Tube tester question

[Larry Wolken]

At 10:12 PM 05/28/2000 -0700, Jim Berry wrote:
>Hello Group,
>
>I have a chance to buy a Hickcok (SP) 600A tube tester.  Is it any
>good?  What is it worth, and what should I offer for it?
>
>73 Jim K7SLI
Hi Jim --

Here's a reply from a very satisfied Hickok user:  1.) Grab it [I would
certainly pay $200-300 for it], and then  2.) Send it to Bill Waters for
calibration and checking.

While many people will tell you that even the good tube testers are a crude
device at best because of the complexities of how each tube acts in its own
real life circuit, I would never give up my Hickok.  It's part of the
initial triage of troubleshooting any boatanchor that I work on.  And as
others have undoubtedly told you, a Hickok-type mutual transconductance
tester is the only way to go for even halfway meaningful results.  All
other types are mostly just filament testers.

Best site for info on Hickok is Bill Padgett's
http://www.freivald.org/~padgett/index.htm.  Lots of good stuff.  And Bill
Waters can be reached at wate at erols.com, or at least that was his address a
few years ago.  Enjoy!

Larry N3OJD