[R-390] Broke 390 latest

[jlap1939@yahoo.com]

Friends,

Please feel free to help...or "cuss" me out...This is
going to be pretty long...

Decided that I doubted the old mans "borrowed" tube..
(he wanted $5, and I already gave him $5 to use his
tester..) Talked him into letting me try it again..
then used alcohol on it, and got it under sunlight..
It was a 6CB6, not 6AK6...That means the pin two
connect was cathode, not 1st grid (or screen), so I
guess that would not work...6AU6 seems to have same
base.(or does it?): see below and suggest. (I have 1)
or must I have only a 6AK6? That tube having a broke
pin would stop the audio, right? (It was pin one).
When I took it back to him a second time, he was
really mad...(and I thought I was an old crab....).
Do you think I hurt anything with the 6CB6 in circuit?

Took apart the connect on radio end of power
cord..(the 4 pin plug) and it had a wire that must
have
"arced"..(How do you spell that...how about arched?)
Repaired...maybe that was the extra "noise" I heard...

Drove to R. Shack...They no longer send off for
tubes..(I didn't know that. Its sad for me, as they
were close, and easy, if not cheap or always good
quality.)
Someone tell me the best quick place to get a few
tubes..*(If you can, or wish, offer me some part of a
set and I will send you the money...don't want to buy
whole set right now, but would buy the most common
"trouble" tubes if you want to sell..I mean to keep
the radio...)

I believe that the broken pin may be the real pro. 
(other than the one regarding not using a bag. to see
the printing on a pro-offered tube...I don't know the
"insides" well enough to tell..but the old service
tech. should have...). Too bad I didn't spend the time
on this radio, that I put in the 390a I had...I got to
where I could set the alignment, and new what was
acting up, without instruments on that radio, (to a
limited degree)...even tho I never figured out the
"drifting" alignment...(Some of you may remember
that...)

Even if I get help, and this unit is repaired, I still
seem to want another radio...Is this normal behavior?
It has just come on me in the last month..My wife
doesn't know it yet...

What should I do???

My Best Regards,

John 

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