Just Who Makes Tubes These Days? | Hackaday

For most of us, electronic technology takes the form of solid-state devices. Transistors, integrated circuits, microcontrollers. However, in the first sixty years or so of the current field, these devices have either not been invented or are in the early stages of development, so that they are not cost-effective or widely used. Instead, a very different type of electronic component dominates the vacuum tube.

The electrical properties of a group of electrodes in a vacuum glass enclosure depend on the modulation of the electron flow through them. Until the 1960s, these electrodes were ubiquitous in consumer electronics and even popular in some mass market applications. The mid-1970s. As cheaper, more general-purpose semiconductors replaced them, they faded from the electronic parts catalog, and the industry that once produced them in such quantities disappeared in favor of factories that produced new devices. Consumer products no longer contain these products, and an entire generation of engineers has never worked with them. If you made a tube amplifier in the early 1990s, it would be a big anomaly.

As the composition of our consumer electronics products becomes more and more digital, there is growing interest in analog devices, or at least devices with obvious analog components. In particular, the audio world has begun to chase the elusive "tube sound", whether it's a deliberately overdriven amplifier for guitarists or a perfect amplifier for audiophiles.

High-end high-fidelity stores are full of tube-based devices, and electronic enthusiasts can also use a large number of tube amplifier kits. Various brands of electronic tubes can be purchased at dizzying prices, which is a pleasant surprise for a technology that may be thought to have disappeared 40 years ago. However, this does raise an interesting question. There are so many steel pipe brands on the market, where are they manufactured, and how have their manufacturers survived for so long? The answer is relatively simple, but in other respects it is a maze of complexity.

Although the vacuum tubes of decades ago may have disappeared from ordinary electronic products, it is worth pointing out that many old names in the vacuum tube industry did not stop manufacturing vacuum tubes, but just stopped manufacturing vacuum tubes that you may be familiar with. In industrial applications, vacuum equipment is still closely related to us, although in many cases, their semiconductor devices will be tightly broken.

For example, high-power RF amplifiers for UHF and higher frequencies still use vacuum tubes because they

Or a slightly faster exotic fare, such as klystron. Similarly, there are still dedicated RF applications still in use

, And ultra-high power industrial equipment that uses vacuum and gas-filled tubes for control or rectification.

But who is making "ordinary" tubes-smaller glass enveloped tubes, small triodes and pentodes? We recognize some past names, such as

Either

, Others are modern brands, such as

Or mudguard

Brand, others are obviously Russian or Chinese names, for example

,

,

", or

. Obviously, there are few test tube factories left in the world as many logos printed on imported test tube glass, so what is going on?

The answer is that by 2020, the consumer electronic tube business will no longer be a commodity parts market, it will be the lifeblood of one million TV sets and radios, but a boutique serving niche markets. Looking at the available tubes, it is clear that if you are looking for the humble 1050s small signal RF tube, you will be unfortunate. These are mainly audio amplifier components, dual triodes, output pentodes, and even occasional power rectifiers, and they are expensive and may surprise original buyers.

For example, the Mullard brand ECC83 (12AX7) general purpose small-signal dual triode made by Electric

(£35.09) in 2020, while

We found the same part number that advertises 8 shillings and thrift, that is, the price of this part number is £0.41 ($0.51) in British currency after decimal digitization. use

Today's price is about £9.96 (approximately US$12.27), so Hyundai's reissue price is more than three times the original price in its heyday. Obviously, this is a business with a large price increase, and the rest of the world's steel pipe mills are making money.

Upon further investigation, we found that there is no such type of pipe manufacturing in America and Western Europe. It survived the decline of Russia, China, and the former communist countries of Eastern Europe in the 1970s. With the decline of Soviet communism and the growth of the Chinese economy in the 1990s, it emerged from the shadows and provided products for the audio market. These do include factories that have been engaged in the pipeline industry for a long time, and their products have decades of reliable service experience.

Therefore, if the brand name of the straw you buy today is Western, it will be produced in the same Eastern factory as something with an obvious communist tradition, so given that the same can be obtained from the same source under those cheaper brands Part numbers, so it’s hard not to doubt whether they are actually the exact same tube, but the price is too high.

