Solid State Tubes 1L6 Zenith Transoceanic Performance Test Several Radios
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- Опубліковано 12 кві 2024
- Real world test of solid state replacement tubes for the zenith transoceanic. Found an issue with a few of them and resulted in an improved version. Long comprehensive test video with trip to the desert
/ shango066 - Розваги
I believe what you have is "parasitic oscillation" from too much gain on the 1L6 solid state tube. (It's acting like a regen receiver from positive feedback) There is a ferrite bead inside the tube, and perhaps this is not sufficient, and/or the fT of the transistors used greatly exceed that of the original tube. Either way, this should be an easy fix with a simple low pass filter (RC type) inside the SS tube. I think this is a fantastic improvement and will really breathe new life into these old classic radios. 73
Doesn't fix poor service and leaves him with more than one that don't work.
I think you're right about the parasitic oscillation, very difficult to get rid of it sometimes. And can be location specific as well. They drive me nuts when everything works on the bench as soon as you put it in the case it oscillates.
Dingding! Gain issue I bet. Mfg shouldn't be sending product out expecting consumers to beta test.
Hi, I'm from Australia and along with other Aussies I know really enjoy your videos. On a personal note my main focus has been tube public address amplifiers. Have done a few radios but have never been comfortable doing them. But watching your process of fault finding have gotten comfortable enough to even tackle a tube TV and a Novelty Radio with success. Thank You
Woohoo! 2+ hours of Shango!
My life is now complete. 😂
that is a great solution for when you can't find real tubes anymore you drop in one of the solid state ones and you can still save the old tube radio i am very impressed
This is super cool, I hope they patent these and are able to make them commercially. Being able to keep these old radios alive is getting harder and harder.
Please post an update video, as this work improves. I also enjoy your other channel.
Qual seria o outro canal? Obrigado!
@AlexandreSi 1:27:09 lva-ho4jv mine explorer s
There is one coming as part of a desert trip and testing some new radios
@@shango066would love you to do a sony icf-2001d ( the daddy) dx test .I can pick up tenerife from Wales UK on AM radio.with an AN200 Car Tunable Mediumwave MW Loop Antenna Portable from amazon
The filament resistors need to be comprised of 2 resistors in series with a 0.022 cap across each one and a 220pf connected in between them to ground. The regulator tube replacement should also have 2 mini LEDs to indicate power in(yellow) and power out(green) status, but nothing too bright or fancy is needed. This would help with troubleshooting, oscillations and lowering the noise floor. Also making ALL resistors 0.5% tolerance would help with heating drift. Love the work, truly needed and genius idea! EDIT: If a resistor is used on the ground pin of the voltage regulator, then that resistor should be by-passed to ground with a 220pf capacitor to avoid "ground-bounce".
I get resistance. Why cap?
So far i have 6 transoceanics including the first one , the 7g605 bomber! I love these radios! So good to have shango066 demo these solid state replacement s.
Speaking of the Loktal period of tubes I tried the 1LA6 substitute (with adapter socket) and was not impressed. So any good MOSFET approach gets my attention.
I have always wanted a Trans-Oceaniac. l haven't seen one for sale in my area so l can check it out in person.
Back when I was born in 1950s my dad had a trans- oceanic. I remember it so very slightly. He used to tell about running it on batteries when there weren't many portable battery powered radios.
We had a number of old radios around the house. One of my earliest memories was of a floor model radio and a radio morning show my mom used to listen to that used to irritate me and I wanted to change the station.
While I knew how to do that I couldn't reach the knobs. My memory is of a radio that is like 8 ft tall. ( I was very little ).
Also had an old Philco cathedral 1934 model B that I still have today. I remember taking one of the 6- pin tubes out when I was about 5 and having a hard time getting it back in.
When I was about 35 I found an old trans- oceanic that still worked and I cleaned it up and gave it to my dad for a present. He had fun with it for awhile.
