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Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...
Anyway, time to get to the point. How valuable is a tube tester for
someone who is only, or mainly, going to be messing with audio gear
and the gear for testing audio gear. Maybe what I really need is a
gear tester? Ahem. So, this would just be for hobby use, at least for
now, and I am not gonna spend a lot of money on it. Can a simple
tube tester be of much use? I say simple because I imagine a not so
simple tester will have a not so low price.
I suppose I could always get a more sophisticated tester that needs
repair but then I would need to learn how to repair it and calibrate
it. Are they hard to calibrate? What sorts of test equipment would be
needed to calibrate one?

The tube tester is not of very much use, especially to someone that is
not in the repair business. For those that are, they will usually have
a stock of new tubes and it is quicker to just pop one in to see if it
solves the problem.

There are 2 basic types in common usage. One is the simple emission
tester. It connects most of the elements together except the cathode
and checks as to how much the cathode will put out. That will often
tell if the tube is weak. The other is the mutual conductance tester.
It simulates a circuit and is better.

Most have a shorted element test where you plug in the tube and tap it.

They do not usually need calibration. The easiest way to tell is to
check several new tubes and see if they show way up in the good reagon.

Tubes are usually the last components to go bad unless another component
causes them to go bad or the filament opens up which an ohm meter will
tell.