Finally got my own tube tester!

[jmetal88]

When I re-capped my first TV, it had some bad tubes in it, but I borrowed my dad's tube tester to figure out which ones needed to be replaced. When I re-capped my second TV last month, I didn't have access to that tube tester, but happened to get lucky and found all the tubes in the set were already at least good enough for the set to function. I figured it might be useful to have a tube tester around, but for whatever reason, when I looked on eBay, I couldn't find one for what I considered a decent price.

This is where my local Radio Shack comes in. Now, my local Radio Shack is a little "different" in that they're somehow a Radio Shack dealer and not a Radio Shack store. As such, they are not required to have the same store layout or stock the same product lines as other Radio Shack stores. In fact, a good 50% of their floor space is dedicated to used ham radio equipment, vintage radios, and used test equipment. What did I happen to run across when I went in there yesterday? An EMC Model 213 tube tester marked at $25! Of course I bought it on the spot and immediately took it home to test it out. It seems to be in good working shape, too, except perhaps that some of the switches may be dirty (I have to press on or wiggle some of the switches sometimes before the meter will move during a tube quality test).

I'm pretty happy about the way this turned out.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by jmetal88

When I re-capped my first TV, it had some bad tubes in it, but I borrowed my dad's tube tester to figure out which ones needed to be replaced. When I re-capped my second TV last month, I didn't have access to that tube tester, but happened to get lucky and found all the tubes in the set were already at least good enough for the set to function. I figured it might be useful to have a tube tester around, but for whatever reason, when I looked on eBay, I couldn't find one for what I considered a decent price.

This is where my local Radio Shack comes in. Now, my local Radio Shack is a little "different" in that they're somehow a Radio Shack dealer and not a Radio Shack store. As such, they are not required to have the same store layout or stock the same product lines as other Radio Shack stores. In fact, a good 50% of their floor space is dedicated to used ham radio equipment, vintage radios, and used test equipment. What did I happen to run across when I went in there yesterday? An EMC Model 213 tube tester marked at $25! Of course I bought it on the spot and immediately took it home to test it out. It seems to be in good working shape, too, except perhaps that some of the switches may be dirty (I have to press on or wiggle some of the switches sometimes before the meter will move during a tube quality test).

I'm pretty happy about the way this turned out.

That is a pretty unique Radio Shack, we don't have any Radio Shacks like that around where I live. I used to have a tube tester just like that minus the manual (which I downloaded off the internet) I ended up giving it to one of the members on here for the price of shipping.

[Olorin67]

Ten years ago, I lived in the Thumb area of Michigan, most of the small towns in there area had a business that was also a Radio Shack Dealer. Schneeberger's Tv was one, 3-4 aisles of dusty RS merchandise.. mostly from the 70's and 80's they wouldn't go down on price no matter how long it had been sitting there. Another town had one as part of a Hardware store, another town had one that was half RS, half video rental.

[Electronic M]

I've been to the one in Hayward Wi. (I think they are gone now), and that is probably the only RS dealer I know of. IIRC they were part RS part furniture store part general merch.