When I was about 25 my dad gave me the remains of an old radio he had in a box somewhere. He said it belonged to one of my aunts. It was one of the original battery powered radios in Detroit, or the first model sold, but it was very small and used these low- power vacuum tubes like you have here. I couldn't make it work. If I had it now maybe. With people like Shango066 to help me.
The trans- oceanic my dad had was a strange model, every one I ever saw was close, yet different. It had different dial. Used to have a picture of it sonewhere.
@garymckee8857 I remember my first one i seen. A friend told me about a radio he had and when he brought it to me, i almost lost my composure! But there it was , a Zenith transoceanic r3000! Very good quality radio!
Shango: I was surprised that your Solid-State Tube Guy (SSTG) (and after several conversations) did not ask if you could use your spectrum-analyzer (SA) to take a few measurements.
You definitely have phase-noise in the mixer. How it gets there can take on many reasons but I personally feel that you are getting some higher parasitic-oscillations. When I looked on eBay for the 1L6 replacement, he mentioned using a dual-gate MOSFET. There are a lot of BF998 dual-gate MOSFETs that are presently being dumped on the market, so my bet is one of those or its cousins. Anyway, that is a UHF-MOSFET and extreme measures have to be taken to keep them from 'taking-off' and giving this kind of hash. Also, SS replacements have been around since the 60's using all manner of transistors. And the mixer is usually your Waterloo when it comes to adapting them to replace tubes mainly due to the vast impedance/capacitance differences.
The biggest problem is the lead-dress that is inherent in a radio of this type. I did see a ferrite bead but just using one does not guarantee suppression.
What would be interesting for you to do, is to take your spectrum analyzer and first look at the LO and see what the spectral-purity of the LO is. Vary the VFO between the noisey frequency and then the clean, and see if you see noise in the LO's sidebands. Next, if it looks clean then look at the IF port and see if it is there. If the LO is clean but not the IF port, then there is a termination problem with the circuit for this small-band of frequencies.
You mentioned you talked with SSTG about the Q, which leads me to think that he suspicions the LO; if it was just one frequency band (not a multi-band radio) then a filter in the LO's feedback-path could solve it. But since this LO has to work in several bands, this would not work without switching. There is a trick you could try, which is to place a shunt (to ground) capacitor of very low value that would not have significant reactance at HF but would spoil the feedback loop at VHF; so with a capacitor of a few pF, try placing it n first the feedback path, then on the main output.
As you suspicioned, it has to be ultimately-solved within the tube-replacement; but in his defense, it is hard to anticipate every scenario that can turn into a VHF oscillator.
So, I hope you try looking at the two conditions with a SA and maybe showing us what you found.
Also, enjoy the long-format videos! 73...
Mr. Shango.... really enjoy your channel and I find myself trying to keep up with you when you are explaining these electronics circuits!
The Trans-Oceanic you have B-600 1957...I restored the rare brown version of this radio...I restuffed the new caps to make it look all original on the chassis...It worked great and I listened to it during the COVID lockdown and it was a lot of fun. I traded it for a Zenith 1941 7G605 Bomber in unrestored cond.
32:21
Now way back in 1971 I received a GE Twelve Band radio for Christmas.
In those days S.W bands were full of stations! Loaded! Moscow...BBC...Holland... Germany...Greece...Rome....I had a huge QSL card collection from radio reports from all over the world!
I remember when the Berlin wall fell listening to all the excitement on a garage sale SW. Hallicrafters set!
Short wave is a big disappointment today!
