Passed on a 1950s tube tester three times before buying it

There was this beat-up old tube tester at a flea market in Portland for $25. I walked past it twice thinking it was just junk that would never work again. Third time I asked the seller if it powered on, and he plugged it in right there. The needle jumped and the tubes lit up, and now I use it to test every old radio I pick up. Anyone else have a piece of gear they kept ignoring that ended up being a real find?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

seanperry5mo ago

Did you check the calibration on it before buying or just trust that it lit up and worked? I always wonder with old test gear like that if the readings are still accurate after sitting for decades. My buddy got a similar deal on a signal generator and spent months chasing bad readings before he realized the thing was way off.

0

nora_wells585mo ago

Your buddy's experience is a good cautionary tale, but there's another side to old gear nobody mentions - sometimes the drift is actually predictable and you can work around it. Most quality scope manufacturers in the 60s and 70s designed them so you can re-calibrate with nothing more than a known voltage source and a screwdriver. If you get one cheap, make friends with someone who has a modern meter and spend an afternoon dialing it back in, then you're good for years.

3