From Compactrons to Nuvistors: Vacuum Tubes’ Last Hurrah

https://swling.com/blog/2026/05/from-compactrons-to-nuvistors-vacuum-tubes-last-hurrah/

#DennisDura #Hackaday #Tubes #VacuumTubes #Valves

I started wiring the AC side of this preamp and realized I was out of black wire which is of course what you used to designate the hot leg in America.

#PMillettBuild #Audio #MicPreamp #VacuumTubes #TubePreBuild #ACWiring #220or221

Almost all of the audio wiring is done in this now. Finished it today. What's left is the AC wiring, which I really can't do until I get the front panel. Reason being one of the items mounted to the front panel attaches from the outside.

#PMillettBuild #Audio #MicPreamp #VacuumTubes #TubePreBuild

I did a little more wiring on this tube mic preamp. It's almost completely wired. The panel you see is only a stand-in to make sure all of the switches and knobbies would fit without issue. The panel is the right size with the right holes that a friend with a waterjet at his metalshop cut for me for testing purposes. The real front panel will be thicker (either 3mm or 1/8th inch) and decorated with color and lettering and such.

#PMillettBuild #Audio #MicPreamp #VacuumTubes #TubePreBuild

The Nizhny Novgorod Radio Laboratory (NNRL).

Imagine it is June 1918. The young Soviet Republic, surrounded by enemies on all sides and struggling to find food for its cities, establishes a radio laboratory at the Tver radio station. The development of technology was necessary from both an economic and a political point of view.

But a small workshop with outdated equipment did not allow them to work at the required level. Therefore, it was decided to move the laboratory to Nizhny Novgorod.

The scientists at the radio laboratory worked on establishing vacuum tube production and developing radiotelephony.

Today, a museum dedicated to the history of the NNRL operates here. The museum’s exhibition contains many original devices and samples of radio equipment.

For me, this museum is a place where I feel inspired by human genius. I look at these tube assemblies, at the microchips, and remember the saying: “If aviation had developed at the same pace, today an airplane would be the size of a matchbox and could fly around the globe in one hour.”
#radiolab #NizhnyNovgorod #retrocomputing #microelectronics #radioelectronics #vacuumtubes

I can't decide is on v2 of my Millett tube preamp I should use ON and OFF at the power switch or 1 and 0.

#Audio #Preamp #VacuumTubes #Valves #On #Off #1 #0

Mr. Carlson acquired an instrument tuner. It doesn't just use vacuum tubes, it uses vacuum tubes, a custom pulsing neon tube, _multiple_ very custom transformers, a giant hidden reference tuning fork, a motor, and a 12-speed transmission gearbox, and it came to him fully working and _recently in service_.

Basically if you're into holy shit old electrics, you will probably enjoy this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stxd_YMHF3U

(for reference, you can get phone apps for this, or you can buy little dedicated standalone devices the size of... idk, a thick credit card, or also the kind that's smaller and has a clip pickup that attaches to your instrument head. BUT NOT IN 1930)

#electronics #vintage #VacuumTube #VacuumTubes #MrCarlson #tuner #InstrumentTuner