Drake Final Tubes
 

The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of 6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin with?

Sure, back then it seemed in vogue to use sweep tubes in amateur gear (yea,
sure, Swan gear...) but as I recall, we thought that Drake was kinda cheesy
to use those tubes anyway. I gonna stick my neck out and say Drake
engineering wasn't the end all that the youngsters think nowadays.

(Yes... I have a complete Drake station (including amplifier)---the whole
line-up in pristine, vitrually unused condition in crisp factory cartons
including accessories, catalogs and a handful of the right-angle Switchcraft
microphone (black cap) and key (red cap) plugs that Drake originally
supplied not that PL-whatever. Original owner---me---so it's not sour
grapes.)

RG

Compare the price of 6146's and sweep tubes the time the T4X was on the
drawing board, and I bet you'll find your answer!
.....Dave
"RadioGuy" wrote in message
...
The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of
6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES
back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap
ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin with?

Sure, back then it seemed in vogue to use sweep tubes in amateur gear
(yea,
sure, Swan gear...) but as I recall, we thought that Drake was kinda
cheesy
to use those tubes anyway. I gonna stick my neck out and say Drake
engineering wasn't the end all that the youngsters think nowadays.

(Yes... I have a complete Drake station (including amplifier)---the whole
line-up in pristine, vitrually unused condition in crisp factory cartons
including accessories, catalogs and a handful of the right-angle
Switchcraft
microphone (black cap) and key (red cap) plugs that Drake originally
supplied not that PL-whatever. Original owner---me---so it's not sour
grapes.)

RG

Dave Edwards wrote in message
...
Compare the price of 6146's and sweep tubes the time the T4X was on the
drawing board, and I bet you'll find your answer!
....Dave
"RadioGuy" wrote in message
...
The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of
6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES
back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap
ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin
with?

Sure, back then it seemed in vogue to use sweep tubes in amateur gear
(yea,
sure, Swan gear...) but as I recall, we thought that Drake was kinda
cheesy
to use those tubes anyway. I gonna stick my neck out and say Drake
engineering wasn't the end all that the youngsters think nowadays.

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, Heathkit used them, Collins used them... (not to mention
the ham and commercial gear in the 60's) and to think that Drake had to use
a sweep tubes in gear that many of us thought was somewhat superior to
Collins. By the 1970's the 6146 was so plentiful that they really weren't
an issue. It was the sweep tube that turned many of us off---but then the
Drake name seemingly overshadowed whatever disappointment we had. Remember
how you hated to tune up from fear of destroying those things. Gee... I
remember those sweep tube CB amplifiers that fed the CB craze of the 70's.
What was it... 12 6DQ6's in parallel or something gosh...

RG

There may be more to it than that. The advantage of sweep tubes was that
they worked very well at lower voltage. For the same power level, the 6146
required more voltage. Also remember this was before the 6146B arrived.

I am not a collector of Drake equipment (and I am not a fan of sweep tubes),
but didn't the TR-3 arrive first? Three tubes were used for a lot of power.
The use of the sweep tubes there may have set the foundation for later
transmitters and transceivers.

I remember a conversation with a friend some 45 years ago. He was lamenting
that the Hallicrafters HT-32 used the 6146, because it was so wimpy and
actually had lower plate dissipation than the 807 it was supposed to
replace. He returned the HT-32 and bought an old Harvey Wells Bandmaster.
Then worked the world on 10 meters with that rig.

73, Colin K7FM

The world AND all TV sets for miles in all directions? That was my friend's
experience... Though it was an interesting shaped radio compared to more common
shapes.

COLIN LAMB wrote:

I remember a conversation with a friend some 45 years ago. He was lamenting
that the Hallicrafters HT-32 used the 6146, because it was so wimpy and
actually had lower plate dissipation than the 807 it was supposed to
replace. He returned the HT-32 and bought an old Harvey Wells Bandmaster.
Then worked the world on 10 meters with that rig.

73, Colin K7FM

RadioGuy wrote:

The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of 6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin with?

If you have all that gear in that kind of shape,
$100 invested in the correct tubes seems like a very good idea.

RadioGuy wrote:
The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of 6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin with?

Because they were just so phenomenally cheap. Sweep tubes were plentiful
and inexpensive and compared with similar power output transmitting tubes
it was hard to justify the cost in a non-ruggedized installation.

Sure, back then it seemed in vogue to use sweep tubes in amateur gear (yea,
sure, Swan gear...) but as I recall, we thought that Drake was kinda cheesy
to use those tubes anyway. I gonna stick my neck out and say Drake
engineering wasn't the end all that the youngsters think nowadays.

It was built to a pricepoint like everything else ever has been. A somewhat
higher pricepoint than the Swan gear, mind you, but it was not built without
design constraints.
--scott

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

David Stinson wrote:
RadioGuy wrote:

The thought came to me the other day whle thinking about the cost of 6JB6's
nearly $100 for a set; I paid $18.00 for a matched set of three at AES back
in the 1970's and I got plenty of spares. Why did Drake use those cheap ass
sweep tubes in their final instead of the old standard 6146 to begin with?

If you have all that gear in that kind of shape,
$100 invested in the correct tubes seems like a very good idea.

Yes, but his point is that originally they were a few bucks each at the
drug store. These aren't exactly the most robust tubes around, and nobody
today would EVER think of using one in a new design.

Back in the seventies, people were rebuilding old surplus gear to take
sweep tubes because they were so cheap and plentiful. Today people are
rebuilding ham gear built for sweep tubes to take transmitting tubes.
It all goes back again.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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

FWIW, I just looked in a 1970 Newark catalog. 6146As were about $4,
and 6146Bs about $5. Smaller sweep tubes went around $3 and larger
ones around $4.