HFO and hfo buffer. The last mixer would have
been a 6BE6 cause I couldn't think of a compactron for that stage.

Another idea is the one tube regen from 'pop tronics using the 6AF11.

On 11 Apr 2007 13:37:47 -0700, "NS7F" wrote:

Hello all,
I have discovered how much fun tubes can be, and am in the process of
planning one or more transmitters to go along with my 2-tube
regenerative receiver. Now, I'm only 23 years old, so I'm in the
process of researching hollow state technology. Could you please put
together a short list of the "best" ARRL handbook editions? I have 99
and 05- I'm just looking for a few years to watch for on amazon, etc.
Of course, recommendations for other books would be appreciated, too,
but I'm on a tight budget...

Thank you very much in advance for your advice.

Ross, NS7F

If you like tubes, go on e-bay and look for any ARRL handbook from the
late Fifties. That was near the end of the tube era, and you may still
find a few NOS tubes from those days at the surplus places.

bob
k5qwg