• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Western Electric New 300B made in USA 2018

I wonder how complete their paper archives are?

I need the manuals/schme. on this Westrex 9200B instrument.

Westrex is/was/is part of WE.

It's an RF amplifier, very nice.. single knob tuning, of 3 stages from 2-32MHz.

Weighs >100LBs. Everything from WE deserves to be preserved and repaired.
Hello, I am going to be restoring one of these and some associated gear used for a transmitting station. Were you able to find a manual?

TIA, hope you had good results with yours.
 
Have not found the manual or schematic yet. Maybe some day. If I do, I will scan it and put it on my site for download.

If you happen to find one, I would be grateful to make arrangements.

Have found a couple of scammers (they found me) claiming to have it, who could not show me pictures and made excuses for that, and refused paypal or check but insisted on zelle or some other irrevocable transaction. LOL So beware that.
 
| egellings said:
| The 300B has a rather simple internal structure, as tubes go. I think you are paying for cache rather than tube capability.

| wiseoldtech said:
| +1!
| Reduculous prices for vacuum tubes are no different than Snake Oil sales.
| Raping people out of big money for such things should be illegal.
| And anybody sucked into paying for such things are nuts.


Yes they are expensive. I think the price is high but also that this is the cost of high quality modern vacuum tube, made with precision in the USA.
The starting phase of such kind of special product is always expensive.
The USA is a high cost area with expensive equipment and environment control. I would wager there is no cheap labor or slipshod work in the WE tube factory either.
The price is relatively appropriate in these times to meet the demands of those who insist on the highest standards of an American-manufactured product.
If it's too much money, then there are cheaper 300Bs made overseas where one can also get what one pays for.
 
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A quick update on the off chance that someone finds this info useful. One of my WE 300B 2021 reissue tubes is intermittently noisy. Both tubes made some strange sounds beyond the usual warm-up pings and pongs for the first hours of use. After 100+hours, one tube is noiseless, but the other tube is randomly noisy. I have swapped the tubes numerous times and the noise follows the tube. Sometimes it hums, and other times it makes a crinkling sound (a bit like crumpling a mylar bag) or the sound of radio static between stations. For a week it also made an intermittent "whining" sound - but I haven't heard that in the last few days. I've informed Western Electric and they've given me an RMA number. So I'll be returning the noisy tube for inspection next week. I am hoping WE can get this sorted quickly because I otherwise really like the tubes.

cheers, Derek
Hello, i have got a pair WE a few days ago. I tried them in an amp, where PSVANE 300-B were installed before. Both WE were a bit noisy with my speaker (106dB/W). How do you solved your problem?
 
What sort of noises do you hear? Crackle, hiss or hum?

Be absolutely certain that the Plate voltage and current are as expected, and the filament voltages are both exactly 5.0V before running further.
For new WE300B, it is good to run them for a coupe of hours a day, even if you are not listening, until you have 20-40 hours on them.
If the noise is severe, stop and investigate.
 
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I recommend checking all the DC voltages (and anode current), as noted.

Also the WE300B does not have gold plated contact pins. It should never be inserted into a socket with gold plated contacts - this can cause oxidation problems at the contact point, with noise and reliability problems.

It's a real problem - Check out the advice of a Connector Manufacturer

A contact lubricant might help, but in case of doubt a pair of new sockets with compatible contact materials is advisable. 30 .. 50mΩ on each of the filament contacts means a substantial voltage drop. A €1600 pair of tubes can be badly degraded by a €20 pair of sockets!
 
| egellings said:
| The 300B has a rather simple internal structure, as tubes go. I think you are paying for cache rather than tube capability.

| wiseoldtech said:
| +1!
| Reduculous prices for vacuum tubes are no different than Snake Oil sales.
| Raping people out of big money for such things should be illegal.
| And anybody sucked into paying for such things are nuts.


Yes they are expensive. I think the price is high but also that this is the cost of high quality modern vacuum tube, made with precision in the USA.
The starting phase of such kind of special product is always expensive.
The USA is a high cost area with expensive equipment and environment control. I would wager there is no cheap labor or slipshod work in the WE tube factory either.
The price is relatively appropriate in these times to meet the demands of those who insist on the highest standards of an American-manufactured product.
If it's too much money, then there are cheaper 300Bs made overseas where one can also get what one pays for.
If it was the 50s-70s, I would thumbs up on quality, unfortunately times has change different generation of people with different mind set & exposure.
 
If I remember correctly, in Bernie Megers' book about Western Electric tubes . . .
There are over 700 steps to build a WE 300B tube.
And only WE has the original Tungsten Alloy Mother Load that the filaments are made of.

Value is in the mind of the beholder.
You decide.

Anther way to look at it is price.
Personally, I found my JJ 300B tubes sounded very good to me.
 
A beam pentode is far more complex internally, and that can be had for way less money than a 300B costs. I'm not against the 300B, just its ludicrous price. The heaters of the 300B and the cathodes of pentodes both have a high emissivity coating on them, so whether the material used to make the heater is exotic or mainstream makes no difference in terms of emission. If the filaments/cathodes had no coating at all, they'd need to glow at daylight brightness, and then the material from which they are constructed would make a difference.
 
nicoch58,

Have you ever built and listened to a single ended 300B amplifier in your home?
Have you ever built and listened to a single ended Triode Wired pentode or Triode Wired beam power tube, in your home?

egelings,

Have you ever listened to a single ended Western Electric 212E amplifier (with Thorium infused filaments . . . not Thorium coated)?


. . . Pity all those who have not been able to do all of the above.