Welcome to The Vacuum Tube Page

Last revised November 9,1999

Vacuum tubes were supposed to have become obsolete twenty five years ago but chances are you are reading this on the end of one. Vacuum tubes still have some applications as high power pulse switches, high end audio and guitar amplifiers, some high power R.F. applications, and in microwave ovens.. There was a statement here re there not being too many fifty kilowatt solid state R.F. transmitters, as it turns out such things are now becoming quite common. Thanks to Jim's Radio Room for setting me straight on that one and for making technical information on some real life solid state transmitters available.

This page is maintained by Roy Schmaus, who never thought he would be doing this and welcomes your input. This page started off as just a spin-off of my Vacuum Technology page after a couple of graduate students asked for help with R.F. and high power pulse devices. People started e-mailing links,the page grew, and I'm still a little flabbergasted at all the interest. I do have to admit to having built some tube audio stuff away back when I was a high school student, and to still having a working British Marconi R1155A .

Antique & Amateur Radio| Audio| Books| High Voltage/High Current Switching Devices| Unusual & Interesting Tube Types| Software| Suppliers| Theory| Exit

• Audio

  There are now more manufacturers of vacuum tube audio equipment than at any time in history. Some of these links will tell you why.
  • Antique Sound Hong Kong based, with connections to Mainland China. Amplifiers, tubes, components, etc.

  • The Brent Jessee Recording Homepage "Digital Audio, Video, Hi-Fi, Vacuum Tubes and other geek stuff, with other cool Website links, too!"

  • California Audio Engineering claim to have the best tube amp in the world. D.C. -180 Khz.

  • The GlassWare Website Tube CAD design software,etc.

  • Gold Aero, Inc. 818-841-5541

  • Hammond Transformers & Enclosures

  • HOFFMAN AMPLIFIERS "Tube amplifier power tranformers, tube amp output transformers, tube amp chokes, tube amp books, tube amp sockets, vacuum tubes, parts for tube amps,service for tube amplifiers."

  • The Kiewa Vally Stereofeatues material on Leak, Lowther, Tannoy, and other famous names in sound reproduction including technical and restoration information on Harold Leak's famous LEAK " POINT ONE " AMPLIFIERS.

  • Marchand Electronics Ltd.

  • Milbert Amplifiers Auto Sound.

  • Redesignz Tube Amp make a very unusual looking 6300B amp

  • Quad World

  • SAS Audio Labs
    "Hand crafted, Direct Marketed Audiophile Tube Amplifiers and Preamps."
    

  • Tubes Vs. Transistors--Audibly Different?

  • Tube Dude's Webpage of Vacuum Tube Lore

  • Tube Guy a.k.a. Joe Plaziak

  • Vacuum Tube Valley"A New, Reference Quality Journal covering the very best in modern and vintage vacuum tube audio electronics and speaker technology."

    Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier Schematic Links

  ---

  Antique & Amateur Radio

  • Web Sites:

    • AB4EL's page,includes the antique radio archives.

    • The American Radio Relay League site includes "How to Get Started in Ham Radio:",etc.

    • Antique Radio Classified

    • Antique Radio Restoration & Repair "WE SPECIALIZE IN RESTORING FAMILY HEIRLOOMS, GRANDMA'S AND GRANDPA'S OLD RADIO, MOM AND DAD'S SPECIAL SET, AND THE RADIOS YOU ENJOYED AS A CHILD!"

    • The Bellingham Antique Radio Museum

    • The Boat Anchors Page. WB5OAU/4 's page of vintage communications radios and associated paraphernalia includes a virtual tour of HMCS Haida's radio rooms.

    • The Boatanchors FAQ

    • Humber College Ham & Antique ftp site.

    • Jim's Ham Radio Shack has an animated electron tube, also ARRL information and a virtual tour of all the stuff that hams tend to accumulate.

    • K1DWU's Ham-Links Collection

    • Military Equipment List
    • Military Equipment List Mirror Site With more schematics,pictures,etc.

    • Phil's Old Radios has links to many other sites,as well as lots of pictures.

    • The rec.antiques.radio-phono FAQ

    • Rolf Bergendorff's Radio Tekniska Museum

    • SM0FLY's ( Bram Bottema ) info page

    • Tubes to Go "Real equipment glows in the dark." (A great site! Tool-time type ape noises would go here,but this is only a '386)

    Newsgroups:

    • rec.audio.tubes

    • rec.antiques.radio+phono

    Listserver:

    The Boatanchors Mailing List for Amateur Radio Equipment and communications receivers,etc..

  ---

  Books

  • Books on/About Vacuum Tubes

  • The ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook is an invaluable source of information,and should be available from any competent electronics jobber.