In the slovak republic

, This is a long-established electron tube manufacturer that used to be

Range of vacuum devices. They are not allowed to put their own electronic tube trademarks on their websites, but they are considered to be the source of these Telefunken brand parts. Move east to Russia and then we find

In St. Petersburg, consumer electronic tubes corresponding to industrial and high-power RF vacuum equipment are only a small part of its product range on its website. They used to be the manufacturer of the Svetlana series of test tubes in the Soviet era. Although they no longer own the brand name, they retain the winged C logo of that era. It is not clear whether they are still involved in the production of brand tubes, because their website is not very informative, but their "Weded C" tubes are still on sale.

The whole Russia in Saratov, a southern Russian city, as well as the Expo-PUL factory, the story here becomes interesting. It is owned by Americans

The company also owns the rights to many older brands including Svetlana, Sovtec, Mullard and Tung-Sol. The reissued Mullard ECC83 was made here, and it became news of the past

Entering China, the situation becomes quite opaque. There are some larger manufacturers in China that can produce high-quality pipes for high-end export trade, but there are also cheap pipes on the market with few manufacturer logos and almost no traceability. If you spend $20 on an AliExpress tube headphone amplifier kit, you will most likely receive one of the latter, but its source is unclear.

The largest manufacturer in China is

, Located in Changsha City, Hunan Province. They produce various products and produce parts for other brands. Their upstart competitors

It is also located in Changsha and specializes in the high-end audio market. For example, it is unlikely

Although this will come from these two manufacturers or their smaller high-end competitors, it is clear that there are more Chinese pipe manufacturers at all levels of the market, and this is not easy to find on the other side of the world .

As someone who has been a vacuum technology enthusiast for 40 years, I am now happy that the product is still in production and the industry seems to be healthy. But my journey in the world of tube manufacturing in the 21st century disappointed me a bit, because most of their marketing is still shrouded in myths.

As someone

When it was very unpopular, I understood the charm of the elusive "tube sound", but experience taught me that it was not as good as the supporters thought. Even the distortion characteristics that musicians seek can be easily created by DSP in 2020, so I can’t help but lead people astray, because I see the same tube at various prices based on its tube alone. sell. brand. I like to use tubes and listen to tube amplifiers. But don’t make the mistake of falling into the hype trap, and never ignore engineering.

A set of electrodes in a vacuum glass enclosure whose electrical properties depend on the modulation of the electron flow through them. Until the 1960s, these electrodes were ubiquitous in consumer electronics and even popular in some mass market applications

.

You will forget a long-lasting mass-market electronic tube application: cathode ray tubes.

Moreover, you have forgotten the vacuum tube in the microwave oven.

Yes, although microwave oven vacuum tubes (magnetrons) are not so sexy because they lack glass. In addition to the things that melt/destroy, I'm still happy to find uses for the salvaged people. Maybe it's a huge Tesla coil or something...

However, discussions of modern electronic tubes should not ignore this cool French video about handmade vacuum tubes from scratch. Hackaday actually contacted it for a while.

I think physics determines that microwave-based vacuum tubes will be small. Like a few inches long.

I think physicists say that microwave-based Tesla coils will be very small (if too much power), for example less than 5 inches in length?

This magnetron is not just a vacuum tube, but the entire transmitter. Therefore, it is difficult to repurpose it. Even its transmission frequency is not adjustable.

And Ron Soyland (glass strap on YouTube) hand-made tubes. He keeps them in order, but mainly to restore old audio. His video is very, very good. He shows the process in detail, making you feel that anyone can do it with just a little practice. :)

Microwave glue curing is used in industry for wood bonding and composite materials, but I have not seen amateur use. I did see magnetron herbicides. However, for amateurs, these are not safe...

The microwave display is usually a vacuum fluorescent display, and the other is a vacuum tube. In fact, you can use them as low-gain direct heating triodes.

Check out Korg 6P1 dual triode.

Basically, it adjusts the Noritake VFD into the audio vacuum tube.

The main problem with it is that it is obviously crazy microphonic.

real. Also, the magnetron.

"Instead, different electronic components rule the vacuum tube.

The vacuum tube is missing. Maybe this is a fluid extraction device?

This is certainly not "disappearing", there is one in every microwave oven, and the local music store will be happy to sell you a guitar amplifier with a tube.

