[Amps] Stock up on tubes?

[Kim Elmore]

I've been around long enough (not as long as many others) to see 
predictions about the downfall and soon-to-be-obsolete status of <lots 
of things>. As an undergrad forty years ago, I recall hearing computer 
science students confidently predict that FORTRAN was a dead language 
and would soon be replaced with ALGOL. Then it was PASCAL. Then it was 
C, then C++ then... Yet FORTRAN is still alive and well. I've heard the 
same things about tubes. Tubes are history for audio, but high-power 
(for us) transmitting tubes are still alive and kicking. When the SS 
devices are as easy to use *and* and cheap enough to meet our current 
hollow state device's price point, vacuum tubes will go the way of the 
dodo. We're progressing rapidly towards that, but it'll be a while, yet. 
I have spares for all the tubes in any of the gear I have and spares for 
my amplifier tubes. I figure these will last well beyond my lifetime, 
and I don't plan on checking out any time soon.

Bottom line: have spares for amps and transmitting tubes in any gear you 
have. But we all need to accept that our gear won't last forever. Enjoy 
it while you've got it!

Kim N5OP


On 12/3/2016 9:03 PM, Catherine James wrote:
> What's everyone doing to plan for the day when most tubes are unobtainium?
>
> I am wondering if I should be stocking up on Ryazan G811A tubes. They seem to shelf-age in a more friendly way than the 3-500Z, and they're still pretty cheap.
>
> I'd really like to have at least one spare set of 3-500Z tubes, but I'm concerned about the need to rotate them once or twice a year to keep them gettered. That seems like a lot of opportunity to damage pins or caps.
>
> I am nowhere near retirement and have many decades ahead of me, so my current tubes in the amps are certainly not a lifetime supply. And I have no spares on the shelf. The last Chinese manufacturer could stop any time with little warning. Prices have been increasing rapidly. Time to make a plan.
>
> 73,
> Cathy
> N5WVR
>
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-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //– Attributed to many people; it’s so true that it 
doesn’t matter who said it./