[Swan] Re: My old 350

[Jim M]

> My other question is "what tube tester do you guys
> use that covers all the swan tubes?"

I can't argue with what the others have said about
testers, but...

I have a BK 667 that I bought for around $35 or so a
few years back. Usually when I get a new piece of tube
gear, I'll use it to test all the tubes. It will find
any that have are just flat dead or have shorts and
gives you some indication on tubes that are marginal.

For the price, I'd invest in something like that if
you tinker much with tube gear. If you have lots and
lots of tube gear, a better tester might be worth the
investment.

The comments about the radio being the best tube
checker are right and if there are still problems
after I test all the tubes I'd isolate it to a stage
or two and then use tube substitution.

Not counting "All American Five" BCB receivers, I
can't remember any ham gear I've worked on where the
tester didn't find the bad tube. I've lost count of
the number of AA5s I've tinkered with over the years
(probably up over 50 and maybe close to 100) and can
only remember a handful of times when a tube that
tested good was found to be bad by substitution.

My experience may not be typical, but from what I've
seen I'd say my tube tester was worth the $35 and has
probably saved me dozens of hours of troubleshooting
time. But I don't expect it to tell me what's
broke--it's just another troubleshooting tool I can
use in conjunction with everything else to help
isolate a problem.

You don't find much test equipment that doesn't have
some limitations. A good technican knows the
limitations of his test gear and takes that into
account as he does his testing.


73 de
Jim W4JBM

http://www.geocities.com/w4jbm

"With a soldering iron in one hand, a schematic in the
other, and a puzzled look on his face..."

Soon in the new QTH at New Dog Iron Ranch!

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