Okay, you've convinced me. Drake had no idea what they were doing.

73,
Darrell, WA5VGO







"RadioGuy" wrote in
:


Michael A. Terrell wrote in message
...
Darrell wrote:

You miss the point. Drake didn't buy their tubes from the surplus
market.
They bought them bulk packaged from the manufacturer. It did make
sence from their standpoint and it didn't compromise the product.
From a boatanchor standpoint I wish they had used 6146's. But when
put in their shoes in 1963, it was a good business decision.

Most horizontal output tubes have distortion products comparable to
the 6146 if you keep the voltage and power down to reasonable
levels. Third order products are typically in the -25 Db range
which is right in there with the 6146.

73,
Darrell, WA5VGO


Another point of view: If a ham needed new final tubes he could
buy
them at any TV shop or parts house, but the 6146 wasn't always
available over the counter without a wait.

--
?

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Well... maybe if you were using a single tube that would be the case.
The Drake gear (besides gear from other manufacturers) used more than
one tube requiring them to be matched. I recall Drake sold matched
sets of tubes after checking their cathode currents in a test fixture.
The tubes were them marked and collected into sets for sale. I
recall seeing the number '18' on the envelope of a matched set of
6JB6's. What '18' meant I just don't know. I also recall some folks
back then claim the the tubes were also matched on the basis of plate
capacitance. I'd look at the matched sets that I have but they have
been in sealed packages for nearly 30 years so I hate to open them.

The 6146's weren't a problem... we always seemed to get them if we
needed them---they seemed to be everywhere. They were sort of like
antenna insulators---if you needed them someone had them and would
give them to you. I never bought a 6146... One fellow gave me a
couple of boxes of 6146W's (yea... they were in the white boxe with
the black print on the side ;-). A lot of manufacturers were using
the 6146's in their designs and the tubes had been around a long
time---for decades.

RG