26 Apr
1998
26 Apr
'98
12:13 p.m.
You mean an AVO Mk4 Valve Characteristic Meter, surely
:-). A very nice
instrument that'll test just about any valve with 9 pins of fewer, and
will do proper mutual conductance tests.
If it can do the job, sure! Of course, it probably only has sockets for
those weird British valves with the "interesting" bases (like the
almost-Octal socket)!
Or, if you want an _interesting_ instrument, look at
the Mullard High
Speed Valve Tester. It's controlled by (special) punched cards. They have
a 14*10 matrix of holes which allow contacts to make in the card reader
assembly. Said contacts link the appropriate pins of the valveholder to
the right points in the circuit, select the appropriate transformer taps
for the heater voltage and set the other electrode voltages using
resistive ladder DACs (see, this is almost on-topic...). Pity it's only
an emission tester.
Hickock made one like that called a "Cardmatic". Find the card, throw it
in the slot, the thing makes a loud CLUNK, and you are all set to go.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net