A 2 plus hour shango video to start the weekend is fantastic! And its about one of my favorite radios, I have 10 of the tube type models and many more of the transistor models. These solid state replacements have been around for a while and I've always been courious about them how they performed. I think I might get one of the the ones with the filter and one audio output tube to try out. I'll pass on the 1L6 for now. Thanks for a great video! Ted
Thanks, Dan for the detailed, informative video on these solid state replacement devices. I bought a 1l6 solid state replacement off of ebay years ago. It was an earlier version and did little testing on the high end of the broadcast band. I was impressed by how well the shortwave was working at the time. Testing is now on my mind. I was at a New England hamfest recently and spotted a mint transoceanic case. It was in real good shape and it was only 20 bucks. Kicking myself for not getting it. Love your desert dxing episodes. It seems tranquil there.
I always like when you bring the sets out to the desert to test them.
Another good person to listen to shortwave radios in the desert with is Eric Dollard. He will tell you what every single noise is.
Thanks. This answered a lot of my questions about solid state replacement bulbs.
At 1:10 you are hearing that old preacher dude that still haunts the airwaves😂
Brother Stair! He died but still haunts shortwave. Not without controversy is he.
The Antique Preacher.
Ugh.
Brother Scare! S-T-A-I-R. I can't believe his voice still penetrates the ether from beyond. I guess they DO have radio in hell! I stand a chance! It's where the lost souls of all of the EOL tv's went.
1:10:13 for the curious...
I have picked that up on short wave LOL
2 hours of joy... thanks for making this video!
I'm only 2 minutes in, but I already love it. 2 hours! Awesome!!! Mainly I'm happy because I have one of these radios I am in the process of re-capping. I am a novice and videos like this are gold for me. Thank you.
This is a really good video. Thanks for the dedication and the information. I liked the Silver Fox too!
As always, thank you sir for taking your time to share these with us! I've always thought that SS replacements for tubes couldn't be *that* hard to design, but...
Nice work!
There is nothing better than approaching these types of situations calmly and checking compatibility the way you are doing. It's not a job to do all at once, without a doubt.
I wish you health.
Macedo Pinto
Portugal
Wow! That was so beautiful listening to Glen Gray's sunrise serenade on was looks like a period correct radio, and with such amazing scenery 😍
Thanks for doing this review. I have one of these radios and am running the vacuum tube version of the 1L6.
I bought a Zenith Oceaniawhatev from eBay. It had all original Zenith tubes! But I couldn't get anything on shortwave so I sold it on CL. I was impressed the tubes worked fine after so many years. Zenith really built stuff for the long run.
This is so cool, i have been waiting for this this to come out. Thank you shango. I built a simple low power LC transmitter with a 3Q4 Power Output tube. So i could broadcast to my 1936 sears silver tone 10 tube radio I restored. I did not want add a jack and make a hole in the chassis. I wanted to hear what it would be like to hear music transmitted on a tube transmitter and received by a tube radio.
amazing way of saving old tube equipment
Shango,love your channel.I’ve been a dxer since I was a kid.Listen to WLW and WGN every morning with my coffee.Also Greek broadcast on 1690 am in Toronto.Sadly Voice of Greece went off the air last year.Transoceanic d7000y still going strong.Mike the Greek
This was awesome! I hope the genius guy can fix the noise issue!
One of your best videos. I heard what sounds like Brother Stair on shortwave even though he's been gone for three years. The two versions of the same song on the station from Mexico and the amount of music stations on the dial is incredible. The announcer on KTNN going back and forth between Navaho and English was pretty interesting. The icing on the cake was probably that cute little fox.
That sounds great!
Now all they need to do is add a tiny LED to resemble the original tube glow! 😊
These 1v tubes didn't glow.
They do glow, but so dimly that you can't see it except in the dark.
I'd use a neon lamp instead
Now there's an idea, a simulated glow. Add a wrap around the side that looks like the original and it will be as close to the real thing as you can get.
@@volvo09 Who cares... They'll look nicer 😇
Those few seconds of the dashboard of your Explorer brought back memories of me flying down I 10 in Texas in my 92' ranger STX super cab with the speedo pegged, lol,, what a fantastic little truck that was !!
I wish I could go buy another brand new one...
