[Amps] Bad tubes from Ebay

[Robert B. Bonner]

Ok neat, I stand corrected.  No BeO

I'm glad posters here have been able to buy and use tubes from all sorts of
sources.  That's great. I'll tell you this just isn't the case with
everybody.  How do you know your tube hasn't been drop kicked?
 
Just a word of advice.  I used to be a line pilot for FedEx.  I highly
recommend when shipping tubes, ALWAYS ship air.  Truck freight passes
through a lot of extra sorts and bumps down the road no matter who is doing
it, FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS.  The fewer people handling your product the
better.

An almost unknown thing about FedEx's second day air.  There is NO SUCH
THING AS SECOND DAY AIR.

This was created to match UPS's second day service.  The freight sits in a
corner of the destination ramp awaiting the second day.  All freight is
sorted each night and heads out.  You will get air (less bounces) quality
service and unless a wild fork lift driver runs through your ramps packages
in the second day sort pile, you'll be OK.

They added Econo since I left and it is probably just that, steer clear with
tubes.  My educated guess is your tube just spent two days sitting in an
Econo pile awaiting delivery.

During my flying career I flew for two big cargo haulers, DHL and FedEx the
longest at FDX. Both are excellent at safeguarding your packages.  FDX is
very good at paying claims also.  UPS has been very nasty about Vacuum
Tubes.  I have had a hell of a time shipping via UPS.  Not that I have had a
lot of claims over the years only 1.  But they really quiz you about
breakability.  Most of the time NOT insuring a glass tube.

THE USPS is good at moving items cheaply but they have figured out a way to
NOT PAY CLAIMS.  I've tried to be a nice guy when things got damaged, I had
a guy put a jennings ceramic vac into an 8877 socket and chimney with 1 rap
of newspaper around both.  The two items fit nicely together but were banged
up and the socket destroyed.  The claim has never been paid, because my
claim was different than the amount of insurance, took two months to find
out.  The shipper had tossed his paperwork and I was only claiming the
socket, not all three items.

Well screw that.

I'm sure somebody here will also say, "I've never had that problem"  Well
good for you.  But I will not ship a tube if they wont guarantee the darn
thing get there, let alone in one piece.  I'll only buy a tube I can get a
return on and expect it to be good when it gets here.

Since instituting that policy, I've had very good luck and everybody has
been happy.

Sincerely,

BOB DD

-----Original Message-----
From: amps-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On
Behalf Of Steve Thompson
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 4:30 PM
To: amps at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Bad tubes from Ebay


> Since there is NO RETURN, he ate the tubes.  Russian Beryllium Oxide is
> tastier than USA stuff, it was probably the added Cherry Flavoring.
>
Just a minor point - I think there's no BeO in these (or most other 
external anode) tubes. The ceramic is Alumina - razor sharp if broken, 
but otherwise harmless.

One exception which you might come across - the output device in the 
Clansman 353 tank radio is based on a 4CX250 modified for conduction 
cooling and the material between the anode and the integral heatsink 
ring is BeO.

Steve
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