Another Option

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This last week I was thumbing through my very dogeared copy the RCA RC-30 Receiving Tube Manual. I was not looking for anything in particular but just browsing and a data sheet for a particular tube caught my eye; the 6DQ5 Beam Power Tube. The only description was “Glass octal type used as horizontal-deflection amplifier in color and black-and-white television receivers”. As I began looking through the specifications I began to wonder how I had missed this tube up to now.

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In Praise of the “Album”

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For me, it really started about six years ago. I had been using an iPod for a while before that, but the real transition took place sometime in 2015. I had been notified that I was moving cross country for work and things were getting boxed up and ready. All my CDs and vinyl were carefully packaged up for the move. I was left with an iPod and my computer for playing music. That was when I started my slide into bad musical habits.

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Back to Work

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The Christmas break saw me very busy with tasks other than amp building. So the new SET is a little behind schedule. In spite of it supposedly being a “quiet” Christmas with just immediate family, I ended up tackling several small projects which I had been putting off and I helped my daughter move. And of course I was back at work this week as well. Now that doesn’t mean that I got nothing accomplished, it just means that things are progressing slower than anticipated. This is where I’m at:

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Design Details

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I have been doing internal layout work and making some design decisions concerning the new SET amplifier. I have also been looking at different materials and I decided that I wanted to make the top plate holding the transformers and tubes of brushed copper. While this is an simple decision to make at this point, it raises the issue of what wood to choose for the chassis frame.

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That “Other” Project

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I have been working on the new SET chassis design but that’s not all I’ve been doing. This morning I got a little surprise when I checked on my sump pump under the house. It’s starting the rainy season here and I wanted to make sure everything was ready to go. Unfortunately, I found myself replacing a GFCI outlet and the sump pump that had failed and taken the outlet with it. Since the morning was shot, I decided to finish up a couple of other little projects this afternoon. Last week I mentioned another project, the portable class D amp. We’ll, I took a little time this afternoon to finish off that one.

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