Who's old enough here to remember when

[anno]

Originally posted by: Maiora
You could go to the corner drug store and test your tubes?

me. not old enough to have done it, but old enough to remember you could.

 

[FlashG]

And Radio Shack was giving tubes away with the advent of transistor TV's

 

[anno]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Just the fact that you remember when televisions and radios were repaired instead of thrown away and replaced dates you.

I just took my tv to be repaired last month! gotta admit I was sorta hoping they'd tell me it wasn't worth it, but.. only cost 70 bucks, so I guess I'm not getting a new one so soon..

 

[compuwiz1]

I remember this very well.

Rexall Pharmacy was were we tested them for both our tv's and some stereos. If the tube tested bad, you just opened this cabinet door, and looked for the box with the right part# on it.

Hella cool!

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: RossMAN
32 here

14 here.

And acts every bit of it.

 

[MedicBob]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Just the fact that you remember when televisions and radios were repaired instead of thrown away and replaced dates you.

LMAO, QFT.

 

[nineball9]

I tested many a tube in my day; electronic repair was (and still is) my hobby.

Neighborhood drugstore only had drugs and a few cosmetics but the local electronics shop and haredware store had tube testers. When those testers vanished, I lugged the tubes off to a parts jobber who had a better stock of replacement tubes anyway.

 

[IGBT]

..who here remembers cigarette ads on tv?? I recall marlboro and kool adds.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yea I remember, my dad owned a TV shop back then. A good 25" console ran $500-625 range
and this was 1970 dollars. People did not part with sets easily, a lot opted to have a new tube
put in when the original CRT got soft, a $200 job...

 

[Paperdoc]

Yep, did that lots. I'm 63. My Dad was an instrumentation tech in a paper mill, and he had a really good tube tester as part of his shop equipment. We used that frequently. Let's not forget, about 95% of TV problems were from worn-out tubes, so testing and replacing the right ones was a very effective repair technique.

To help, many TV's had a map on the back of the masonite back panel with tube type numbers and the tube's function: Vertical Oscillator, Vertical Output, AGC Keyer, Ist IF Amp, etc. If you learned to recognize the symptoms, you could narrow down the search to only a few tubes to check. I learned a lot of that by a series of articles in Popular Mechanics magazine written by a TV repair pro, each around a certain topic and aimed towards teaching people how they work and what to look for.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Greenman
Done it. And they always had the right tube in stock.
Interesting that no one thought much about pulling the back off their TV and yanking out all the tubes. Most people now call the repair man when when they need their razor charged.

So true :laugh:

 

[Colt45]

There's a tube tester sitting 10' away from me... I don't need to go to the drugstore


Like this one. I actually bought it from an AT'er a few years ago, IIRC...
http://www.bymcomunicacion.com/pvecino/hickok.jpg

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: IGBT
..who here remembers cigarette ads on tv?? I recall marlboro and kool adds.

I even remember discussing the idea of banning cigarette ads in 7th grade and how no one thought that was remotely possible. It is amazing that anyone thinks Nixon was even remotely a conservative.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss

Originally posted by: Mo0o
Was this before they invented steam engines and talkies?

We had to walk to school in snowstorms uphill both ways!

(I'm 50.)

You forgot barefoot. I am post tube tester. However, I remember we (parents had midstream electronics part store) had Browning Tubes in wooden crates packed with straw as protection