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Jun 14, 2019 21:50:53   #
Neverlost99 Loc: Sarasota
 
Have you ever thought about how much technology has changed in our lifetime?



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Jun 14, 2019 21:55:22   #
PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago
 
Neverlost99 wrote:
Have you ever thought about how much technology has changed in our lifetime?


Yes, Our smart phones have more capability than the first IBM computer.
And you could go to the drugstore to test your tubes.

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Jun 14, 2019 21:55:22   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
Oh yes, I remember my dad working on radios in the late 50s early 60s
Even the changes from the mid 70s to now.
MAJOR changes!

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Jun 14, 2019 22:03:11   #
burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC
 
Neverlost99 wrote:
Have you ever thought about how much technology has changed in our lifetime?


Got to love tubes. Nuclear EMP-resistance is good. They color sound with harmonic distortion in controllable ways.

That said, they do very little compared with modern digital gear.

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Jun 14, 2019 22:04:58   #
ejones0310 Loc: Tulsa, OK
 
Neverlost99 wrote:
Have you ever thought about how much technology has changed in our lifetime?


When I went to tech school they were still teaching tubes. Integrated circuits had just been released to market and no one had any idea the personal computer was only 5 years away. Now our phones have more processing power than the computers that the space shuttle carried.

Where will we be in just 10 more years?

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Jun 14, 2019 22:36:40   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
I still prefer tubes for audio, and for really high power RF amplifiers, they’re still the only choice. Interestingly, although Eimac is still alive, a large percentage of tubes now come from Russia and China. The standing (not so funny ) joke in the military is that they’ll be the only ones with communication and working electronics after a nuclear detonation due to their relative immunity to EMP. Tubes are not dead yet.

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Jun 15, 2019 04:07:40   #
tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio
 
Nice warm looking image.

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Jun 15, 2019 07:50:39   #
troutbum Loc: north central pennsylvania
 
Wonderful picture but you left out the battery the radio ran off from.

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Jun 15, 2019 07:53:15   #
jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana
 
Yes, I have. Nice shot of the innards of the old radio.

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Jun 15, 2019 07:59:18   #
Neverlost99 Loc: Sarasota
 
And the windmill that charged the battery.

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Jun 15, 2019 08:39:34   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
troutbum wrote:
Wonderful picture but you left out the battery the radio ran off from.

No battery for that one, ran on 110-117 v.

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Jun 15, 2019 09:18:16   #
Bill 45
 
I have a nice 1940 RCA's table top radio. One problem with it, it does not work. Forget about find anyone local to fix it. If I want to drive 6 hour one way to get it fix or mail it for $40.00. Cost of repairs at lest $150.00. So I would end up paying out $200.00+ to get something working that I pay $5.00 for. Who listen to AM or Short Wave any more anyway?

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Jun 15, 2019 13:17:24   #
TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA
 
The first computer that I wrote programs for when I was a college freshman was the IBM 601. The computer room was a walled-off end of the math/physics building that was about 16 feet by the width of 3 classrooms. One of the longer walls was filled with a rack of tubes that went from the floor to almost the 8-foot high ceiling of the room. That computer was far outclassed by the first hand-held computer that HP built in the early 1970s. Students scheduled use of the computer with priority determined by class from grad-students down to freshman. That meant that, as freshmen, my friends and I always got the wee hours of Sundays and, on occasion, Saturday. We always had to check on Friday whether the person or group that was scheduled ahead of us was going to use their time. If not, we had to go in half an hour early to turn the computer on and wait for all of those tubes to warm up.

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Jun 15, 2019 13:24:40   #
TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA
 
Bill 45 wrote:
I have a nice 1940 RCA's table top radio. One problem with it, it does not work. Forget about find anyone local to fix it. If I want to drive 6 hour one way to get it fix or mail it for $40.00. Cost of repairs at lest $150.00. So I would end up paying out $200.00+ to get something working that I pay $5.00 for. Who listen to AM or Short Wave any more anyway?


Actually, there are a lot of vacuum tube computers in use by DOD in highly critical but important applications today. The reason is that the tubes are not susceptible to EMP. On the consumer side, there are many audiophiles that are still using vacuum tube amplifiers because they supposedly produce more accurate sound.

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Jun 15, 2019 13:30:10   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
TheShoe wrote:
Actually, there are a lot of vacuum tube computers in use by DOD in highly critical but important applications today. The reason is that the tubes are not susceptible to EMP. On the consumer side, there are many audiophiles that are still using vacuum tube amplifiers because they supposedly produce more accurate sound.


Whether or not it is more accurate, I listen exclusively to tube audio amplifiers and find them more pleasing and less fatiguing (especially at high levels) than solid state.

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