(Facepalm)

X didn't understand the meaning of the joke...

Has Futaba not recently launched a VFD for small signal audio applications?

There is a notice of withdrawal from VFD on its website:

Korg Nutube:

I can't see any difference from any conventional VFD. Although cool application...maybe it's time to turn my giant Soviet 7-segment VFD into a triode!

Korg Nutube is a triode instead of a VFD package. It is not a display, but a very small amplifier. Its manufacturing cost may be much cheaper than traditional tubes, and they can make a wide tube and pack multiple tube elements in one package.

Apart from doing it very well, I really have nothing else to say. Just check in.

I noticed that in the reference schematic of your Yugoslavian pipe project, negative feedback depends on the resistance of the volume control tap to ground and the input source impedance at high volume settings. Is there any instability or distortion when the volume control is set too low?

It is almost certain that this is the product of my youthful prosperity and not any similar engineering ability.

And this person:

Who makes a brand new digital tube.

Korg Nutube contains 99% of the marketing. It is not useful for classic audio designs because it requires a positive grid bias and the anode has a power rating of 1.7mW.

This is the answer to question j above.

Please fix the comment section.

"Please fix the comment section"

The most overlooked comment about Hackaday.

To be fair, this is provided by our host wordpress.com.

I found the comment section in HaD to be as enlightening and entertaining as the article.

Considering how important this is to the community, just pointing the finger at WP doesn't seem too happy to read here.

You are a paying customer. If the product WP does not work properly. Fix it. If the supplier cannot solve it, or is not interested in solving it, it will be a huge market. go fishing!

Можносамомулампусделать.

Wait a minute...you said "vacuum tube". You may have met us halfway through and called it a vacuum valve, which confuses everyone. I do think that "thermoelectronic valve" is a better name because it describes its operation more appropriately. After all, it does control the flow of those mysterious thermionic ions.

I don’t know how long some of the other tube manufacturers can last. Almost certainly, the largest market is guitar amplifiers, except for the cheapest guitar amplifiers, most of them use guitar amplifiers. Which factories are still in use, especially factories in Eastern Europe and Russia that are using long tooth production equipment? I may be able to see some Chinese companies continue to develop, maybe we may see a Western company suddenly appear to participate in high-end operations, but that may be the final coffin of those former coffins. Soviet manufacturer. Of course, I may be wrong, they are all modern factories, but I doubt it.

What is the difference between "modern"? Many things, such as lollipops and shoes, are manufactured on production facilities that are more than 100 years old.

Because everything is ultimately a consumable, even a machine. If there is no money to reinvest in your manufacturing equipment, sometimes the quality of the product will become unacceptable. I don’t know that this is the case for any of them, and I seriously underestimated JJ. According to Wikipedia, the ratio of JJ’s net income to total income is about 1:2. The latter was about $10 million in 2015. .

People can make electron tubes at home in the garage. As long as there is demand, someone may continue to make them, and as long as they stay cheap, the aesthetics will

It's a good reason people want them.

I’m a big fan of Class D, so I’ve never really owned a tube amplifier or other bulky things,

But they are definitely cool.

In the fifty years of the development of electronic technology, I remembered an article from about 1964 about a South American ham, and he made the tube himself. I think it's just the power tube of the transmitter. It requires both skill and design. He must know how the tubes are enough to make them.

I suspect that in the early days, some people might have made their own test tubes, but I didn't mention it.

Yes, the guy who recorded the video in Europe a few years ago.

This shows that this is not an easy task, and it may take enough effort to make most products cheaper to buy than to manufacture.

Yes, it is almost certain that it is cheaper to buy than to manufacture, but almost everything that can be manufactured at home can be mass produced at low cost.

Scientific testing equipment like the atomic force microscope seems to be the last thing that can still be purchased on your own but is still expensive.

On the surface it is not *easy*, but I will argue within the grasp of anyone who is motivated and educated.

There is a Frenchman (I believe) making high-quality audio tubes-getters and everything else there. He even built some custom equipment to help maintain consistency. Material selection is also critical. To build something that sounds great and durable, there is a lot of knowledge to know.

Make test tubes with ransom specifications? of course. Make a couple that is enough to build AMP? It's not that there is a lot of money invested in tools.