  ---

  Suppliers

  BBW Electronics

  Vacuum Tubes

  Bob's High Voltage, RF components, and things for sale

  Burle Industries Electron Tubes

  Photomultiplier, imaging, and power tube product lines. (Originally RCA)

  Communications and Power Industries

  "Communications and Power Industries, Inc. (CPI). CPI is the former Varian Electron Device Group. CPI manufactures a number of tubes including Eimac power grid tubes, klystrons, magnetrons, traveling wave tubes, etc."

  Richardson also list Eimac in their product line.

  EG & G Home Page

  Electron Tubes Ltd.
   Bury St.
   Ruislip,Mdlsx. HA4 7TA
   United Kingdom
  
  Sales Office:
    Electron Tubes Inc.
    100 Forge Way,Unit F
    Rockaway,N.J. 07866
    Tel (201)586-9594
    Fax (201)586-9771
  

  Groove Tubes

  Halfin Electron Tubes Division,

  Belgium. An online Electron Tubes Online Shopping Mall is available, and Halfin would like their site to become a real center of reference for tube lovers.

  Hammond Manufacturing Company

  Hammond are a Canadian Company, in business since 1917. Hammond are well known for their high quality,conservatively rated, power and audio transformers including tube output transformers rated for up to 280 watts.

  HF components -Trading Tubes & Parts

  New Sensor Corporation Sovtek tubes,etc.

  Radio Shopper

  Richardson Electronics,Ltd.Electron Device Group

  "Providing electron tubes, sockets and accessories from one of the world's largest inventories to the avionics, broadcast,communications, industrial, marine, medical, and microwave communications markets."

  Siemens Passive Components and Electron Tubes

  Svetlana Electron Devices

  Svetlana is a very large (25,000 people) Russian company making electron tubes, semiconductors, and various other glass products, which has recently entered the American and world markets. Svetlana produce their own versions of popular power tubes such as the 4CX15000, 4CX250, 3CW30000, etc. They are now entering the audio market, with types such as EL34,6550C, 6L6GC, and a series of power triodes for high-end audio.

  Triton ETD ( formerly ITT Electron Technology)

  "In 1995, Triton acquired the former ITT Electron Technology Division in Easton, Pennsylvania. With 158,000 square feet of manufacturing capability on 52 acres, Triton Electron Technology Division (ETD) offers decades of design and manufacturing experience in the production of electron power devices. Our products include microwave and power grid tubes, klystrons,thyratrons and integrated subsystems for both military and commercial applications."

  Tubes to Go

  also lists lots of suppliers.

  The Tubestore

  Vacuum Tubes -Angelfire Communications

  Vibroworld Vacuum Tubes and Other Electronics

  ---

  Some Interesting & Unusual Tube Types

  The 24A

  The very first commercially available tetrode,mentioned here only because I have a few of them.

  Bill Hennigan wrote:
  "Saw your web page and saw the type 24A tube mentioned.If I recall correctly the type 22 is the first commercial tetrode.The difference between it and the 24A, is that the 24A was built for use with an AC Filament voltage, and has an indirectly heated cathode. The type 22 has no cathode, the filament is the emitter, and made for use with a battery filament supply.
  73"

  The "Beam Power" R.F. Amplifier Tube and the British Marconi R1155A

  Some time ago I posted a request here for information on the 'beam power' R.F. amplifier tubes supposedly used in my Wordl War 2 vintage British Marconi R1155A radio receiver. A summary of responses is below, quite a few have have pointed out that the VR100 tubes used in the R1155 series of radios were not actually beam power R.F. tubes.

  Re Beam Power R.F. Amplifier Tubes:

  ( They do exist but not in the R1155.)

  Mr. Valve rep Hugh Stegman (NV6H) wrote:"Sure. Real big in PA design at one time, because you supposedly didn't need to neutralize them. (Others will tell you that you really should neutralize everything on general principles... :-) )

  ...6146, a sort of hot-rod 90 watt RF power tube vaguely inspired by the 6L6, is a beam power tube. It's a good tube. They still make them, though the milspec ones are getting a bit rare. There are a lot of Collins radios still in service..."

  Re the R1155A:

  Thanks to Humphrey Brown for providing the following source of manuals,as well as some arcane lore on the VR100 tubes:

  Mauritron Technical Services 8 Cherry Tree Road, Chinnor, Oxfordshire. OX9 4QY. Tel. (0844) 351 694, Fax (0844) 352 554.

  "These guys claim to have any and all tech manuals on anything electronic. I sent them a fax asking if the had the schematic for R1155A, ordered the manual and paid by credit card. All easy. come to think of it they may well be on the net now...let's go look... Humphry"

  Reader John Gibson , whose first love was an R1155A, mentioned that the R1155A's were originally built for installation in Halifax Bombers, and apparently mine still has the original cork lined metal cabinet. My R1155A in the picture has a replacement 'slow motion' tuning dial bought in surplus years ago and originally meant for an R1155N which does confuse identity somewhat..

