Drake and 6JB6A final tubes

[Will White]

So much has been batted about on the net, not so much here but USENET
and the web, about the relative merits of Sylvania brand 6JB6 vs. all
the
others that I am left more confused than when I knew absolutely nothing
about electronics (I know about 1.77 percent of what I should and would
like to; a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!) The Drakemod text
mentions 'interelectrode capacitance' in the Zenith/RCA/GEs as being
intolerable and bad for the radios. I understand that the Sylvania were
the brand supplied by Drake at the factory, and that the Drake 4-line
was
designed with them in mind.

How awful is, how much less performance and lifespan are the
non-Sylvanias? In the absensce of cool hard data, I am
inclined to believe that the Sylvania prejudice is superstition. Can I
mix brands, horror of horrors, if the three tubes are matched? And what
about matching at all? I was chatting with my childhood dentist at a
Christmas party last year, he was the guy who introduced me to amateur
radio in 1975, and he stated that matching in many radios isn't really
all that critical, provided the operator properly neutralizes the new
tubes at installation. This may just be an attitude left over from the
golden era of tube radio, when tubes were plentiful and cheap (a repair
invoice I have that was tucked inside the manual for my TR-4 prices the
6JB6 at $3 a piece in 1968). Or maybe not? It is hard to find Sylvania
6JB6(a)s, much less matched. I live about a mile from Antique Electronic

Supply, and everytime I stop in looking, they have a box full of GEs,
RCAs, some Zenith, and a very few Sylvania or JAN tubes, never matched.
Likewise, RF Parts has matched 3s, but they are GE, and 26 a piece at
that!  Am I just  holding on to a worry over nothing?
--
Will White, KD7BFX

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"I make coffee nervous" --Nora Ephron
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