On 10 Jul 2005 16:15:19 GMT, "
wrote:

If there ever was a candidate for a tube-redesign,
here it is. Sure you could bid big bucks for the
few remaining examples of a
tube-that-never-went-anywhere (the 8122) or pick
an approximate replacement from the several
inexpensive Russian tx tubes and do a bit of
tweaking. Help with such rf-amp efforts is amply
supplied by searching on 'Rich Measures' et aliis.


Perhaps, but I recently picked up a brand new set of 8122's at a local
hamfest for $175. However, I always scout around for spares.
It's been my experience that if you are in no hurry to find
replacements, they eventually show up at the right price.

BTW, the 8122 is still in production by Burle, so it isn't a case of
the last few examples. There is currently someone selling a dozen used
ones on eBay for the package price of $500. Even if half are good,
that's not a bad price. Thus they are out there.

Why do you say that the 8122 never "went anywhere"?
They were in use on thousands of Merchant ship HF and military HF
installations. It was simply more of a commercial tube than a tube
sold to hams such as the 3-500Z, etc. That's probably why the tube is
still in production, over 40 years after it was designed.

I wonder about the future availablity of certain Russian tubes.
Many of the ones being sold date back to the military needs of the
USSR and are no longer in production.

Ask Ten-Tec who designed their Titan II amp around the Svetlana
4CX1600B and then found that they couldn't buy that tube in
quantity....

Doug