tube tester ??

[1iwilly]

looking for a simple not too expensive recommended tube tester for the Palomar 300A I bought the ex-owner texted me and said he has 8 extra 6lf6 tubes and sold them for $100.00
he claims they should be in the 85% range or more

 

[groundwire]

No such thing unless you get lucky. People are spending a mint and buying up all those 50yr old plus testers. You can get brand new ones starting at around $100 but they are for audio tubes only and used to set bias, not really check the tubes gain, connections, etc. All you can do is try to sneak in and score a used one before everyone jumps on it.

 

[nomadradio]

Still gonna be like scoring a "barn find" 50 year-old car. It will probably need cleaning, a few electrolytic caps and calibration.

And if someone has spent the money to do that to it already, the price will reflect the seller's desire to get that money back out of it.

The "barn find" car won't drive very far without spending some money catching up 50 years of upkeep.

Tube testers come in all levels of performance. The simplest ones check only for shorts or gas in the vacuum. A "mutual conductance" tester measures how much the tube can amplify. Even fancier testers like Hickok will test the peak current your sweep tube can deliver, in addition.

You'll find the price goes up as the list of features gets longer.

73

 

[1iwilly]

ok when looking at what features are more important certain brands and so on
thanks for the replies

 

[nomadradio]

Well, here's the upper end of the price scale. This guy restores testers, and gets a good buck for them.

https://www.radiolaguy.com/Showcase/TestEquipment/Vintage Tube Tester Gallery.htm

And cheaper options carry more risk. Somebody ought to put up a virtual museum of tube testers, like rigpix.com or such, and post relevant pros and cons, original sale price and such.

Even so, if you see one for sale you're wondering about, a gargle search will return any number of posts from forums all over the web that match the model and brand.

Sure would be nice if someone (else) just boiled it all down to something simple you can go by.

Or go buy.

73

 

[1iwilly]

Well, here's the upper end of the price scale. This guy restores testers, and gets a good buck for them.

https://www.radiolaguy.com/Showcase/TestEquipment/Vintage Tube Tester Gallery.htm

And cheaper options carry more risk. Somebody ought to put up a virtual museum of tube testers, like rigpix.com or such, and post relevant pros and cons, original sale price and such.

Even so, if you see one for sale you're wondering about, a gargle search will return any number of posts from forums all over the web that match the model and brand.

Sure would be nice if someone (else) just boiled it all down to something simple you can go by.

Or go buy.

73

thanks nomad