Congratulations, how interesting! It appears that the 1L6 tube is oscillating because the gain is too high.
But fixing this, whatever it is, will be a great replacement for the original valve.
Two things come to my mind in the solid state tube is that tubes are such high impedance device compared to solid state, and the series resistor in the filament can generate noise and may induce noise in the sensitive .
I assume they used FET's in these tube replacements. Unlike bipolar transistors, FET's have a very high input impedance and have characteristics more similar to vacuum tubes.
@@Retep4565 Yes, valves are very much a voltage controlled device, bipolar transistors are current controlled, and FETs and MOSFETs are also voltage operated.
1:05:00 I think the bankruptcy financial management forced him to fold the WWCR2 shortwave service. It's a damn shame.
Hope Shango has more long videos like this in store! I wish we still had those civil defense broadcasts. The *good* thing about directly heated tubes is that they start conducting almost immediately after energizing them, much like their transistor counterparts. That was an interesting excerpt of a drive down the 10 freeway through San Gorgonio (Banning) Pass. I notice that AM station at 1600 kHz out of Tucson doesn't appear to be interfering (heterodyning) with the one up in Cottonwood or the one back in Pomona.
Wow, pretty amazing that you can get solid-state replacements for pretty much all those tubes.
I remember a 70s article in, I think, Popular Electronics called Bew Wine For Old Bottles, which was a DIY guide to building MOSFET based replacements for boatamchor tubes. Some diggeremt challenges, but the idea has some history.
This is the MOSFET 'bomb' of vacuum tube solid state; its so good to see the 'TO back on the road, its fun to see they've split the 1U4 design to IF amp version that includes a ceramic filter, i've yet to try it myself. For whatever its worth I've lost more 3v4 to use (tube burn out) than any other in the TOs I've run.
Excellent video
I was impressed by the performance Zenith radio' sold state tubes-
Shango, thanks for posting this video. Here in the UK there's a certain type of tube that was incredibly common as an audio output stage in most of the smaller 50s radios, probably the UK equivalent to the AA5 lineup, anyway this output tube is the UL41 for series string sets with a heater of 45v, or the EL41 for transformer sets with a heater of 6.3v and they were poor when new, they perform really well but just don't last very long, they develop hum and lose gain, which is a pain because they're starting to get rare and expensive now, the last one I bought was £25, for a radio that was worth probably about the same. After seeing this video, I dug out a radio I had with a dead EL41, dug out a spare random HV MOSFET, a 2SK872 to be precise, soldered it across the bottom of the socket with the tube removed obviously, and would you believe it works better than the brand new tubes usually do! This isn't something I'd thought of doing before I saw this video, I just assumed the operating characteristics would be too different, but apparently not, so that'll help keep all these budget 50s radios in my collection going long after the purists have consumed all of the remaining UL/EL41 stocks, and it's easier than converting to a UL/EL84.
Another thing I did wonder, could all of the noise from the 1L6 be anything to do with the little ceramic disc capacitor? I know in highly sensitive circuits these things can sometimes be microphonic, it's also quite amusing to pulse them with voltage and hear them physically click, just a thought!
Wow, pretty amazing that you can get solid-state replacements for pretty much all those tubes.+
It's still a tube radio. Solid state tube. Great video!
Shango Saturday, here we go!
Outstanding video, thanks!
Even in your recording that Transoceanic sounds really nice. Liking that tight IF and selectivity.
I have that same transoceanic radio. Still works great with all original tubes and capacitors. Boy those 1l6 tubes are pricey. Your right on that one. Hopefully that seller will work with you on those solid state tubes. If I ever upgrade my battery tube radios I will check into that. Thanks for sharing. Take care as always. 😊
love that you caught the news while working on a youtube video :> we had a party
the anti-static keffiyeh, inshallah
Higher your tech friend Dave from up North I like your video I want to leave a comment if you don't mind I'm retired but I still do a lot of radios for collectors and TVs and stuff like you do I don't like the solid state tubes I've used them they're noisy they're not perfected and they don't last I stick with the tubes I do a lot of repairs and refurbishing old transistor 2 radios with people like you I find the original equipment it's the best if you can get your hands on it I have a company that remanufacturers all my stuff for me I have good luck with that can't wait to see another one of your videos may God bless you and keep you safe always your friend Dave
Another great video !!! Thank you !!!
