Think your final tube is big enough?

[WQ9E]

A truly manly final from Heintz and Kaufman, the Gammatron 254.

[kb3rdt]

That would be nice!

[W4AAB]

Now you know where the term California kilowatt came from!!

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Now THATS a final to be proud of.   I bet just lighting the filaments would make my lights dim!

[KA0HCP]

No need for room lights!

[KM1H]

That is one big honking piece of glass!
They either had a typo or renamed it as the HK 254 is a 100T clone. The biggest Ive seen from HK is the 1254 which is a 750T competitor.

[Opcom]

That's impressive. Will it go to 30MHz?

No 'tube envy'.

[W7TFO]

Carl is right, that has to be a typo.  I have seen real HK254's, and that is not one. 

A 1254, yes indeed.

The story is Press Wireless used them, others as well but not to any real extent.

73DG

[W4AAB]

I remember the story in Electric Radio when Jack McCulloch W6CHE died. He and Bill Eitel, W6UF used to work for H-K and went into business for themselves as Eimac in 1934, since H-K did not consider the amateur radio operators as a viable market. There must have been a change of heart, as there were ads in RADIO all during the late 30's with H-K ads. I traded away all the H-K 254's I had to another list member who has an amp that uses them.Not sure why they used the number 254 on that big tube.
                                                                       

[WQ9E]

While on the topic of H-K, has anyone used one of the "gridless gammatron" tubes?  Sort of a catchy name for a high power final

 

[KM1H]

That would be dissipation equivalent to a 1500T from Eimac but I dont know the H-K designation, my stuff goes only to the 1254 whch is half the Pd of the one in the photo

[WQ9E]

Found it in the 1938 Radio Handbook.

It is a HK-3054  HK calls it a general purpose triode for commercial application and states it is the largest air cooled tube made.

Plate dissipation is specified at 1.5 kw but is increased to 3.0 Kw with forced air cooling.

Other specs:

Filament 16 volts at 50 amps
Amplification factor 20
Grid to plate capacitance 15 uuf
Grid to filament 25 uuf
Maximum plate voltage 5,000
Maximum plate current 2 amps
Maximum grid current .5 amps

maximum operating frequency isn't specified in the listing

On edit, HK listing sheet advertisement shows the filament rating as 14 volts 45 amps with a maximum frequency rating of 40 Mhz.  Grid and plate are both made from tantalum.  1936 price:  $467.50

[John K5PRO]

Is it big enough? Here I am with a new tube, a tetrode. It costs about what a moderate home costs, and must be lifted by crane. So far I have gotten 250 kw of average power and 3 MW of peak power from it. Later this summer, I hope to get about 350 kW of average power, when the heat exchanger for the dummy load is replaced. 

[W7TFO]

Big yes, but tubes that aren't glass don't count...new rules!

73DG

[WA3VJB]

Here I am with a new tube, a tetrode.

Sorry John.
No glow, no go.

[The Slab Bacon]

Now that Sir is a man's final tube! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Who sez "size doesn't matter"     

[KB2WIG]

"  250 kw of average power "

But are they Bird watts?


klc

[k4kyv]

HK listing sheet advertisement shows the filament rating as 14 volts 45 amps with a maximum frequency rating of 40 Mhz.  Grid and plate are both made from tantalum.  1936 price:  $467.50

According to the CPI inflation calculator, that would be equivalent to $7,657.01 in 2012 dollarettes.

That tube cost the better part of the price of a car. A quad (a pair in the modulator and another pair in the final) would have cost a little over an average year's wages. One tube would have paid about 7 month's house rent.

How Much things cost in 1936

Average Cost of new house $3,925.00
Average wages per year $1,713.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 10 cents
Average Cost for house rent $24.00 per month
A loaf of Bread 8 cents
A LB of Hamburger Meat 12 cents
Studebaker Car $665.00
Ladies Swimming Costume $6.95

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1936.html

[KE6DF]

How Much things cost in 1936[/b]


Ladies Swimming Costume $6.95

An even higher inflation rate here as current Ladies swim suits are much smaller.

But that's a good thing

[The Slab Bacon]

An even higher inflation rate here as current Ladies swim suits are much smaller.
But that's a good thing

Ah, yes, sometimes you can really appreciate the American Way- - Pay more for less....................  

[W1IA]

Is it big enough? Here I am with a new tube, a tetrode. It costs about what a moderate home costs, and must be lifted by crane. So far I have gotten 250 kw of average power and 3 MW of peak power from it. Later this summer, I hope to get about 350 kW of average power, when the heat exchanger for the dummy load is replaced. 

I have plans for a pair mobile I figure the flat bed will have to accommodate two
turbo charged CAT generators at 250kw per. Now the antenna has been a bit of an engineering problem. Due to bridge height restrictions I will pull a second low-boy trailer to maximize the height for the silver plated copper 1 foot diameter vertical; the corona ball will be 4 feet in diameter gold plated wrecking ball. The cab will of course have to be a Faraday cage. I need to work out the watts per cubic centimeter radiation emissions. Bumper sticker included "Lifes to short for QRP"
Please forward tank circuit designs for 27 mHz to BillyBob@trailertrash.com

[W1ATR]

Hey John. Thats exactly the Diacrode I need for the particle accelerator I'm building in my garage. They wouldn't happen to have one laying around somewhere that can be slipped into the dumpster, do they???

[John K5PRO]

There are only 3 Diacrodes of that size that have been sold, and I have two of them for the project at work. 7 more will be coming from factory. Not exactly something that will find its way into the dumpster during my watch, Jared. We can wish!

And while I cannot see the plate glow (Xrays and RF levels would be severe) I can see the filament glow quite nicely through 60 small air holes around the lower ceramic. That big filament is at 1950 K, with 20 kW of heat. It makes the ceramic look bright pink. Someday I need to photograph it.

OK, so it glows, and it's a big one. When one appears on 11 meters, that'll be the day.

[Opcom]

How Much things cost in 1936[/b]


Ladies Swimming Costume $6.95

An even higher inflation rate here as current Ladies swim suits are much smaller.

But that's a good thing

Lady friends have complained that womens' clothing is artificially expensive. I tend to agree, for example her jeans are smaller but cost more. For sure they do not like that but they buy the costly clothing in any case because they look so good in it.

[W7TFO]

If it ain't mostly glass, with a filament you can see, it just doesn't count.

The 851 in your avatar counts.  Bigtime.

That 'diacrode' gets eaten by the 6949 anyway.  Methinks

http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/049/6/6949.pdf

Still no glass glow

73DG