My son's tube guitar amplifier has DSP, which can imitate the tube effect very well.

Don't forget that many HAM/ham radio operators still use RF power amplifiers that rely on tubes/valves, as do some radios and power supplies that are still in use.

Reminds me of Yaesu FT-101 / Sommerkamp FT-277.

So far, one of the best FET transistor RX / electron tube final TX combination.

It's much better on HF than the annoying FT-817/818 that every ham is so obsessed with today.

In addition, Zetagi from Italy is also popular for producing affordable CB/10m tube amplifiers.

They used the cable end tubes originally used for CRT TVs (is the English name correct?).

It is called a horizontal output or "sweep frequency" tube.

I once laughed at other engineers who had early desktop PCs. Their computers relied on vacuum tubes, and most people did not flicker because the display was a cathode ray tube.

Fifty years ago, people could only dream of owning something like FT-817, even though FT-101 came out 49 years ago.

Up-conversion is almost not a problem. There is no synthesizer in the ham radio, and the digital readout only exists on a rig (and some home rigs). Too many functions do not exist or too high-end equipment is not available.

There are a small number of 6M SSB rigs and a 2M SSB rig (though in the past). No drilling rigs for AM, SSB and FM. If you want more than 6M SSB, you must start with HF SSB devices like FT-101 and add a bunch of converters to enter VHF and UHF bands. For most people, this means a complete set of equipment is required.

Now you can encapsulate it all in a small portable package.

"Now, you can pack it all in a small portable package."

Well, this is my illusion.

817 can do a lot of things, but it can't be "right".

Ham is obsessed with small black things with many knobs.

Matches are

"Blind belief in progress". I think.

Development can not only advance, but also regress. People tend to forget this.

The same goes for the economy. This will not "rise" forever.

New ≠ progress

Used as a

FT-277E and some 817s (original ND models) came to the following conclusions:

The sensitivity below 30MHz is not commensurate with the FT-101 in the 1970s,

It has a high degree of modularity and scalability (digital frequency reader can be connected to IF output, can also be connected to FSK, etc.).

The part quality of the 817's miniature SMD filter and circuit is not as good as its "real" full-size similar products. Esp. The coil and quartz filter need the correct physical size (not SMD).

Moreover, modern bandpass filters are not as good as

Preselector. If you have ever used a magnetic ring with a variable capacitor, then you will understand what I mean.

Conversely, higher frequency bands (such as VHF/UHF bands) require smaller parts with smaller distances between parts.

Compared to the deaf-mute VHF/UHF radio, using a sensitive short-wave radio with a converter can provide better performance.

Or just use SDR RX/TRX for 150 Euros. It will revolve around 817.

Don't be kidding, an SDR like an RTL-based 5 Euro USB stick is much better than the 817 (IMHO) on the receiving end.

By now, the entire super design is outdated. In fact, FM, SSB and Superhet are things that old hams cannot let go.

If a computer/SDR software is used, the direct conversion receiver in the earliest radio broadcast has more uses than the super receiver. ?

"But my journey in the field of tube manufacturing in the 21st century disappointed me a bit, because most of their marketing is still shrouded in myths."

of course. Without myths, you cannot sell products to audiophiles.

Still, a very good article-interestingly, there are so many sources.

The reason why there are too many "brands" of pipes or valves is that it is easy to clean the glass and print your own brand on it. In fact, a company in Oxfordshire does exactly this.

There are many Hammond and Leslie suits in the church and they need services. 6AU6, 12AU&X7, 12BH7, 6X4, 6550. Some power tubes have a short life. This is a real gamble, and a bad seal at the pin can make people angry. There are also metal fragments inside. This is the option to replace 40 or 50 year old lamps with low final emissions. Sunday comes, and things need to be resolved.

Wow, each of you actually has an amplifier that uses tubes. Except for longevity, your assumptions are worrying. Yes, they are expensive. As a collector of 6SN7 tubes, I can attest. Have you heard of RCA 6SN7 gray glass or Sylvania 2-3 hole bad boy? In contrast, there are no transistors around, and no cheap devices squeeze the 6CA7's functions. Useless article. As for those using Class D power supplies, it is thin and lacks motivation. But I think contempt these days is more fashionable than understanding. If price is a factor, maybe this is not for you. BTW Telefunkens is a manually selected extended voltage JJ EL34 tube, then it has been frozen and passed 48 hours of aging inspection. The price of my Genelex KT77 tube is 154.00 per four, but it has also undergone aging and double inspection. It sounds like a studio. So yes, I think all apples are the same? ….. So this is a quiz question, what is the difference between the reissued Mullards and the new Tung-Sol EL34 tube?

awesome…..

