[AMRadio] BC-610 down=up and burnt't finals

[Donald Chester]

>I just remembered a funny situation where Otis, K5SWK, had some one else at
>his rig controls. The rig was and is single 833 modulated by a pair and 
>this
>story was of many years ago.  The person at the controls is now a silent 
>key
>but I still won't mention his name.   The story goes that Otis was down the
>street buying cigarettes, beer or something, and this person was visiting
>from out of town.  Not realizing the rig had had a arc over on the tuning
>capacitor, that is never experiencing anything of that size before, the
>operator continued to talk while the big pole pegs melted the plate of the
>833 in the final.  The 833 had a hole burnt through the plate the size of a
>half dollar after the circuit breaker on the house when pop.  The funny 
>part
>of this story is that that tube was a very good tube and continued to work
>perfectly with out even a drop in grid current at full output.  I ask Otis
>if the tube showed any color and he said that he could not see the other
>side but that on the side facing him there was no place for the tube to 
>show
>color.  He did change the tube later because he said that it was just too
>weird to look at the grid and heater through the hole and not see the 
>normal
>little red glow that was supposed to be there on the plate.

Some of those 833A's are indestructible.  I have one with a shiny spot the 
size of a silver dollar burnt into the plate, and the glass got so hot that 
it softened and the vacuum began to suck in the envelope.  There is a huge 
dimple on one side of the glass envelope.  Someone gave it to me with some 
other junk, and before throwing it out I decided to test in in the Gates 
broadcast transmitter.  Turns out to be one of the best 833A's in my 
collection.  Works as well as a brand new tube.

Don K4KYV