Jesus, what’s it been, fifty years since I saw one of those?
There used to be one at the front of every major grocery store in town like Safeway back i the day.
Safeway in richland Washington. Early sixties. Bonding time with pappy. What a hoot.
Our Dad had one. We may have fixed the TV with it once.
These used to be quite common when I was growing up. Then the transistor came along into common use. I still own a small tube tester. I also have some tube type ham radio equipment that I should really get back into good shape. I lost my variac many years ago and need to get another so I can bring the filament voltages up slowly so as to not blow the tubes that have set for so long. Also have my father’s old general coverage receiver. All of these are some fine old Hallicrafters equipment from the 50s & 60s. They made some good stuff.
I have TWO 1943 Signal Corps tube testers (portable), both still work – along with several #10 cans of tubes. All the tubes work, too!
I have a variac you could use – you pay the freight and it’s yours. Check with Ced or Phil for my email addx, lets talk!
It feels like I grew up on one, but it wasn’t that much time in actual hours.
I have a tube tester now. Plus spare tubes and old radios. Got a variac, built a custom enclosure for it with CNC. Use the radios only occasionally because my 60 year old Collins HF ham station will do everything an HF station must do, but the new technology radios just run rings around them in operator conveniences and make the whole thing much more enjoyable. I should thin the herd.
I remember those. One day, I tested a handful of tubes from our TV. They were all flat. The clerk gave me new replacement tubes. I asked if we could check the new ones just for giggles. They were all flat too. I walked away with the old tubes.
Damn…when was the last time I saw one of those?
Just sold 2 of the 3 Heathkit tube testers I had, and most of my tube collection. Still have the Variac that used to run the Henry 1 KW (ahem) Amplifier. All the Henry, Collins and Halicrafter stuff is long gone, but kept a Yaesu HF and a bunch of 2M and 6M stuff. Don’t know why, but if we every get into a SHTF situation, it might come in handy.
They had one at the Osco drugstore in the Holiday Village shopping mall in Great Falls, Montana back in the late ’70s. Back before I knew from tubes and such, being a kid…
Never saw one except when the TV repairman came to our house. Dad was either not very handy or extremely smart. I like to fix my own stuff. Waiting on the CDI for my four wheeler now. I was gifted a tube on a little wood base from one of my parts suppliers years ago. Still have it and use it to teach young people what a TV and computer used to be made of.
My dad was in Viet Nam when our big TV console, with a radio on the left and record player on the right, went out. Called the repairman who putzed around in the back of the set and announced that he did not have the tubes needed and would be back in a few days.
That would not do.
Mom was not a technical sort but was no nimrod. She looked into the back of the set and pulled all the tubes that did not have dust on the top of them. She took them to the BX on Andrews AFB and tested them. She found one that was bad and bought a new one. She put all the old ones and the new one back and kablam the set worked.
A phone call canceled the repair call and we got to see Star Trek that evening.
Jesus, what’s it been, fifty years since I saw one of those?
There used to be one at the front of every major grocery store in town like Safeway back i the day.
Safeway in richland Washington. Early sixties. Bonding time with pappy. What a hoot.
Our Dad had one. We may have fixed the TV with it once.
These used to be quite common when I was growing up. Then the transistor came along into common use. I still own a small tube tester. I also have some tube type ham radio equipment that I should really get back into good shape. I lost my variac many years ago and need to get another so I can bring the filament voltages up slowly so as to not blow the tubes that have set for so long. Also have my father’s old general coverage receiver. All of these are some fine old Hallicrafters equipment from the 50s & 60s. They made some good stuff.
I have TWO 1943 Signal Corps tube testers (portable), both still work – along with several #10 cans of tubes. All the tubes work, too!
I have a variac you could use – you pay the freight and it’s yours. Check with Ced or Phil for my email addx, lets talk!
It feels like I grew up on one, but it wasn’t that much time in actual hours.
I have a tube tester now. Plus spare tubes and old radios. Got a variac, built a custom enclosure for it with CNC. Use the radios only occasionally because my 60 year old Collins HF ham station will do everything an HF station must do, but the new technology radios just run rings around them in operator conveniences and make the whole thing much more enjoyable. I should thin the herd.
I remember those. One day, I tested a handful of tubes from our TV. They were all flat. The clerk gave me new replacement tubes. I asked if we could check the new ones just for giggles. They were all flat too. I walked away with the old tubes.
Damn…when was the last time I saw one of those?
Just sold 2 of the 3 Heathkit tube testers I had, and most of my tube collection. Still have the Variac that used to run the Henry 1 KW (ahem) Amplifier. All the Henry, Collins and Halicrafter stuff is long gone, but kept a Yaesu HF and a bunch of 2M and 6M stuff. Don’t know why, but if we every get into a SHTF situation, it might come in handy.
They had one at the Osco drugstore in the Holiday Village shopping mall in Great Falls, Montana back in the late ’70s. Back before I knew from tubes and such, being a kid…
Never saw one except when the TV repairman came to our house. Dad was either not very handy or extremely smart. I like to fix my own stuff. Waiting on the CDI for my four wheeler now. I was gifted a tube on a little wood base from one of my parts suppliers years ago. Still have it and use it to teach young people what a TV and computer used to be made of.
My dad was in Viet Nam when our big TV console, with a radio on the left and record player on the right, went out. Called the repairman who putzed around in the back of the set and announced that he did not have the tubes needed and would be back in a few days.
That would not do.
Mom was not a technical sort but was no nimrod. She looked into the back of the set and pulled all the tubes that did not have dust on the top of them. She took them to the BX on Andrews AFB and tested them. She found one that was bad and bought a new one. She put all the old ones and the new one back and kablam the set worked.
A phone call canceled the repair call and we got to see Star Trek that evening.