شكرا جزيلا مستر دان على هذا العمل الرائع ...أنا أحب هذا العمل
This is proof again that older was better! Tubes to me sound the best!
You never cease to surprise me. SUB-HUM-ANS sticker, I didn't think you listened to Punk rock.
The idea of replacing vacuum tubes with alternatives is worth praising. It just needs to be refined. And thermal imaging is useful not only in the desert but also in electronics. It allows you to quickly diagnose short circuits and heating elements.
Is there vacuum inside these solid state glasses? Regards from Brazil.
No vacuum seal. Just a case for the circuit and to preserve the tube look
You can probably eliminate a lot of the battery eliminator noise (at least from the supply output) by using a low pass filter. Get a N channel FET, connect the drain to the supply, and source to the output terminal (in series with the output). Put a ~10uF capacitor from gate to ground, put a 47k resistor from drain to gate, and a >1Meg resistor across that 10uF capacitor, from gate to ground. This forms a simple low pass filter, the source of the FET follows the gate voltage, so you can supply the gate with a more smooth voltage (that can be high impedance), and the source will be the mirror of that, but low impedance. Just dont short the output, that kills the FET. (You could add a current limiter but that gets convoluted quick)
The reason for the 1Meg resistor is so that the gate voltage is slightly lower than the drain voltage, otherwise when the drain voltage dips below the average DC value, it will pass whatever noise is on the drain voltage. So you lower the voltage slightly and that increases the range that the noise can be without it being passed to the output.
I've just sketched it up from the notes, it deserves a try. Thanks for the suggestion.
Best part of the weekend! Good morning everyone!
Shango great video nice out doors experience did you use anything for bowl? Just kidding love those commercials. A long video on my 12 cup of coffee so very energized but This 2 hour video was more exciting than anything else on T.V. these days. Sad Short Wave is mostly gone remember the 70s SW my Zenith picked up all kinds of stations . No Linzess or what ever back then.
Your video was a great joy for me to watch I am so grateful to you make my week. God Bless Mike
Dang! I had that exact radio in my youth! Never knew what became of it.
I have a Trans Oceanic that's a few years newer than this one and looks like it just came out of the box. 😊
I watch 100% of every video you do
I think I'm above 100%. Each video can be watched multiple times...
I love my lazy Saturday mornings, coffee and radio/TV repair videos!
I always watch 4 of your videos simultaneously at 10x speed for maximum brain enhancement 🤓
This was amazing .
Good timing. Just opened youtube
great video
I agree maker is a genius a few tweaks away from better than original across the board. This is cool research. I bet he gets it done!
Truly fascinating, although it isn't the first time I've seen these. Some years ago I needed a scope and the only one I could afford was from the middle of the last century, so naturally it used tubes. Unfortunately most of them seemed to be bad - I don't work with tube gear, so don't have the equipment to test them properly - and replacing them was expensive. What saved it was some guy in an obscure corner of the web selling a "solid state kit" for that very scope, plus other things.
It was less elegant than your "tubes" here, being little badly cut discs of RBP with what looked like mini banana plugs shoved through, then all the components fitted point-to-point, wobbling around on top, but it worked and it made that scope work a damn sight better than it ever did before, barring some glitches under certain conditions. It required modifying something to do with the power supply and some other minor rewiring that I can't remember - this must have been getting on for 20 years ago. One thing I do remember is that you absolutely could not mix and match between solid state and vacuum tubes, you had to replace the whole lot.
