Pluggers by Gary Brookins

Pluggers

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  1. firedome

    firedome said, about 18 hours ago

    indeed…although I do also have a collection of transistor radios as well…

  2. Jo Clear

    Jo Clear said, about 17 hours ago

    I’m amazed if any of those radios still work that have tubes. I remember ours when I was a kid…and finding out those tubes are hot…

  3. WillardMBaker

    WillardMBaker said, about 17 hours ago

    TV’s used to have tubes also. They had tube testers at drug stores so you could test a suspect tube and get a replacement. A TV set doubled as a heat source in the winter time.

  4. Bruno Zeigerts

    Bruno Zeigerts said, about 17 hours ago

    Harry Turtledove wrote a series of novels about an alternate universe where aliens invade Earth during WWII.
    They decide to knock out Earth communications with an electromagnetic pulse … and discover that it has no effect on vacuum tubes!

  5. yankeetexan

    yankeetexan said, about 14 hours ago

    @WillardMBaker

    Now I know I’m a Plugger when I too can remember all those things! Plus my dad used to work at GE and he’d have to lift those heavy TV catho ray tubes every day

  6. rmacprivate

    rmacprivate said, about 11 hours ago

    @Bruno Zeigerts

    My God! We have something in common. Harry Turtledove is on the top of my list of favorite authors. What an incredible twist he can give to history.

  7. rmacprivate

    rmacprivate said, about 11 hours ago

    Some of the really high end stereo equipment still uses tubes. I can’t claim to have a good enough ear to really appreciate it, but supposedly tubes give a much better sound than solid state units.

  8. LarryW2LJ

    LarryW2LJ said, about 11 hours ago

    Rerun!

  9. david_42

    david_42 said, about 10 hours ago

    @Bruno Zeigerts

    The Soviets used tiny, tiny tubes in their avionics for exactly that reason. I remember seeing pentodes the size of wheat grains.
    /Spell checker doesn’t think pentode is a word!

  10. route66paul

    route66paul said, about 10 hours ago

    tubes can be bought – audiofiles love the top of the line hi-fi equipment from the late 50s – early 60s, as do anyone playing electric instruments.

  11. Redhead55

    Redhead55 said, about 9 hours ago

    We had to wait for the radio tubes to warm up for the radio to come on. Now we have to wait for the CFL bulbs to warm up to have light.

  12. rhol55

    rhol55 said, about 9 hours ago

    And while the tubes warmed up I remember a high pitched sound coming out of the TV that no one else could hear….of course now I hear that high pitch noise all the time…think they call it tinnitus

  13. dfrechet

    dfrechet said, about 9 hours ago

    @rhol55

    Horizontal oscillator and flyback circuit, me thinks….

  14. UncaJim

    UncaJim said, about 8 hours ago

    @dfrechet

    “Horizontal oscillator and flyback circuit, me thinks….”

    Used to do bench-work in the ’50’s-60’s and that was the first thing to listen for.. Now I look for green LED’s !!

  15. hippogriff

    hippogriff said, about 6 hours ago

    david_42: I remember when that MiG landed in Japan. The US propaganda machine was bragging about how advanced we were to have solid state electronics while those backward Soviets were still using vacuum tubes. Yet, every nuclear power in the world plans to open hostility with a detonation 87 miles over the enemy to wipe out communications with its EMP. There was also a rumor that before the CIA could get to it, Hasagawa was already examining it for a model kit.

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