Those diode, tirode, tetrode, pentode, TWT, magnetron, klystron, dynatron, and so on... What are they doing now? Are they still in use, or gone into the oblivion? It's just my curiosity to know their fate. Can anyone there provide me any information about their present situation? Or any link to websites?
2006-09-13 02:16:59 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
It appears that I have reached that time in life when the things that I know and love best have become relics of then"good old days"!
Thermionic devices are still in use. Tubes such as triodes, tetrodes and pentodes are useful where we need high power. If you need to generate 10's of kWatts or megawatts for radio broadcast transmitters then thermionic devices are the way to go.
TWTs are still in use as broadband amplifiers used in satellite transponders, satellite earth stations and some radar applications.
Magnetrons, of course, are the power source in microwave ovens. They generate high powers with reasonable efficiency and can be pulsed to control the output power. Frequency stability is not a problem in ovens.
The klystron is in wide use a high power amplifier. It has uses in TV transmitters, and some radar transmitters. It's use in satellite earth stations has been replaced by TWTs.
I only recall ever seeing one piece of equipment that used a dynatron. They were a bit like a thermionic version of a tunnel diode. I am sure that they were very noisy devices by today's standards and I cannot imagine that they would be in use any more.
2006-09-13 02:52:20 · answer #1 · answered by Stewart H 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Vacuum tubes are still very popular in certain niches. Of course, cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are still being used in television sets and computer displays, although other technologies are replacing them fast. High-power television and radio transmitters still use vacuum tubes such as the inductive output tube (IOT), and high-power microwave systems still use klystrons, magnetrons and traveling wave tubes (TWTs). These tubes are still a decent-sized business and are manufactured in England and the US.
Guitar players swear by the sound quality of tube amplifiers, and a variety of triodes and pentodes are quite popular still in the music business, such as the 6V6, 6L6 and 12AX7. Most of these small tubes are manufactured today in Russia, Romania and China.
Some manufacturers of broadcasting and microwave tubes are L-3 Communications, e2v (formerly English Electric Valve), CPI-EIMAC and Thales Electronic Devices.
2006-09-13 02:30:26 · answer #2 · answered by pvreditor 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Many electric guitar players use only amplifiers based on vacuum tubes; including vintage amplifiers. The sound quality is great and vacuum tubes can amplify sounds beyond the linear range of the tubes creating interesting distortions and their special effects. Musicians also often prefer analog vs digital sound because frequencies above what the human ear can detect are not lost. Although these frequencies can not be heard they do interact and modify frequencies that can be heard; as they do in the real world. Although digital and semiconductor technologies have their place, analog and vacuum tubes are not obsolete for those who love the original sounds (audiophiles?).
2006-09-13 09:38:59 · answer #3 · answered by Kes 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I saw a man buying an antique radio in a junk shop, and asked him this very same question, because I thought maybe he was just buying it to get the valves to use in something else. No, he said, all these valves or their equivalents could be bought new from Eastern European manufacturers. Another person I mentioned this to said that when the various UK manufacturers stopped producing valves, there were huge stocks of unused ones, and enthusiasts knew how to get hold of them. It must have been the same in the USA. I would expect any radio+electronics hobby magazine to carry advertisements from dealers with large stocks of valves available.
2006-09-13 02:48:13 · answer #4 · answered by bh8153 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