[Boatanchors] : PS for tube stuff?

[Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com]

Eugene Hertz,

If you want to get into building your own amps consider 8 pin octal relay 
sockets and old 8 pin tubes. The 6SN7 is a dual triode equal to a modern 12AT7 or 
two 6C4's The 6L6 is nice power tube that will do several watts output to 
30Meghertz. Many sweep tubes from TV were 8 pin and are pentode power tubes.

You can mount the relay sockets on a board and wire up circuits for 
experiments. The power supply will provide you a source of power for the tube building. 
You can get the relay sockets at an electrical supply hose for less than 
$3.00 each. I use small nails into the board for terminal points. You can solder 
to the nails. Work on your selection of nails to find some that will take 
solder easy.

Radio shack sells some 6.3 or 12.6 volt transformers for filaments you need 2 
or more amps at 6.3 volts. a tube likely draws from .15 to .9 amps

You can run the filament transformer output through a diode and get a -6 or 
-12 volt bias voltage. You can work that through some resistors to get any 
where from zero to the full minus voltage for the bias. 

You will need a real high voltage transformer and diode rectifiers for B+. A 
power supply is just so much easier than building your own. A solid state one 
is OK for use with tubes. If it will get you 100 - 300 volts it will get you 
started. Again the B+ voltage can be divided with resistors and will also 
provide some screen voltages.

May I suggest you go looking at web pages for one and two tube regenerative 
receivers. These circuits are easy to build. work OK on a bread board. Provide 
immediate feed back as to what works and what is not working.

While a circuit on a page may be tailored to a specific tube, a redesign into 
the tubes you have is very easy and that offers you a place to start working.

Roger L. Ruszkowski KC6TRU