[Amps] tube cooling

[gdaught6 at stanford.edu]

On 13 Feb 2004 at 9:37, Mark Beckwith wrote:

> Could you wise old sages help me with simple question - I seem to
> recall hearing that forced air cooling was not the same as, shall we
> say, sucked air cooling.  Do I remember right?  Seems you could
> destroy your amp if you tried to suck the air through the tube(s) tops
> as opposed to pushing it through from the bottoms.

Old, yes.  Wise & sage, not necessarily (I speak of myself.)  What's 
important is the temperature of the seals.  The trouble with anode-to-
filament pin air flow is that the anode cooling air "preheats" the 
air flowing across the base seals.  It's possible that in some cases, 
this would result in too-high temps on the base seals.  

But I'll bet a nickel that if you have PLENTY of cooling air flowing, 
the seals will stay comfortable no matter what the direction of the 
air flow.

73,

George T. Daughters, K6GT