Shopping carts of 6GH8As’? What is your story?

[doogie812]

From the late 70’s to mid 80’s I was a field service tech for a local TV shop. We had contracts with three local motels for service. Quarterly we would perform a check up and tune up on all the TVs and run regular service calls as needed. All three of these motels had the infamous RCA CTC-36 sets. I never could get a decent picture out on one of these but that is another point.

On motel day I would load up one tube caddy with nothing but 6GH8As. Take off the back cover, flick the 6GH8As’, watch for arcs and sparks or symptoms to appear. I would go through typically 20-30 tubes a day. I hated motel day!

Just in general RCA used this tube for many applications in the late 60’s to early 70’s. What was wrong with this tube? The 6U8 was bullet proof but not the 6GH8.

[Zenith26kc20]

Same here. We would change nearly all of the 6GH8 tubes in that era chassis for heater to cathode shorts. I remember it got worse when the imported 6GH8's appeared. We would order them by the hundred.
I have a McIntosh MI-3 scope with a healthy appetite for them too!

[drh4683]

Didn't somebody here have an ad from some kind of electronic supply house that was giving special deals if you bought tubes in bulk to save, and in small print at the bottom of the ad it went something like "this offer applies to all tubes except 6GH8". Ha, they knew everyone would buy those up regardless, so no deals on those probably because GH8's were big money makers for electronic supply houses well into the 80's I bet.

I never compared the characteristics in a tube manual from a gh8 to a u8, but Im sure that would be the easiest way to uncover the major differences why the u8 was much more reliable, but then again, there could be a slight mechanical construction difference not pointed out in the manual that lead to the increased number of shorts between elements. Its always interesting to hear the people who were part of the repair scene back when these sets were still in use, many fond memories of the 6GH8...

[ctc17]

[kx250rider]

Interesting page! Shows how dramatically the console 50s B&W sets were dropping offline at the end of the 1960s...

Charles

[andy]

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[stromberg6]

After I got out of the Army in 1972 I worked for a time for a parts jobber for the local TV repair shops, and we used to order those bleepin' tubes by the thousand every month. Sold every one just in time to receive the next order of Sylvania's.
I also believe that the 6U8 is a great tube, and it was used in many different types of circuits. But the 6GH8 was a money maker for the tube companies, so maybe it was engineered to be just that.
Kevin

[miniman82]

6.8 million GH8's used in 1970!

Proof positive, that was one crappy tube.

[bgadow]

Those production lines must have really been rollin'!

Yes, drh, I have seen that "6GH8's excluded" reference. Somewhere I have a flyer from Zenith where they offered something like a free tube caddy or something, if you bought enough tubes. I suspect there was quite a bit of price competition on the GH8.

[Reece]

Interesting in that farther down that list AA5 radio tubes were still in there pretty strong.

[miniman82]

Yeah, I saw 50C5 and kinda scratched my head.

[zenith2134]

A friend of mine just dropped off two AM radios from the 60s in need of new fliter cap's (hummmm)...An Admiral and a GE...both have similar tube compliments, 50C5, 35W4, 6AV6. Seems like a lot of 60's and even some 70's tabletop radios used some of the older tube types. Probably to keep costs down, and/or to use up remaining stock in warehouses.

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

A friend of mine just dropped off two AM radios from the 60s in need of new fliter cap's (hummmm)...An Admiral and a GE...both have similar tube compliments, 50C5, 35W4, 6AV6.

Um.. if he dropped off a radio with a 6AV6 in the string, it should be a 12AV6 (or 12AT6).
Bill(oc)

[kc8adu]

i remember subbing the 6u8 too.
some sets were really fussy and even new 6gh8 from some mfrs esp ge seemed to work poorly even when everything was right.some brand new lots often had a 20% reject rate!these things must have had critical tolerances as i saw so many with shorts.

[drh4683]

Im surprized this box of 6GH8's went unopened. I bought this this box of 100 on ebay last year and took a picture when I was the first to break the seal. The box manufactuer has a date stamp of 5-82 on the bottom of the box so these are somewhat "new". With the RCA TV's I've picked up waiting to be serviced, probably half of this box will be gone instantly.