• 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.

When was 6N1P first sold on the US market?

I'm trying to understand when were Russian tubes like 6N1P first sold on the US market. What look like the Soviet datasheets (Cyrillic on the left side, Latin on the right) don't have dates, the only thing i could find by Google search was US made gear with these tubes first made around year 2000, various magazine articles also appeared around the same time. My guess is NOS Russian tubes like 6N1P first came to the US market after the fall of the USSR in the 90's.
 
I have an English data sheet from Svetlana; it's dated 4/99. Svetlana seemed to concentrate on power tubes for audio and amateur radio at first. Other Russian tubes were available earlier, usually labeled "Made in England" or "Made in Germany"; some even sold to the US military! Many tube types that weren't made for the military were discontinued by 1990 and tubes made in Eastern Europe were appearing to replace them.
 
Last edited:
I got Svetlana or NOS Soviet 6J32P packaged by Ultron (reseller) around 98', tube and box were stamped EF86S instead of 6J32P, country of origin wasn't written. Ulton was like RSD and many other resellers, although some Ultron markings weren't "precise".
Do you have any proof of US army or civilian market using Soviet tubes before ~1992? I know Western Germany, Jugoslavia and several other countries used Tesla in the 80's for civilian market and military applications, not sure about other models, i have doubts about 6N1P because stocks of very similar tubes were enormous back then. Beside, designing sensitive electronics with tubes only guys from the other side of the Iron Curtain made makes no sense to me.
 
That 4-99 Svetlana 6N1P data sheet specifications has a pair of typographical errors.

The Transconductance, Gm, should be listed as 4,400 uMhos.
The plate impedance, rp, should be listed as 7500 Ohms.
The u is correctly listed as 33.

The data sheet switched those 2 values of Gm and rp, when the typing filled in the blanks.

If you doubt those corrected numbers, you can:
Either graphically determine Gm and rp from the plate curves on that data sheet.
Or,
You can build a 6N1P stage, like I did, and through measurements and calculations, will prove the corrected values I listed above.

$0.03
adjusted for inflation