"Nowadays, contempt is more fashionable than understanding." May check the mirror there.

I bought a military surplus TV-7 tube tester for about $50 in the late 1980s. Then, the tube audio nut began to buy all the products equipped with tubes, which pushed up the price, and realized that they needed tube testers, so they also increased the prices of these tubes. My TV-7 is now worth about $500. hoo!

But sadly, when the value reaches $1,000, your poor pipe tester will be trapped in the garage, and the typical time that the garage has accumulated "garbage" and dust has been more than 4 years :) Good luck.

Your point is correct. It is actually on the shelf in my workshop, and occasionally I pull it out to test the radio tube. It may be used once a year. I will die one day, and my family will deal with my things without knowing it's worth it. Maybe before that, I will donate it to the Milwaukee Makerspace.

I gathered some people and like to arrange their test tube testers like in a pharmacy to imitate the experience of bringing test tubes to the pharmacy to see if they are good.

I remember an article published by a service technician in an amateur electronic magazine listing the ways in which pharmacy test tubers might mislead consumers. Not deliberately, but people don’t know enough.

Well, enthusiasts will at least take care of their own things. If the ham entangles them, they will disappear for many years.

Radio amateurs (myself included) are often hyped by new technology and throw away their old things just because it no longer exists.

Except for some nostalgic/gentlemen like my father, most amateur broadcasters I meet are ungrateful, egoistic and greedy.

(Does not include young or fresh hams of any age; there are still some good souls with ideals and ham spirits, and/or new ham services are added from time to time.)

Hams are like modern model train people, buying only the best things they can buy, and then blowing their noses at the old handmade things that were once made with love and innocence. More importantly, they seem to be unfaithful to their inner children/people in the past. They throw away their young things and put a lot of work into them.

Just because they can buy things "better".

It makes me sad every time, because it is not only wrong (in noisy situations, than the sound card solution can also use some old DIY hammcomm modems and rtty filters!), but also very affected when facing the spirit of ham welcome. We have used fantasy and imagination. Now we sell our souls (not just rent them) to buy commercial items.

In short, we have become dull consumers in terms of free will. And love it, what's worse, IMHO

Speaking of home cooking/DIY, this is different from the 1950s. Grandpa and grandson used waste cardboard, some wood, metal cans and old paint to pile things together and have fun. Such craftsmanship does not absolutely disappear, but is rare. Now they use $1,000 equipment (lathe, circular saw, 3d printer, cnc machine).

They abandon the ancient equipment, make fun of it, or sell it to some poor souls at a completely high price, while shooting their own equipment very clever and cunning. Of course, after the gear is repaired (the ugly switch is installed, there are many holes in the case, and the device cannot be operated). I think we are like used car sellers.

In any case, I am glad that I did not participate in the American Ham Show. It is said that they used to smash old radios, mainly tube radios at the beginning of solid-state grazing, and burn them for entertainment or laughter. . Really

I don’t need a tester or a curve tracer to find bad transistors. I find that using metal oxide resistors in flat and shielded circuits is very useful because they will burn, saving expensive transformers. The disconnected resistor makes a hum on the output tube in question, so I don't need to witness the light-emitting board. Someone gave me a tester decades ago, but I never fired it. The tube is actually quite forgiving. I remember once learned that silicon can exist almost permanently, but like ordinary electronic tubes, the lifespan of modern electronic equipment is longer than most people retain.

So here is the card. The tube tester can be used for the unqualified test of the tube. In fact, in the past, a bunch of TV "technicians" knew nothing about electronic products, and they would carry the tube tester with them as a sales method. For example, "Refer to: The reading is in the lower green area, so we might want to replace this tube (Fragrance)".

