[R-390] Tube testers

[Joel Richey]

Many years ago when I was a young shaver my father had a radio shop and when I came home from school I looked forward to fixing radios, mostly the all american 5, Kitchen radios, open filiments and once in awhile a really challange, replacing a filter cap.  one day I got to the shop and there were 2 to be fixed the first one a Philco all the tubes were lit so I went to the big Hicock tube tester and tested all of em, they all tested good, took the rx outa the cabanit and grabed the voltmeter and check all plate and screen voltage everything looked good, worked on that radio for 3 days, the 4th day my Pop came up to me and handed me a box with a 12BE6 and said put this in and I said I had checked all the tubes and their are all good, I put the tube in and 45 seconds later it was playing, from that doay to this I would not use a tube tester for anything, like the gentleman said  they are for wimps, buy a book and learn how things work and take you tube tester to the land fill, the fact the military uses  em should answer all your guestions.  Didn't mean to ramble on, but you get the picture..

Joe W2DBO