Batteries for tubes

[simon7000]

I still use some vacuum tube gear. A handy version of a sound level meter. They use pencil tubes with a 22.5 volt and a 1.5 volt “C” size cell.

I had to buy a replacement tube some years back and had no trouble getting one!

The 22.5 volt batteries used to be Eveready brand made in China. Today I get ones that are made up more modern cells and wrapped in heat shrink.

Some of the units actually came in in working order, but most required a bit of disassembly and switch cleaning.

Oldest date from 1952, some a few years newer. No electrolytic capacitors, so these units should still work when they turn 100!

I still can find old ones and have been known to gift some folks with one. Unlike modern meters these have calibrated but variable level. This allows one to set the sensitivity and then walk around to see the +/- 3 dB limits quite easily.

 

[Richard Ellis]

I had that exact same TV back in about 1975. It was one of the first 100% solid state TV sets. I got it for $100 at a department store because it had been repossessed and was somewhat damaged. It did not power on because one of the small plug-in modules was missing. A call to the local RCA dealer revealed that I could not buy the missing module, only trade in a bad one for a new one for a fee. I finally found a repair shop that would sell me a module for $50 so I drove to the shop. When I saw the $50 module I asked for a piece of paper and a pencil. The guy was quite cooperative as the $50 module only contained 5 or 6 black silicon diodes worth, at best a few $$$ and he only had one because they never die. If a little 2 inch module was $50 I really wouldn't want to buy one of the big ones.

The TV failed twice in the 20 some years that I had it. Neither failure was module related. The horizontal sweep SCR 's died. The old XL-100's used neither a horizontal sweep (line output) tube or transistor. They used a pair of SCR's in a flip - flop kind of circuit. The SCR's were prone to failures which usually popped the breaker or soldered in fuse. Even the RCA branded SK series replacement parts would instantly fail in this circuit, you had to get the $10 SCR's from a RCA shop.

Sometime later the picture got dim and out of focus. The focus rectifier is inside the HV trippler brick, so you had to replace the whole module which included the fat red wire to the CRT, to fix the set. I thing they were about $30 at the time.

You're right!....jogging some brain cells here....this "XL100" set was the new one, it was upstairs in the living room...the non-functional tube set was downstairs in "my lair", the basement....remember the "control panel" on that XL100??? ...that silver panel on the bottom half, with the two holes of missing dials?, how it would pivot at the bottom & expose more controls at the top ?
Yes, the tube set was downstairs, it got moved there...don't recall muscling it down the stairs...I don't recall what it looked like. I do recall the giant Packard Bell music console we had, a hundred plus pounds off woodwork.
That old tube set had a burned HV line...that suction cup looking thing on the CRT tube...fully burned up, I got it cleaned up & soldered it together. Upon power up it had zero color...according to the diagram pasted on the inside a 12AX7 "color amp" tube.....so I swapped it with another 12AX7 on the "sync"....had color just fine now but the image was all floating about...."need another one of these dad"...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...

 

[Tubelab_com]

I got one of those Motorola Quazar "works in a drawer" TV sets from a friend for free. It was also a 25 inch console. It was such a POS that I gave it away within a year. I don't think it ever had any bad parts, just a million intermittent connections. Often it would go bonkers and proper reception could be restored by throwing a shoe at it. Other times you had to open the "works" drawer and slam it shut. Frustration drove all the customers away and Motorola exited the TV business forever. They sold the Quasar brand to Panasonic who made some decent TV's and a lot of the old top loader VHS VCR's. The Quasar product was always cheaper than the identical Panasonic product.