I have come across a very nice 799 with all the fixins', what is a realistic
price to pay for this unit?

I think it tests for mutual conductance, would this unit provide useful
accurate measurements?

Up to now I have never used one instead I use an actual ckt to determine
the condition of the tube.

I get a lot of people (customers) asking,, you don't have a tube tester???

I feel I may break down and purchase one,, more for the sake of saying
yep,, I have one!!!

thanks


Vin

Hi,
Vin asked:

I have come across a very nice 799 with all the fixins', what is a realistic
price to pay for this unit?

You couldn't go too far wrong for $100, though of course $50 would
be better.

I think it tests for mutual conductance, would this unit provide useful
accurate measurements?

It does, but with the proviso that it tests all tubes as triodes,
so the "Gm" figure for pentodes is only useful in comparison to what a
good tube would read on this model. However it's a perfectly valid
test method.

I don't believe that updated tube data was issued for this model,
or if it was, it's rarely seen. This was Hickok's answer to B&K,
intended primarily for TV service shops, but I don't think they sold
many.

Cheers, Alan

J. Vincent Collins wrote:
[...]

Up to now I have never used one instead I use an actual ckt to determine
the condition of the tube.

That's actually IMO the best way to test a tube. That being said, a
decent tube tester can be very handy for sorting through those boxes of
tubes you inevitably end up acquiring.

Especially if you repair guitar amps, you probably have a raft of
12AX7's and other preamp tubes that the customer insisted you replace.
Many of them are probably still just fine. Even the ones that read
"iffy" on a tester can be completely adequate in actual use.

I get a lot of people (customers) asking,, you don't have a tube tester???

Yeah, that stereotype of the Radio/TV repair guy and his tube tester
goes way back... to the days when a lot of tubes were sold that didn't
really need to be. "But the tube tester says..."

Cheers,
Fred
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