Matamp combo ...

quote without comment...

Do you remember their "Just when I forgot my (Soldering) gun" electronics pun contest?

I wanted to build this, but couldn't find the parts when I was 10.

The nuvistor was a high-gain, low-noise vacuum tube intended for VHF and UHF. RCA used them in their TVs, dubbing the sets "New Vista".

God, I loved Popular Electronics' schematics. In the past 55 years, I've never seen better symbols. The pictorial is a work of art (reminiscent of Knight Kit).

Maybe it was in 1971 when I was actually buying the magazine off the news stand, or maybe about 1969 from a back issue I'd been given, but there was a letter to Popular Electronics about how the magazine had changed, no more Carl & Jerry, no more blah, blah, blah and noe more of that soldering gun thing. The magazine replies "some of those things haven't been in the magazine for most of a decade".

I had no idea what the soldering gun thing was about until I got older back issues and actually saw it, and even then, I don't remember seeiing that many installments of it.

Nuvistors came along at about the wrong time. Nice and small, and good noise figure, they were soon wiped out by transistors.

I remember one article reviewing a commercial VHF or UHF converter and they said "I tried it next to my 417 converter, and either that needs a big tuneup or these nuvistors are really good". The 417 being one of the best tubes for a VHF or UHF front end, at least if you didn't want to spend money on a 416 or a parametric amplifier. But the nuvistor apparently gave good noise figure without as much fussing as the 417.

So there was a big wave of nuvistor converters and preamps, and then a few years later, everyone was rushing to transistors (which weren't good to begin with) then JFets and then towards the end of the sixties, people had figure out how to make good low noise transistor preamps that didn't overload as much.

Michael

Maybe it was in 1971 when I was actually buying the magazine off the news stand, or maybe about 1969 from a back issue I'd been given, but there was a letter to Popular Electronics about how the magazine had changed, no more Carl & Jerry, no more blah, blah, blah and noe more of that soldering gun thing. The magazine replies "some of those things haven't been in the magazine for most of a decade".

I had no idea what the soldering gun thing was about until I got older back issues and actually saw it, and even then, I don't remember seeiing that many installments of it.

Nuvistors came along at about the wrong time. Nice and small, and good noise figure, they were soon wiped out by transistors.

I remember one article reviewing a commercial VHF or UHF converter and they said "I tried it next to my 417 converter, and either that needs a big tuneup or these nuvistors are really good". The 417 being one of the best tubes for a VHF or UHF front end, at least if you didn't want to spend money on a 416 or a parametric amplifier. But the nuvistor apparently gave good noise figure without as much fussing as the 417.

So there was a big wave of nuvistor converters and preamps, and then a few years later, everyone was rushing to transistors (which weren't good to begin with) then JFets and then towards the end of the sixties, people had figure out how to make good low noise transistor preamps that didn't overload as much.

Michael

AKG put a Nuvistor into the C12a microphone, considered by many to be one of the finest mics ever made. (Subjectively, of course)

Neumann started putting them in the also-considered-one-of-the-finest U47 microphone when they ran out of Telefunken V14 tubes, but many people hated the conversion.

Gareth.

This is quite interesting, sorry for OT/hijack:

Gareth.

I have about a dozen, in 6.3 & 13 volt versions. The 6CW4/6DS4 was used in a lot of RCA TV tuners. The 13CW4/13DS4 were used in a crude tone squelch in some 'Sonar' brand business radios. The Tektronix 453 scope used some with industrial part numbers, as well.

The Nuvistors weren't microphonic enough for them :)

I saw a lot of them in garage door openers, before the could build stable solid state UHF receivers. I repaired them for a friend that owned an 'Overhead Door Company' franchise. The sensitivity of some were amazing. Careful tuning of the RF and tone circuits could give a block and a half range if it was out in the open.

They were drawn mainly for kids and beginners, to give a perspective of the layout used in the prototypes that were built for the articles.

"Listen to the depth and spaciousness..." "Yes... and that's just from a single mic!"

Thanks for posting that link Gareth, it was really interesting. Eric