On Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at 8:50:42 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, October 14, 2019 at 9:28:08 PM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:

** The OP is not going into the servicing business.

He has exactly one, old tube radio with no clue how to work on it.

A tube tester is the LAST thing he needs to spend money on.


It must be very difficult for you to be such a paragon of perfection and to be endowed with such god-like powers.

From what I am gathering, and from seeing the OP's posts over the last several years, this hobby is becoming more serious and involved as time goes on. So, let's look at this from down here on earth, not from Mt. Olympus such as is your personal kingdom:

a) OP is in the Pacific Northwest, and not even in Downtown Vancouver. AKA - isolated.
b) OP is pretty much dependent on shipping, the internet, and venues such as this for advice and guidance
c) OP is curious, would like to know more, and would like to be as reasonably self-sufficient as practical.
d) OP is not restricting himself to a single path or interest.
e) OP is starting to "tool up" into the hobby, and is looking for suggestions on what to do.
f) Gone are the days when very nearly every drugstore and hardware store in North America had a tube tester up front with a cabinet full of tubes beneath.
g) The OP seems to have the most basic tools, such as a VOM and so forth. Whether an LCR, ESR, or other meters/testers should come before a tube tester - which would be my suggestion in general - we have no specific idea of this individual's discretionary income.
h) And none of us are fit to render judgment on the OP's competence. However, as a simple difference between him and you - wisdom comes with age, stupidity lasts forever. You are absolute and irrefutable proof of the latter..

So, if the OP is inquiring after tube testers, ours is to advise on the choices and implications. Even the simple ones are complicated devices wherein a lot can go wrong, and wherein there are vanishingly few individuals around competent to service them. And, the brute fact of the matter is that they are capable of saving a great deal of time, and over time will at least recover much of their cost based on throughput and avoided blind alleys. Tubes, these days and in onsies/twosies are not cheap. The OP does not have a twice-annual Kutztown on-offer. The OP is not based in the center of tube production (RCA/Sylvania/Raytheon/Philco/GE all produced their tubes within 300 mile from where I sit, with Philco, RCA and Sylvania within 60 miles. One of RCA's chief designers lives less than 4 miles from me. We meet twice a year at Kutztown. My Hickok tube tester came to me through a GE production engineer who worked at their Re-Entry Systems Division in West Philadelphia.

My point is that stuff is thick on the ground where I am. I DO NOT have to depend on shipping and the Internet for my sources. And I do not need advice from the likes of you, however otherwise technically adept you might be..

Go service something, you are useless here on this thread.


Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Like most things in service and design of electronic systems (and others), the answer is 'it depends'.
The best we can do is provide objective guidance and not absolutes because he needs to understand the trade-offs. From his back ground, sounds like a concept he is familiar with.

In general:
If you only are dealing with one thing to service, probably cheaper to buy a set of tubes and change out the old ones. (BUT I've experienced situations where tubes characteristics are different and even a new one may not work - but that is very remote possibility)
If your objective is to gain knowledge and apply it to servicing other types of equipment, then getting a 'middle of the road' tester is probably worth it. But it depends on the financial risk you want to take.
From my experience, B&K 700 and 707 were fairly standard in repair shops (not engineering shops)Last I checked, a working one on fleabay was around $100 USD.
What is difficult to say (because it has been a long time for me) is the number of different types of tubes one can test and their distribution in various electronic devices. I have a portable that has 6-8 sockets in it. I have the B&K 700 that has maybe 15-18 sockets in it. I am rebuilding it and the small tester I have works fine for my needs.
You can always sell the tester if it doesn't meet your need or you go in a different direction in your hobby.
As far as guidance, the more knowledgeable ppl here can cite low-end, middle of the road, and high end units for you to evaluate.

Tube testing is not always a go/no go result. The value of a number of tube characteristics can combine to make the tube 'questionable' In these situations, the most expedient way to fix the problem is with a new tube. Some ppl may want to get into the details and tease apart the operational conditions of the tube to see what is really going on. Great learning opportunity, time consuming, an you would probably need a tester with a great deal of functions.
good luck in your quest.

-j