Interesting history:

 

I would too, if there was any thing in it!

 

I would too, if there was any thing in it!

0 is a number, too!

 

The sound of Rock n Roll is based on the vacuum tube. With all of the engineering poured into it over the years, nothing replaces it.

 

Most of my early shipboard technician life was spent working on vacuum tube technology equipment. I didn't love tubes then and I don't love them now. Try maintaining a room filled with 390 receivers, a tasks group src20 set or a spa-8 in the tropics with minimal or no AC in the room. Love is not the word I would use for that experience.

 

Most of my early shipboard technician life was spent working on vacuum tube technology equipment. I didn't love tubes then and I don't love them now. Try maintaining a room filled with 390 receivers, a tasks group src20 set or a spa-8 in the tropics with minimal or no AC in the room. Love is not the word I would use for that experience.

It's a lot like the old fashioned elevators with mechanical selectors, relay logic and AC/DC motor generator sets.

They're fun to watch and listen to, but a pain in butt to whoever maintains and repairs them.

 

I love vacuum tubes

So do I!

For the record --- Only at such time as EUV through 'hard' X-Rays (to at least 100 MeV) may be produced via semiconductor devices (composed of stable nuclides/isotopes) might one argue that electron tubes are wholly obsolete -- Then too, such indispensable (and ubiquitous) instruments as EMs, MSs and, indeed, all manner of particle accelerators, are, in essence, 're-entrant' electron tubes...

But here's a thought -- The Crookes tube (which being an experimental/demonstration CRT and X-Ray tube) is often cited as the earliest electron tube -- The irony (such that it is) being, inasmuch as a 'semiconductor realization' of the latter function is unlikely, that one is put in mind of the Bard's immortal line: "She, she at least, shall stand to the last even as she was first..." (Possible [proximate] paraphrase)...

Best regards
HP

 

I hate Vacuum tubes but I love Nixie tubes.

 

For the record --- Only at such time as EUV through 'hard' X-Rays (to at least 100 MeV) may be produced via semiconductor devices (composed of stable nuclides/isotopes) might one argue that electron tubes are wholly obsolete -- Then too, such indispensable (and ubiquitous) instruments as EMs, MSs and, indeed, all manner of particle accelerators, are, in essence, 're-entrant' electron tubes...

Tube are not obsolete but are (thank goodness) no longer general purpose devices for electronics.

I'm still the 'tube' guy.
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/tube-creep.113198/#post-880679

 

Quote from some old guy disparaging transistors: "There is nothing a tube can do that 5 or 6 transistors can't do."
I assume he was thinking about a pentagrid converter.
I also assume he was wrong about high energy circuits. There is definitely a limit to how much voltage you can connect to the pins of a TO-220 package.

In reality, 5 or 6 transistors still require less power than a pentagrid converter.
And while I'm here, I would like to discourage people who say transistors don't wear out. They don't get low emission from their cathodes, but ECG and I made a living replacing transistors that failed.

 

Tubes were great in digital test equipment, try lugging these guys around.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/edte/HP520/

 

Most of my early shipboard technician life was spent working on vacuum tube technology equipment. I didn't love tubes then and I don't love them now. Try maintaining a room filled with 390 receivers, a tasks group src20 set or a spa-8 in the tropics with minimal or no AC in the room. Love is not the word I would use for that experience.

I bench pressed a LOT of R-390s into racks....singlehandedly. And I STILL love them!

 

Tubes were great in digital test equipment, try lugging these guys around.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/edte/HP520/

I've had ALL of those!

 

Hey, they even made a phantastron oscillator using transistors. Of course the vacuum tube model was a pentode.

I remember lugging around those old Tektronix scopes.

 

Tube are not obsolete but are (thank goodness) no longer general purpose devices for electronics.

I'm still the 'tube' guy.
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/tube-creep.113198/#post-880679

My principal 'gripe' with 6BK4s (and their ilk) was the @#$% 'integral shielding' --- That said, 80keV shines on through quite nicely! -- No kidding! 6BK4s and 6EN4s will 'take' upwards of 100kV (cold 'cathode' inverse polarity) sans internal flash-over (following Ca. 1 hour 'pre-seasoning' in normal, forward operation [i.e. ≈ 20kV @ 5mA]) --- Needless to say, said off-label operation requires immersion in dielectric oil -- To my erstwhile youthful perspective, the apalling focal geometry was adequately compensated by economy

Nostalgically
HP

 

I remember lugging around those old Tektronix scopes.

Hey! --- I've yet an entire complement of 1Lxx series SA plugin units -- and, I daresay, a few 525 'mainframes' somewhere...
They may have been 'boat anchors' but giving them their due -- they were designed/constructed to higher quality standards than most equipment (in the $75K- $200K range) available today (if MTBF is any indication)

Best regards
HP

 

I bench pressed a LOT of R-390s into racks....singlehandedly. And I STILL love them!

I remember the (happy) day we junked all but a few of the R-390s and replaced them with the R-1051. (that still had two tubes LOL)

Maybe I worked too long in the Donut shop.

 

I remember lugging around those old Tektronix scopes.

That scope cart was build like a tank. I still have a few at work converted to custom mobile test racks.

 

I remember the (happy) day we junked all but a few of the R-390s and replaced them with the R-1051. (that still had two tubes LOL)

Maybe I worked too long in the Donut shop.

I've installed those too! FINE FINE radio...the synthesizer rocked.

 

That scope cart was build like a tank. I still have a few at work converted to custom mobile test racks.

I have TWO 545s with EVERY plug-in Tek made for them.