In the late 1960’s our high school ham radio club did the trip to Dayton, but the afternoon prior i was told by the principal that we had to get waivers from all the parents! I managed to drive all over Cleveland securing the waivers. A bit silly as guys our age were toting rifles in the jungle at the same time
This
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That and many of us on both sides have family distributed on each side of our common border.
Maybe politicians need to remember this.
Maybe politicians need to remember this.
Uh, this might fit the criteria. How about three people who once worked together at Motorola and now reside in three different states. We see each other once a year at the hamfest. This was the first Dayton Hamfest in recent memory that saw no rain during hamfest hours for all 4 days. It did rain one night well after we were in our hotel room 25 miles away.
The one in the yellow shirt bought 40 pounds of vintage metal vacuum tubes for $30. They have been sorted by size. I need to rig up a way of testing them. The 6V6 and 6L6 tubes will simply be tested in my SSE. There were at least 15 6L6's and probably 20 to 30 6V6's. The 6L6's are easier to find since they are bigger.
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Uhh , I couldn't make it. I was painting walls the whole weekend. It looks like I'm going to buy some tubes from you for "musical machine" amp. 🙂
Construction guy I worked with graduated from MIT and briefly worked for IBM . His mama used to say "Andy, you gotta get some degree or you will end up in construction business " hahah, He said he couldn't stand the office and love the dirty business. But that was some 3 ex wives and 5 kids before I met him. You guys look the business. I swear I met the blue shirt on some audio related occasion.
Construction guy I worked with graduated from MIT and briefly worked for IBM . His mama used to say "Andy, you gotta get some degree or you will end up in construction business " hahah, He said he couldn't stand the office and love the dirty business. But that was some 3 ex wives and 5 kids before I met him. You guys look the business. I swear I met the blue shirt on some audio related occasion.
Blue shirt on the right lives in Florida and doesn't do much DIY audio, so it is unlikely. We all lived in south Florida when we worked at Motorola, but as the plant was downsizing we all left the high cost area for low cost retirement places. Blue shirt lives in rural central Florida, Green shirt in rural Georgia, and I am in rural West Virginia.
Buying a big box full of assorted unboxed tubes is a highly unpredictable situation. In this case I saw the 6L6's and 6V6's and took the gamble. I'll know more once I sort and test them. I still have two more small boxes of metal tubes from previous hamfests. I got all of these to improve my chances at making a single one - off guitar amp I will call the MetallicAmp, all tube, no glass. I plan to create a modern multi channel high gain amp with parts that could have been built in the early 1950's.
Of the three, only the man in the middle had an engineering degree from Georgia Tech when he came to Motorola. Blue shirt had some kind of two year tech degree, and I had only a high school education. Motorola paid for me to get two college degrees while I worked there. Even so, I was not the typical engineer as I was the one who actually built and tested stuff. I left the simulatin and calculatin to the clean hands guys.
Here I am working hard. The "black box" is a prototype high speed data radio I designed which would normally reside in the trunk of a cop car. We had a full machine shop, a PCB fab, a miniature SMD assembly line, a stocked engineering parts room and several other fabrication groups in house. They were all being phased out as our group was morphing into an IC design center which I wanted no part of. I took the buyout in 2014. The other two had left before I did, involuntarily.
Buying a big box full of assorted unboxed tubes is a highly unpredictable situation. In this case I saw the 6L6's and 6V6's and took the gamble. I'll know more once I sort and test them. I still have two more small boxes of metal tubes from previous hamfests. I got all of these to improve my chances at making a single one - off guitar amp I will call the MetallicAmp, all tube, no glass. I plan to create a modern multi channel high gain amp with parts that could have been built in the early 1950's.
Of the three, only the man in the middle had an engineering degree from Georgia Tech when he came to Motorola. Blue shirt had some kind of two year tech degree, and I had only a high school education. Motorola paid for me to get two college degrees while I worked there. Even so, I was not the typical engineer as I was the one who actually built and tested stuff. I left the simulatin and calculatin to the clean hands guys.
Here I am working hard. The "black box" is a prototype high speed data radio I designed which would normally reside in the trunk of a cop car. We had a full machine shop, a PCB fab, a miniature SMD assembly line, a stocked engineering parts room and several other fabrication groups in house. They were all being phased out as our group was morphing into an IC design center which I wanted no part of. I took the buyout in 2014. The other two had left before I did, involuntarily.
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Nice George! It's really great you guys see each other.