  Many R1155A's wound up in surplus stores after the war ended and became a favorite receiver for radio amateurs. Select either of the images below for an enlarged view of the R1155A and one of it's R.F. amplifier tubes. The '1155 was receiving WWV on 5 MHz. when the picture was taken, tuning range is from 75 KHz. to 18 MHz. Note the hand lettering on the VR100 tube which may have had something to do with wartime shortages.

  Please e-mail schmaus@ee.ualberta.ca if you would like to contribute to this growing collection of R115A lore.

  

  Geissler Tubes from Two Bit Score, Inc.

  Hydrogen Thyratrons

  The laser guys next door have used hydrogen thyratrons in high power pulse applications. They have also blown the main building fuses,but that's another story.

  Hydrogen Thyratrons are the Weber Carburetors of vacuum tubes,you can see little capscrews and things through the (usually very large) tube envelope. Hydrogen thyratrons typically use a heater to liberate hydrogen inside the tube (In addition to the filament supply.),and are capable of switching kilovolts in nanoseconds. Needless to say they are very expensive. Typical part numbers are 8614/HY5 ,7782/HY6,7665/HY60,and the HY61. There are also some references to Hydrogen Thyratrons in John Pasley's High Power Switch section.

  Our hydrogen thyratrons were made by EG & G 's electro-optics division around 1976. The EG & G Home Page contains a fascinating history section as well as information on their many products. EG & G's sales Dep't. Fax number is: (508)745-0894.

  More Power! 750 Megawatts.

  The F-187 HYDROGEN THYRATRON is capable of handling 750 MW of peak output power. Here is the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center F187 Application and a manufacturer's Thyratron Ancillary Subsystem.
  • Industrial, Analytical, & NDT X-Ray Tubes

    Magic Eye Tubes

    The Kiwa Magic Tuning Eye

    Nuvistors

    Nuvistors are about the physical size of a thimble.Some cold-cathode nuvistors still are used in high temperature Geophysics applications.

    Rife Technologies

    Sub Miniature ("Hearing Aid") Tubes

    Thanks to Dennis Branch, of 'Radio Classified' for e-mailing information in the first paragraph below.

    "Typically encased in a flattened glass tube about .5 X 1 X 4 cm. dimensions,sub mini's were developed in WWII for use as proximity detectors in anti-aircraft shells. After the war, they were put to many uses. One of them was small portable radios, which are very rare today. I'm fortunate enough to have a Hoffman "Nugget", which uses those tubes. The radios were only made over a one-year period, as transistor radios came out the following year, and very few were made at that. Hearing aids was another application....(Dennis Branch)"

    Sub minis were also used in some military equipment , and a few types of subminis also found wide use as electrometer amplifiers,e. g. the CK5886 hearing aid tube was often hand picked for use as an electrometer. I remember building a super regenerative receiver around a surplus sub-mini when I was a high school student- it was confiscated by the technophobe school librarian for a time but that's another story along with the CK722 transistor that went up in smoke when it's 9 volt maximum rating was exceeded.

    Circuit boards from the Avro Arrow were full of subminiature tubes used in analog computers of the time. A full size mock-up of the Arrow was constructed by a Wetaskawin man,Alan Jackson , and used in the CBC production "The Arrow". The nose section was originally on display at the Aviation Hall of Fame next to the Reynolds Transportation Museum in Wetaskawin,Alberta. CBC's "The Arrow" link is here.

    Arrow Alliance Arrow engineer Peter Zuuring would like to get an Arrow flying for the hundredth year of aviation in Canada, Many old myths such as the one about Deifenbaker killing the Arrow are debunked on the Arow-Alliance site.

    The Traveling Wave Tube

    "Also, a very interesting Vacuum tube is the TWT, (travelling wave tube), used for high power (~40 watts and up) microwave amplification. These are extensivly used on commercial communications satellites, since they are lighter and more efficient than their solid state counterparts."..Jody Byram

    Triton ETD ( formerly ITT electron Technology) make TWT's and have some interesting technical information on their web page.

    High Voltage/High Current Switching Devices:Ignitrons,Krytrons,Thyratrons,Spark Gaps,etc.

    E-mailed from John Pasley in England

    The Marx Generator & The Febetron

  These two are not really vacuum tubes,but fit in well with John's' material on spark gaps.

  ---

  Theory

  • How vacuum tubes work From PAIA electronics,Inc.

  • Some Notes on Spice Modelling of Vacuum Tubes Miscellaneous postings from the sci.electronics newsgroup.

  • Vacuum Tube Theory 101on the Old Tube Radio Network.

  ---

  Software

• VT Data "A Complete tube manual on your computer."

  ---

  Exit

  Back to the Vacuum Page	Back to Roy's Electronics page	Back to Roy's Index
  The University of Alberta Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering