Improving Testing with Modern Technology

There are lots of practices in the DIY world that are more than a little out dated. I’m obviously not talking about using vacuum tubes but rather the methods used in building and testing the circuits we build with them. Many of these test methods came about for very good reasons; perfectly applicable at the time. But as technology has advanced the reasons for many of these practices are no longer valid. And there is really no better example of this than the practice of testing audio amplifiers with square wave (or various sawtooth or triangle wave) signals.

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Can We Talk?

I know it’s been a while since my last post. Things have been a little hectic for my family this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to more regular posting in a few of weeks.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the major changes currently taking place in the US economy and our supply chains, and some things we as hobbyists can do to help protect ourselves from problems.

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Yup. More Testing

A comment by “Dave K” a few days ago got me thinking about how I intend to run my 807 power stage and the limitations listed on the data sheet. So it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that I’ve decided that a little more testing is required. And that required an update of my 807 test jig.

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More on Tube Testing

The discussion on tube testers and their usefulness (or not) got me thinking about my own tube testing needs and how I go about it. I already have a solution for octal power tubes with the 7S base pinout which I’ve mentioned before. But what about those ubiquitous signal triodes I seem to use in almost every project? What should I do about them?

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