I like your RF test chamber!
MEtal tubes! Great deal. I use the radio tubes often enough ... in radios. (imagine that! lol!)
I like your RF test chamber!
MEtal tubes! Great deal. I use the radio tubes often enough ... in radios. (imagine that! lol!)
After tossing all the rusted or broken tubes then tossing the thyratrons, klystrons and unidentifiable tubes, I had 672 tubes in several trays sorted by size. Two nearly full days later I had them all sorted into 51 different unique type numbers.
Tonight I set up one channel of my 19 year old SSE board for audio output tube testing. There were 20 tubes that identified as 6L6's, but one was an impostor which paid for that infraction with its life. Someone had written 6L6 on the side, but the engraving on the rim said 1619 which is a 6L6 with a 2.5 V Dh filament which is now open. Another tube identified as NG and it was indeed dead. A third tube didn't draw much current and didn't have any output at all. This left 17 tubes that made at least 8 watts at clipping with about 60 to 80 mA of current in pentode mode without feedback. Three NOS metal 6L6s and two Chinese glass 6L6GC's made around 9 watts. so I set my limit at 8.
I started with 18 6V6's and finished with 17 testing to a 5 watt minimum, determined by a few glass 6V6GT tubes.
I started with 12 6F6's and finished with 10 testing to 3 watts baser on the specs in an old tube manual. The bad tubes got hotter than the good ones, drew too much current and had low distorted output, so I suspect they were gassy.
Tonight I set up one channel of my 19 year old SSE board for audio output tube testing. There were 20 tubes that identified as 6L6's, but one was an impostor which paid for that infraction with its life. Someone had written 6L6 on the side, but the engraving on the rim said 1619 which is a 6L6 with a 2.5 V Dh filament which is now open. Another tube identified as NG and it was indeed dead. A third tube didn't draw much current and didn't have any output at all. This left 17 tubes that made at least 8 watts at clipping with about 60 to 80 mA of current in pentode mode without feedback. Three NOS metal 6L6s and two Chinese glass 6L6GC's made around 9 watts. so I set my limit at 8.
I started with 18 6V6's and finished with 17 testing to a 5 watt minimum, determined by a few glass 6V6GT tubes.
I started with 12 6F6's and finished with 10 testing to 3 watts baser on the specs in an old tube manual. The bad tubes got hotter than the good ones, drew too much current and had low distorted output, so I suspect they were gassy.
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I have a regulated HV supply that uses 1619 tubes. Too bad, it was useful before it got hit with 6.3 V on the heater.
One day I'll find an HP 8903 (hopefully B) cheap enough top play with. Always wanted to mess around with one.
One day I'll find an HP 8903 (hopefully B) cheap enough top play with. Always wanted to mess around with one.
I think you'd be happier with a Boonton 1120 or 1121 audio analyzer -- you can take these apart and put them back together with ease.
Hi Jack,
Maybe. Excellent products as well. I'd be interested if one came up of course. I'm just more aware of the 8903x because I've wanted one ever since I saw the HP catalogue listing them, that's all. Later I became aware of the excellent Boonton products, I have a couple pieces of those as well. RF products.
However, right now, the US-CAN exchange rate is worse than terrible. The Canadian economy is in the tank and so forth. Everything will have to wait. Some day maybe.
Maybe. Excellent products as well. I'd be interested if one came up of course. I'm just more aware of the 8903x because I've wanted one ever since I saw the HP catalogue listing them, that's all. Later I became aware of the excellent Boonton products, I have a couple pieces of those as well. RF products.
However, right now, the US-CAN exchange rate is worse than terrible. The Canadian economy is in the tank and so forth. Everything will have to wait. Some day maybe.
Arrgh! I couldn't make it this year after all. The Wednesday evening prior (the 14th) I came down with the worst respiratory bug I've had in years, which has morphed into pneumonia. I'm still fighting the remnants now.
I don't recall the actual space number, but it was one row back from yours, facing south, on the east side of the "alley" across from the beer tent and food vendors. I really hated to miss it this year, but on the other hand I'm glad I didn't give this bug to anyone else!
A friend from Florida came with me this year which gave me several opportunities to actually explore the hamfest. It could be dangerous to be walking the hamfest with money in my pocket, but my only purchase was the 40 pound box full of old metal tubes which oddly has surprised me with a 90+ percent good rate so far. I also picked up a NOS 26HU5 for $1. Charlie managed to fill the bed of his pickup truck with stuff he had to have.