[Amps] Could we *all* use the right tube part numbers?

[David Kirkby]

A search of the web shows many people are writing mails, web pages about 
non-existent tubes. Apart from being a bit sloppy, it does create 
problems when people try to search for material on the web. It would be 
far better if we *all* used the *right* part numbers.

The non-existent 3CX150000B7 is one such example. A search on Google 
shows 118 entries for that - some by me I might add!!!  A search for the 
correct part number - 3CX15,000B7 (note the comma)

http://www.cpii.com/eimac/catalog/80094.htm

shows only 24 entries. So the wrong part number is listed far more often 
than the right one!! But Google will only pick up what you ask it for.

The 4CX250 is another example. There are lots of articles, emails etc 
when people mention they are running a pair of 4CX250's. In most cases 
they probably mean 4CX250B's, but this is not always stated. There are 
about twice as many entries in Google for the 4CX250B than for the 
4CX250, so the situation is nowhere near as bad as it is for the poor 
old 3CX15,000B7 which normally gets called by the wrong name.


Even manufacturers of amplifiers - for example Alpha
http://www.alpha-amps.com/html/legacy.htm
call the 8877 a 3CX1500, when in fact it's a 3CX1500A7.

There's a thread on here at the minute where people are talking about a 
3500Z. I assume they mean the 3-500Z
http://www.g8wrb.org/data/Eimac/3-500Z.pdf
but perhaps not. Other web references refer to the 3500-Z. So we have a 
mixture of

3-500Z
3500Z
3500-Z

and I expect with a bit of effort I could find some other combination.

You might think I'm nit-picking, but I'm sure people looking for 
information on the 3-500Z are not very likely to type 3500Z in a search 
engine. (If they do, they will get lots of references, but most are 
nothing to do with the tube).

Looking at my own site this month, the most popular search terms are 
listed at the bottom of the message, in order (most common at the top). 
The 4CX350A is the most popular search term used when arriving at my 
site from a search engine so far this month.

There are no entries at all for a 4CX350, as I did not have such a 
non-existent tube listed on the site. So no search engine would have 
found my site if you had searched for 4CX350. However, a quick web 
search shows that the number of references to a 4CX350, without any 
suffix are very significant. There are:

4CX350F - 343 entries on Google.
4CX350A - 867 entries on Google
4CX350FJ - 122 entries on Google
4CX350AC - 196 entries on Google.

4CX350 -  354 entries on Google.

So ignoring any rare varients, there 19% of the web references to a 
non-existent device, with the remaining 81% referring to the A, F, AC or 
FJ versions.

I know sometimes might want to refer to the 4CX250 series, but there is 
a lot of mis-use of tube part numbers, which can't really be good for 
anyone.

Eimac don't seem too consistent with the YC tubes. Some have a hyphen 
after the YC, some don't. Whether or not the tube data sheet and the 
tube are always consistent I don't know.

I feel we should all try to use the right part number, and not not refer 
to a 3CX1500 if we mean an 8877 / 3CX15000A7.


I admit to being guilty of this myself, but now I run a web server, and 
look at the server logs, the searches people perform on my site, and the 
search terms they arrive at the site from, I do feel we could do with 
being a bit more accurate.

Dave Kirkby, G8WRB



Search terms in 1-15th Feb 2005 at www.g8wrb.org
------------------------------------------------
4cx350a   // Last month, the top spot was held by the 3CX800A7, which 
was searched for 55 times.
yc156
4cx250b
eimac
yagi uda
yc-156
3cx800a7
eimac 8875
yagi-uda antenna
6bm8
yagi-uda
amperex
yagi uda antenna
eimac 3-1000z
4cx1500b
3cx5000a7
4cx350f
4cx5000a
3cx3000a7
yagi uda design
2c39a
4cx250b data sheet
3cx1500d7
yc179
eimac 4cw10000a
8877 linear
8874 tube life
3cpx5000a7 yc156
tube data
4cx20000a
yc156 data
svetlana 572b tube data
and so on....

-- 
Dr. David Kirkby, 
G8WRB

Please check out http://www.g8wrb.org/ 
of if you live in Essex http://www.southminster-branch-line.org.uk/