When I sold it on for pittance, the guy who bought it was furious that I'd switched it over to silicon and he intended to shove tubes back in before placing it on a shelf and never using it. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask him to give me the solid state replacements back. In any case, I'm glad to see someone else has made such things, as it was a really good idea. The buyer argued that it went against the original intention of the design, whereas I hold that it was a tool designed to do a job and that the original engineer would have used silicon if it was available to him. Suppose with radios, though, things would be even more subjective.
I really miss that scope. It wasn't much use to me in the end due to most things I work on running frequencies way out of its range, but it was a nice machine and I wish I'd kept it for those jobs where I could use it. It would have been better off in my hands with that occasional use than where it ended up, gathering dust in a collection.
its great that someone has even tried to come up with replacements! i've been thinking of a 'replacement' for a PX4/AC044 or PX25 power triodes as these are obsessively coveted by the audionuts making any stupidly expensive, and they are used in some pre war radios, making replacements unaffordable for many , the 3V4s definitely useful as here in the UK there was a particular radio notorious for blowing the filaments of them if you switched the set off on mains too slow, then switched it back on, it goes out in a flash! bad design, Decca!
Those drug ads are hilarious. They're illegal here in CanaDUH. Thanks for another video Shango. Watched the whole video btw 👍
They're illegal here in the Netherlands too
No duh about it...those drug ads are so annoying. We're better off without them.
@@douggrisack5916 absolutely.
Shango066, I didn't know there were solid state replacements for the battery power radios; interesting!
I recognize your noise problem. The FETs that are being used in the solid state tube are likely a 1 to 4 GHz part and measures must be taken to reduce the high frequency gain to allow the part to be stable. When designing dual gate mosfets in the past, we used a 220 ohm resistor in series with the gate and a ferrite bead on the drain lead. My guess is these solid state replacements are oscillating at several hundred MHz, something you can pick up if you "sniff" around the converter stage with your spectrum analyzer.
The tube AC gain drops off noticably at HF frequencies, which allows the super long lead lengths used in tube radio point-to-point wiring to still allow stable RF and IF amp operation. However, the high frequency FETs in those solid state tubes will still have about the same gain at AM broadcast frequencies as at 100 MHz, that's why your Shortwave performance is so much better.
That solid state tube with the ceramic 455 kHz filter is a good idea. The one in the tube looked like a 6 pole filter. The typical AM tube radio used 2 doubled tuned IF transformers, which is equivalent to 4 poles. The best way to tune your IF with that ceramic filter is, go to a spot on the band where there is no signals and peak the IF for maximum noise output. I say this because the ceramic filters have a center frequency tolerance that is about +/- 3 kHz. Tuning for maximum noise will center the tunable If with the ceramic filter.
That desert location you were at sounds great for daytime AM band DX'ing!
I agree... The FET's not only are more sensitive to higher frequencies (unlike tubes with virtually no rolloff in this application) but they additionally have a much more sensitive gate so any trash in the air is amplified into the subsequent stages where the tubes would have ignored it for the most part. Its tricky business making them work just like the tubes. I think there are some real possibilities here that these can WAY outperform the tubes and some minor caps, ferrites, and bleeder parts can quiet this set up without destroying its performance.
1:10:17 Brother Stair from beyond the grave, we get him in Europe also…
5.9 MHz!
Brilliant !
greatings from Zaandam the Netherlands
Best video ever ❤
That looks 👌 like a David Tipton special. He repairs these complicated radios 📻 when somebody throws one his way. All thats needed is a few capacitors, and possibly a vacuum tube. Your friend, Jeff.
i love you videos man God bless
Great video! Music on AM, who would have thought!
The Internet killed shortwave. I listened to shortwave a lot when I lived in Germany and in Egypt.
