Arthur Moe <kb7ww@easystreet.com> asked me to re-post my off-list reply to
him. Mostly in its entirety, here it is.
>> The US street price for new GI7Bs is about $15 or $20 shipped, on my
>>doorstep.
>>
>> I have five of those en route, by way of ebay and a gentleman in the UK. I
>> also have a contact stateside who has eastern Europe contacts who keep him
>> quietly supplied with transmitting tubes while he makes sure his contacts
>> have enough food on their tables to feed their kids. The former
>> Soviet-bloc engineers don't always get paid on time....
>>
>> Not seeing the price irks me too. I fully realize that the supply of big
>> Soviet jugs is limited, and those of us planning to play with them need to
>> salt away a few hundred dollars' worth as a lifetime supply for personal
>> use.
>>
>> If these puppies happen to go the same way as TV sweep tubes -- well, 6JS6s
>> and 8950s outperformed the HELL out of the DJIA over the last 30 years.
>>
>> Yes, I agree completely with your request to get prices on "for sale"
>> items. As on all non- "for sale" lists, I'd also like for the blatant
>> "for sale" posts to offer some vestige of informational content, like a
>> link to the poster's web site with schematics. I would accept a legitimate
>> "click here for schematics and tube data sheets" in exchange for prices up
>> front -- the information is just as valuable as the parts!! Not only that,
>> a lot of internet buyers (like me, and I suspect like you as well) are a
>> lot likelier to buy from a one-stop component & info supplier than from
>> somebody who just ships parts.
Max quoted a price of $15. for GI7Bs plus shipping, which is reasonable but
I'm not going to beat his door down. YMMV, etc. The anode cooler on these
tubes is not particularly effective for full-output 100% duty-cycle use,
and it should be replaced for these applications, or the tube derated.
Liquid cooling is a good option.
You can save a lot if you get the tubes without the anode cooler, but GET
THE ANODE COOLER NUT!! It's well worth the additional cost for shipping
the cooler. The coolers make a nice Christmas tree or hood ornament. They
will also fit nicely on a rettysnitch without further modification.
These tubes are fun toys if you love to build stuff like tube sockets out
of old recycled junk. They're "not quite there" for the esoteric
tetrodes-with-handles purists, but ya know -- some of us drive Hondas, and
some drive BMWs. We still get there OK.
Yet Another Blatantly Commercial Remark -- my web server Linux box is
finally ready, FTP is finally live, and the only thing left is for me to
relocate my DNS hosting -- meantime, I can redirect through my ISP.
Once I get some content -- datasheets, schematics, photos, etc. -- ready,
I'll let you see how I think a commercially oriented for-sale amateur radio
site should work. My philosophy? "Yeah, you can also BUY stuff here, and
it's as easy as downloading a data sheet."
Jim N6OTQ
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