[Amps] defense of distributors tspa

[John T. M. Lyles]

Will's story sounds familiar, I have heard similar things about when 
GE Owensboro closed up. BTW, one engineer from there, works here at 
Los Alamos now, and I used to love hearing stories of the old days of 
glass tubes there.

Whatever dealings Richardson Electronics has done in the past, they 
have held out as one of the last big tube distributors along with 
lots of other parts. They had the vision to do this, while so many 
small players couldn't foot the bill. I wonder if your venture whould 
have continued to this day, with NOS tubes from Ge or RCA or whoever.

I don't always buy Richardsons tubes because they tend to be more 
expensive. Like a convenience grocery store here in the states, the 
can demand the price because of their inventory and quick delivery. 
If I can wait, I buy many tubes direct from companies like E2V, 
CPI/Eimac, Thales. But if i am off the air and the OEMs cannot 
deliver in 2 months, then Eddie R gets my business. It costs us $10K 
per hour of lost accelerator time.

As for engineering, Richardson doesn't have a lot in house now, but 
they do have some capabilities, through some of their subsidiaries, 
like RF Gain. Just yesterday, we tested a 200 MHz VHF high band TV 
pallet, rated 450 watts PEP, with Semelab MOSFETS. We got the board 
from them for <$1K, which is a little over $2 a watt. That is quite a 
good deal for linear RF power at that frequency.
73
John
K5PRO


>Thing is, I know the following as a fact because I was directly 
>involved in it. Back some years ago, I manufactured some "products" 
>that used the following tubes; 8908, M-2057, 8950, and 6LB6. GE in 
>Owensboro, Kentucky was the manufacturer of these and the last 
>receiving tube manufacturer. They were still getting plenty of 
>orders on a bunch of different tubes. GE though decided to put the 
>tube plant up for sale and old Eddie slipped in and bought up the 
>majority of the stock. At this time, receiving tube prices were low 
>and normal. I was going to place an order for 1200-1500 M-2057's and 
>called CeCo which was a company owned by Richardson. There, they 
>told me point blank that since Richardson bought the plant, all 
>receiving tube manufacturing would cease and desist. Also that if I 
>bought, they would be no more after this. I had a friend who was a 
>manager and engineer at the GE plant. I gave him a call and offered 
>to buy the tube lines for the above tubes. I was told, they cou
>  ld not sell them, by Richardsons order and the equipment would be 
>put in mothballs and most likely rust away! Now what did this do? 
>The price of receiving tubes almost doubled overnight and have gone 
>up sharply ever since. GE's, now MPD, employees just bought back the 
>company not too long back. If you ever read their info about it, 
>they name Richardson as an un-disclosed buyer when this all 
>happened. Anyhow, I think it was done to monopolize the receiving 
>tube industry somewhat plus raise the prices very quickly on their 
>stock tubes. By the way, when Richardson bought the GE plant, they 
>went around to every other manufacturer who used to make them or who 
>GE private labeled for like Westinghouse and even RCA and bought any 
>remaining stocks. I got into a bidding war with Richardson and RCA 
>over a bunch of 6LB6's still NOS at RCA. Sylvania/Phillips sold out 
>their remaining inventories along with about all the others. 
>Westinghouse ceased entirely because they had GE make every t
>  ube. Westinghouses primary distributor was Elmira Electronics and 
>they told me what was happening at the same time. Now if there 
>wasn't some crooked dealings going on here, I dont know what else 
>you would call them. I think that's called manipulating the market.
>
>Best,
>
>Will