Why does nobody talk about using tube testers for bench troubleshooting?

I visited an old avionics shop out in Tucson last month and noticed they still swear by a vintage tube tester for checking signal paths. Some techs say it's outdated junk, others claim it catches what digital scopes miss. Where do you guys land on that debate?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_flores81mo ago

Honestly, @hugoh55, my buddy out in Phoenix has a Hickok 6000A in his garage and he definitely uses it for that wizard vibe. But calling it a "magic box" is a little off. Those things actually measure mutual conductance, which is a real spec for tube health, not just some old-school guess. I still reach for mine when a circuit acts weird because it isolates the tube from the rest of the signal path clean, something a scope can't always do.

hugoh551mo ago

Still waiting for the first person to admit they keep a tube tester in their garage just to feel like a wizard from the 1950s. Must be nice to have a magic box that says "bad" and actually mean it.