In addition to rough troubleshooting, an electronic tube tester is also used for push-pull class AB1 to match the two output tubes to obtain gain and reduce the second harmonic distortion of the PA class.

by the way. In broadcast applications, you may need to spend more than $8,000 on lamps, which are of great significance for filament and cathode temperature control. The filament and cathode have been trimmed, which makes them more electrically active (details are omitted for brevity), which means that the more complete the coating, the higher the gain. Over time and temperature, this will deplete and eventually lead to loss of gain. The broadcast tube will almost never fail, they are just Peter.

Therefore, the method to control this method is to operate the filament under normal voltage (after 1 week of burn-in time) while monitoring the output *gain* of the printing plate. Gradually reduce the filament power until you see a slight decrease in gain, then push the filament power back to recapture this slight loss. This minimizes the filament and cathode temperature (they are additives due to the resistance heating of the cathode)

Generally, you can extend the life of the lamp from a typical 1 to 2 years to 4 or 5 years. Although it is more difficult to use Fender twin, it is also suitable for sophisticated low-power output tubes. There is a lot to say about adjusting the filament supply. and also. The main reason for the burning of bulbs and filaments is that their resistance is very low in cold, so they will generate a large inrush current when they are first turned on. By limiting the initial cold filament current, the service life of the lamp can be significantly extended. I see some boutique guitar amplifier manufacturers are using stepped filament voltage for this operation.

Very easy to write. No mention of Nuvistor at all, which is a bit disappointing.

As an amp for high-end microphones in the 60s/70s, it is very popular.

So is the acorn tube of World War II.

As it happens, I own a Nuvistor FM tuner. But what I am talking about is here.

I have collected more than 400 test tubes, mainly for saving beautiful photos. A few years ago, I got a set of instructions on DIY remanufactured receivers, which were published in Boys Life in the 1930s and made with the Type 30 in my collection. I should probably write it down.

I see that there are still many surplus NOS Soviet miniature tubes, even if they are shipped, the price is usually US$2 or less per tube. We should use these still abundant military surplus tubes to design some audio equipment, instead of chasing the exorbitant pricing of once common tubes (look at your 12AX7)

Well, these stocks will not last forever. If they are used in mass-produced products, there will be a large market for such replacement products, and eventually the product will become useless because there are no more replacement tubes available.

Western Electric tubes are still manufactured in Roseville. Of course, you have to pay for American quality tubes. The matching pair price of 300B triode is 1499 US dollars, the price of quad-core matching is 3099 US dollars. You can also buy a single test tube for $699. View them online at the following URL:

I hope there will be a premium, but not so high for power transistors. To make matters worse, 300B seems to be the only tube they produce, so if you want a tube, you must find some NOS tubes first, or if you are using 12AX7s, then maybe some cheap Russian or Chinese parts . A great way to praise the $700 power tube.

I also lack Emissionlabs and ELROG, amazing (improved) design, but their prices are astronomical

I forgot to mention that the amplifier in the story picture is an abomination. People have the ability to add LEDs to tubes and VF displays that do not belong to them. Show my age.

There must be many cheesy preamplifiers that use bright LEDs to illuminate the tubes, but as far as I know, this is not the case in the textures.

Yes.

You missed a point in this discussion, the 500V circuit design separates people from boys. Coupled with a box of free garage sales pipes, some wires, some iron, some physical principles, and then like 100 years ago, it can bring a lot of fun.

I have worked on defibrillators for many years. At one time, they usually have a 40uf capacitor, which can be charged to about 1500 volts, so I think it is very suitable in a tube environment.

Do you happen to know their upper limit? I have some GM-70 transistors and they will be happy at a voltage of about a thousand volts B+, so the upper limit of a suitable/reliable defibrillator sounds like a good investment

There are still some companies that produce VFDs, which are vacuum tubes.

This is a cool synthesizer module using VFD. I don't know if this is a new or old part or a modern part, but this is a good application of the technology, not a big tube.

High-end custom tube:

How to make-audio vacuum tube

Those are some beautiful tubes! I have never heard of KR before.

I have always been fascinated by the concept of modulating the flow of electrons through a vacuum instead of silicon.

