[Hallicrafters] My First Boat Anchor Restoration: SX101 MkIII

[Paul]

Jason,
 
One thing about tube testers, they are great for determining if the tube is working or not, but they don't always tell how good a tube will actually work in a radio. For example, when I first got my Johnson Invader 2000 many, many years ago, I just couldn't get adequate drive on 80 meters. This rig calls for a 12BY7 driver so, using my tube tester, I sorted my 12BY7's looking for the ones that rated highest, yet the highest rated one just didn't work well. I then started swapping tubes and found one that worked really good, more than adequate drive. Retested on the tube tester and found the tube that provided the best drive was actually one that measured in the middle of the pack. Ever since (probably the mid 1960's) I just use a tube checker to find working tubes, and then swap them around to determine which ones work best in the particular radio I am trying to repair. So just use your tube tester to find ones that seem to work, ie light up and
 have reasonable emission, and then don't be afraid to swap them around looking for the one that works "best".
 
73, Paul W2EC

--- On Wed, 11/16/11, Jason Hissong <jhissong at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Jason Hissong <jhissong at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] My First Boat Anchor Restoration: SX101 MkIII
To: "rbethman" <rbethman at comcast.net>
Cc: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 10:31 AM


This weekend, I plan on testing each of the tubes in the SX101 in the
tube tester (on loan to me).

73,
Jason N8XE