If tubes could speak…

This one’s probably been around the block a few times. I was initially kinda worried because the fins looked roughed up but after some unscientific testing to make sure I could blow through them and fit a cable tie down between the fins to ensure there was a good pathway, I went ahead and installed it, and it came up just fine with a perfectly good stack temperature…

NO EXCUSES ON DA BOWL

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These holes seem to be a common feature of some part of the remanufacturing process

The old tube went soft pretty quick. Don’t they have pills for that now?

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And here’s what that goes in, a Harris/GatesAir 25,000 watt FM transmitter.

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To swap it, you release a hose clamp holding a big collet on the movable top plate of the cavity so you can slide that plate blocker/chimney up, then release the hose clamp holding it to the tube (bottom), slide it up then clamp it again out of the way. Then you can carefully disconnect the plate voltage supply cap and somersault the tube upside down above the socket and remove it. I wish I’d taken a video of how bizarre this all looks.

Cooling air is forced both through holes in the socket and out of the cavity through the tube’s plate cooler after entering from the blower duct.

The two big fat orange wires – GatesAir / Gates / Harris Broadcast really likes that fat orange wire – are the filament supply, 10vdc Max at 150 amps. The HV, ~9500vdc at about 3 amps and change, comes in on a piece of RG-213 coax from this off board power supply.

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First person shorting stick wielding view
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Rectifier modules

A little dust but not too bad. The dust seemed to really like gathering on anything live with plate voltage. Eww. A more through cleaning will occur soon.

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