Jack Winslade <Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org> (08/22/90)
This is a true story. I wouldn't have believed it had it happened to
a friend of a friend, but it happened to me.
Just recently, the rectifier tube in my 30's vintage Atwater-Kent
superhetrodyne (it picks up '77 WABC {clang}' here in Omaha, if only I
wanted to listen to it ;-) started arcing and sparking in yellow and
blue flashes.
Halfway joking, I asked one of our local electronic distributors to
include a number 80 rectifier tube in our next order. I almost
fainted when he replied that they always stocked the number 80. He
said that one of the larger independent phone companies buys a lot of
them for their carrier equipment.
No, he wasn't kidding. I now have a brand new number 80 in the A-K.
For those of you who are old enough to remember tube shapes, this one
is labeled '80' but looks like a 5Y3 with a glued-on 4-pin base.
With all of this talk about digital ESS and interoffice fiber, I find
it amazing that equipment of that age is still in use, even in central
Nebraska. For those of you who don't know tubes, the number 80 was
phased out in the 1940's.
Good Day! JSW
[1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666)
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