I am mainly interested in vacuum tube-based computers, not in electronic tubes for audio, even though I have made tube headphone amplifiers. Just for it, I did this:

It's hard to underestimate the importance of semiconductors in active electronics and the amount of material science needed to make it a reality, but I support you. Elementary particles are almost incredible. For example, electrons move in free space and are controlled to do useful things, such as amplifying a signal or even drawing an image on a monitor.

Very compelling. I still had a Graymark 511 multi-band tube regenerative radio when I was in high school, and built a decent regenerative radio from the ground up using equipment equivalent to the Russian 6SN7 dual triode.

Regens is a sentence of radio design. There are so few components.

X-ray tube, anyone?

If we want to go there, we can include particle accelerators. With THAT, I remember that there were some magnetrons called cyclotron magnetrons. They used different straps between the cavities to make them work like a cyclotron.

Oh! And we must not forget the various electron microscopes without solid substitutes!

That is a good point.

For those products that are electronic tubes, the transition to non-electronic tubes is slow.

People have already mentioned CRT here. I remember some replacements for Geiger tubes, but I don't remember how straightforward they are.

Know nothing about X-ray tubes.

Due to the power required, the microwave oven must still be using tubes. It is worthwhile to continue manufacturing these tubes because they are well done.

I like this article because it really makes things clear...

I think it’s time to take out test tubes from my "Atwater-Kent 60" and cathedral style "Lyric Superheterodyne Model S-7" and sell them. These tubes may be worth

Not just a complete radio.

It may also be time to cash in on my "Technology Series RC-21" RCA Receiver Tube Manual (which contains the best tutorials in the world about vacuum tubes, many application circuits-my favorite is the 50-watt hi-fi stereo amplifier-detailed information) , And complete details about building a tube tester). The price is on the cover? $1.00.

Keep this kind of thing coming; I never considered the fact that one of my "All-American-5" ac-dc super-experts (the ALSO plan in the RCA tube manual) will pay next month's rent.

The largest vacuum tube to date is obviously a particle accelerator. The length of the LHC is 27 km. It uses 16 klystrons, each of which drives 300 kW at a frequency of 400 MHz, smashing two proton beams with multiple TeraElectronVolt energy. Interesting design summary at

.

I have heard of using a stereo amplifier made by Millard Valves connected to a CD player. It produces a wonderful warm sound from the Amplifier and a clinical sound from the CD Player. This is a perfect combination of new technology and old technology, Millard Audio Valves is famous for a long time, reliability and quality have been owned by Philips, Ross

If you can read German, please read Chapter 10 of the *extensive book "The Physics of Electric Guitars" to finally accept that electrons in a vacuum (ie different tubes) will not produce any "sound" except for electronic transmission Electrical or mechanical tolerances. (The same applies to capacitors (in operation), etc.)

I want to know if there are any TV stations that use transmitters with launch tubes in the final stage? There is a great video on YouTube which shows an e-nerd browsing an old analog TV transmitter (which has been replaced by a digital transmitter), and it has a huge tube as an output stage amplifier for the video signal.

I did not conduct a comprehensive manufacturer search, but my general feeling is that DTV transitions that have lower power requirements and use significant digital predistortion may have replaced most of not all tube-based TV transmitters.

These are worth seeing. UHF Klystrodes is installed in a 6-foot-tall metal frame with wheels, with liquid cooling hoses on the side and corrugated ceramic insulators at the bottom, which can provide -23,000 VDC at 4A.

Very high gain, very linear. Before the duplexer, 15 watts of power from the exciter can generate about 40 KW. With this linearity, you can perform "IF duplexing" and transmit audio and visual carriers on a single tube. Many transmitters have 2 identical cabinets and can operate hearing in one cabinet and vision in another cabinet, or perform duplex operation with reduced power while maintaining the other cabinet. It's been a while, but the last time I put a price on one of the test tubes, each of them was north of the 30 big tubes, and it cost three.

2 in the cabinet, 1 spare.

Typical size 30 60 120 KW RF.

You need to perform maintenance very carefully.

I remember seeing a TV transmitter tube in the museum. It was placed in the original wooden box. The size of the box is about 1.5'x 1.5'x 2'.

Please refer to the link. The adjustment part is missing. These adjustment parts are the metal box surrounding the copper window port. It also lacks all the cooling, power supply and RF hardware.

They eventually called them klystrodes or IOT.

Or better details from Teledyne ev2:

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