In my circle of tube usage, we always speak of tube bases like "6BA6
and 6AU6 both have the 7BK basing". Then I look in my oldish ARRL
handbooks, find the chart of tube bases and see the 7BK pinout.

Many of the tube databases on the net use the same terminology for
bases.

Obviously for the number-letter or number-letter-letter bases the
number is how many terminations. And the letters seem to have been
assigned sequentially (or maybe not?)

And there are some oddball bases (power tubes etc.) that don't follow
the number-letter pattern but instead are simply numbers.

Is the ARRL handbook the "final authority" on tube basing, or (more
likely) is this simply an excerpt from a more authoritative list
somewhere else?

Tim.

The ARRL handbook, et al, merely mirror the information that has come
out of the tube industry's long-running standards for tube bases. Your
observation of the numbering system is pretty much correct. The final
"authority" was probably the old RETMA manufacturing consortium that set
the then-standards for tubes and many other electronic components.

wrote:

In my circle of tube usage, we always speak of tube bases like "6BA6
and 6AU6 both have the 7BK basing". Then I look in my oldish ARRL
handbooks, find the chart of tube bases and see the 7BK pinout.

Many of the tube databases on the net use the same terminology for
bases.

Obviously for the number-letter or number-letter-letter bases the
number is how many terminations. And the letters seem to have been
assigned sequentially (or maybe not?)

And there are some oddball bases (power tubes etc.) that don't follow
the number-letter pattern but instead are simply numbers.

Is the ARRL handbook the "final authority" on tube basing, or (more
likely) is this simply an excerpt from a more authoritative list
somewhere else?

Tim.

K3HVG wrote:
The ARRL handbook, et al, merely mirror the information that has come
out of the tube industry's long-running standards for tube bases. Your
observation of the numbering system is pretty much correct. The final
"authority" was probably the old RETMA manufacturing consortium that set
the then-standards for tubes and many other electronic components.

That seems to be the case (although it seems to be EIA, not RETMA for
this.)

That brings me back to clarifying my original question:

What publication has the "official master list" of EIA tube base
diagrams?

Googling around the net brought up some websites but they tend to be
LESS comprehensive than the ARRL list. (Although there are a couple of
databases like NJ7P's which have the wonderful feature of being able to
get a lit of all tubes with a given base, and there was one German
website that offered a similar feature although in a more graphical
(and maybe less useful!) form.)

I think it's possible that the number-only bases in the ARRL tables
might not be EIA.

Tim.

wrote:
K3HVG wrote:

The ARRL handbook, et al, merely mirror the information that has come
out of the tube industry's long-running standards for tube bases. Your
observation of the numbering system is pretty much correct. The final
"authority" was probably the old RETMA manufacturing consortium that set
the then-standards for tubes and many other electronic components.


That seems to be the case (although it seems to be EIA, not RETMA for
this.)

That brings me back to clarifying my original question:

What publication has the "official master list" of EIA tube base
diagrams?

Googling around the net brought up some websites but they tend to be
LESS comprehensive than the ARRL list. (Although there are a couple of
databases like NJ7P's which have the wonderful feature of being able to
get a lit of all tubes with a given base, and there was one German
website that offered a similar feature although in a more graphical
(and maybe less useful!) form.)

I think it's possible that the number-only bases in the ARRL tables
might not be EIA.

Tim.

The coordinating body for tube basing diagrams was JEDEC (Joint Electron
Device Engineering Council). I have a copy of their "Publication
2B--Basing Diagrams for Electron Tubes", which covers basing assignments
from "1A" to "21A", dated Sept. 1958. 46 pages worth of base drawings,
and a listing of which types used each base. Updated by Lud Sibley in
2000, to include some additional background info.

The referenced standard for these diagrams is given as "EIA RS-206".

Bob Weiss N2IXK

wrote:
Bob Weiss wrote:

The coordinating body for tube basing diagrams was JEDEC (Joint Electron
Device Engineering Council). I have a copy of their "Publication
2B--Basing Diagrams for Electron Tubes", which covers basing assignments
from "1A" to "21A", dated Sept. 1958. 46 pages worth of base drawings,
and a listing of which types used each base. Updated by Lud Sibley in
2000, to include some additional background info.


Is this in one of Mr. Sibley's books or a TCA publication, if so which
one, and where can I buy it?

I'm not a member of the TCA but only because I count myself as a user,
not collector...

Tim.


Not an "official" publication, AFAIK. Lud sent me a copy a couple years
ago, when a similar discussion came up on the TCA listserv.

An email and SASE to him might get you a copy, as well...

Bob Weiss N2IXK