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833A
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From: SBJohnston-at-aol-dot-com [SMTP:SBJohnston-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 1998 1:21 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: 833A
Greg wrote:
>I lucked up on an 833A triode (for free!).
>I have no experience with the big tube.
By some standards, it is not a "big" tube <grin>: it's typically a 500 watt
tube in continuous (CCS) broadcast audio or RF service. I have always liked
them and even built a custom transmitter around four of them. They normally
run a nice orange-red color at full power.
The original RCA 833 was a strong tube with a very heavy plate structure.
The story goes that they just ran and ran and wouldn't fail, so of course
RCA had to redesign a replacement for them, the 833A, with a lighter-weight
sheet metal plate that had a shorter life - repeat sales, you know! I hear
that one of the Chinese tube companies is making the 833 to the original
specs.
I looked in the RCA transmitting tube book and here are some detailed specs
for your application:
Filament: 10 volts ac or dc, 10 amps.
Plate dissipation w/natural cooling: 350 watts
Plate dissipation w/forced cooling: 450 watts
Class C amp or oscillator RF service, intermittant-duty (ICAS), w/forced air
cooling:
DC Plate voltage: 4000 vdc max.
DC Plate current: 500 ma max.
DC grid voltage: -500 vdc max.
DC grid current: 100 ma max.
Plate input: 2000 watts max.
Plate dissipation: 450 watts max.
>Is it OK to mount it horizontally?
Yes - it says so in the book, but I have not seen them mounted that way in
any commercial application. And I just noticed a week ago that the ones I
had in the garage have suffered filament collapse from vibration while
sitting on their sides <damn!>. I think would mount it vertically.
If you'd like I can scan the RCA book pages for you and send it to you
directly as an email attachment - let me know the graphic format you prefer:
TIFF or GIF (or something else).
Steve Johnston
sbjohnston-at-aol-dot-com