Become a licenced ham radio amateur and be on the shortwave bands yourselves.73s from PD0ROH QTH eindhoven netherlands.. go do it and make your first qso with me on 20 mtrs or 40 mtr band
Shortwave is alive and well. You just need a good external longwire antenna and be away from man-made sources of noise. A good radio helps too. I use a Drake R8B. There's so many stations that it almost feels like deja vu all over again, compared to the 1970's and 80's .
I agree , I get many stations worldwide on my Transoceanic A600. I think that those who have poor SWL performance probably have a weak 1L6 tube .
I find this video very interesting.
The desert test reminds me of the 1960's, when there was actually SILENCE between stations. Now with so much electronic interference in the city, it is really tough to DX
Love your sarcasm bro
Shango I have a question for you.. witch pin on the transoceanic radio does the 90 volts go and what pin is negative thanks
"Transistor filled vacuum bulbs" its been a while since I heard that and it still makes me chuckle. That TFVB manufacturing guy has a realy thick skin, or he's a tad rude but maybe he aint solvent at the mo....cheers.
Reminds me of listening to the Athabaskan radio programs in Yupik when I lived in Bethel, AK.
Maybe they should have made that 1l6 replacement with a grounded shield internally or externally if there is any form of self oscillation.
WRMI Legends on 5050 kHz & 9940 kHz is still playing Classic Rock, & other formats from Lake Okeechobee, Florida. 5050 kHz runs till midnight eastern time & then 9940 kHz starts for the west coast, try that one Shango. Brother Stair is long gone & there still playing his old rerun religious shows on a few stations & he is now known as "The Virus of Shortwave" lol -73's
잘 보고 갑니다 감사 합니다...
Book 'em Danno!
that was awesome
I Always watch the whole video.
I say the Best video yet, Now can we get more Long videos. plus its cool to be able to go far away from civilization and Test radios. yet its neat seeing Solid state tubes, Wonder If those can be Made for older TVs that use Rare tubes.
I always watch your videos at 2X speed. 😁
How would those tubes work in an all American 5 with the exact soli state replacement tubes, 50c5, 35w4 would need resistors
Shango and fans 👋🏻👋🏻
@Shango066 I'm a big fan of your videos and you've taught me a lot I work on stuff all the time now because of you. Are these Zenith trans Oceanic radios really worth all this trouble? Like are they that good or is this more about the challenge
They are very good radios and have a huge following
@bandersentv Thanks Bob. I know they have a following, I wasn't sure if it was just asthetics or if they were that good of a radio, or both.
Since they went to the trouble to drop the filament voltage, an LED for ambiance as well as the string voltage is going through would be a nice touch?
Thanks!
Can you supply a link for the tube adapter you mention? Lockal?
I do not trust any of these shysters. Thankfully I have a NOS 1L6 that I bought a few years ago, fully anticipating that people would go into panic mode and start scooping them up. I have not seen or read anything good about the solid state replacements. The tubes themselves don’t often go bad, but certainly they can. But this video certainly could be helpful for those needing one of these, not willing to pay eBay prices for a 1L6. The ZTO is a great radio- I have my late father’s. He sold the one he carried in Korea, and loved it so much that he bought one of these 600 series sets.
People have been in panic mode buying 1L6s for about 20 years now. I've watched the prices online go up and how scarce they've gotten at hamfests/swapmeets. They're not as bad as 45s, 50s or 2A3s but that's only because the audiophiles don't care about non-audio tubes. The real panic buying is going to be with 6E5s/6G5s/6U5s now that the supply of NOS ones is drying up. About 10 years ago someone in S.E. Asia found a pallet of NOS japanese 6E5s and temporarily flooded the market to where every restored eye-tube set on the market had a brand new Japanese 6E5 in it. But those tubes have a service life of around 1500-2000 hours depending on how dim & dark you're willing to tolerate...
Cool idea.
Remember, No matter where you go, There you are...
Dude killer video. My parents had this exact radio. I was pumped begin the resto until I found the 1lb pile of dead roaches inside chassis. 😂