Greatest Vacuum Tubes You’ve Never Heard Of

Author: sohkamyung

Score: 59

Comments: 12

Date: 2020-10-30 00:26:24

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rob74 wrote at 2020-10-30 06:52:44:

This remindes me of a museum in Munich - a museum I had never heard of, located in the central office of a company I had never heard of, and which I would have probably never seen but for the "Long Night of Museums": the Spinner GmbH vacuum tube museum (

http://www.spinner-group.com/en/company/spinner-group/vacuum...

), showcasing the extensive vacuum tube collection of the company's founder.

artemonster wrote at 2020-10-30 07:42:23:

thanks for the tip :)

osamagirl69 wrote at 2020-10-30 05:27:05:

I am somewhat surprised not to see a mention of the humble x-ray tube (diode), or the medical linacs. Modern medical linacs are incredible, essentially a large block of copper that where you apply a few kilovolts and hydrogen on one end and get megaelectronvolt protons out the other end--the rf drive tube, vacuum pump, and resonant acceleration cavity is all integrated into one unit.

https://altairusa.com/role-of-the-linear-accelerator-linac-i...

timonoko wrote at 2020-10-30 13:39:18:

"Any sufficiently faulty Vacuum Tube is a Perceptron"

----- Me, while fixing tube-based magnetophone around 1976.

dmix wrote at 2020-10-30 14:59:24:

This is worth reading end-to-end just to the fascinating sub-stories related to each tube.

Warning: Definitely a potential rabbithole of curious hacker information

JKCalhoun wrote at 2020-10-30 05:20:19:

I remember a Fry's Electronics had a large Klystron in their store.

Not for sale, just as a kind of decoration.

lb1lf wrote at 2020-10-30 08:08:04:

-The ham radio club I was a member of while in university had a long and proud tradition of sending letters to former members, asking if their employer happened to have any items suitable for donation to the club; power tubes (think 3-500Z, 4CX250/350 &c), old measurement gear, etc, etc.

Back in the seventies sometime, they received notice that a shipment of QRO (high power!) tubes were on their way, courtesy of $COMPANY.

Enthusiasm turned to amazement turned to dismay when it turned out the shipment consisted of several big Klystrons - hardly useful for amateur purposes! We still had one on display when I attended in the late nineties, though.

jhellan wrote at 2020-10-30 09:58:00:

They arrived in a truck, one coffin sized crate, one slightly smaller. The contents were bright read, and looked like jet engines.

- la4rt

lb1lf wrote at 2020-10-30 15:26:46:

-Oi, vi er overalt! (Odd Erling - aktiv 1997-2005. Fortsatt sporadisk radioaktiv - oftest under Field Day )

73 og god helg!

dschuetz wrote at 2020-10-30 06:45:39:

It's a very entertaining read, but mostly useless information and trivia, unless you can call tubes a hobby or interest. It inspired me using all this for some sci-fi plot though, like transmitting power and data wirelessly in space.

rfdave wrote at 2020-10-31 02:31:50:

"The Complete Venus Equilateral" will scratch that itch.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Venus-Equilateral-George-Smi...

wglb wrote at 2020-10-30 04:20:44:

Good article. But I have heard of several of these, particularly the one in the microphone: VF14M