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I restore a lot of 50s era tube radio equipment. The tubes are suprisingly robust! I'm surprised at how many times _resistors_ go bad, and of course we all kno

I restore a lot of 50s era tube radio equipment. The tubes are suprisingly robust! I'm surprised at how many times _resistors_ go bad, and of course we all know that capacitors fail. But more often than not, all the tubes in a typical 5 tube AM radio I find are working.

dhosek 2y ago
Radio Shacks¹ used to have a tube tester machine in them.² I was always impressed that there was such a finite universe of tubes that a single machine could test all of them. ⸻ 1. For the kids, this was a store that sold various electric gizmos including radios and circuit components, then later computer and televisions. 2. I think they may have also been present in hardware stores as well.
- euroderf 2y ago
  There was a tube tester in our town's main pharmacy. So in principle you could pull the main tubes from (say) your TV and have at it.
- quercusa 2y ago
  There's a HeathKit one up on Ebay now: 'Heathkit TC-3 Tube Tester'
- themadturk 2y ago
  I remember tube testers at grocery stores when I was a kid. I'd go with my dad to test tubes from our TV set, and buy replacements for burned out ones.