[sean]

Except you can't transmit with the R-390A. I just spent $140 on a pair of 801A triodes for a BC-223 transmitter that was given to me without any tubes. Now I need to get a trio of 46s for it. I bought my BC-375 a couple of years ago with the full compliment of tubes. When I got it home I noticed one of the VT-4Cs was gassy (white getter flash). I kept an eye on ebay and eventually someone put up a couple of unboxed VT-4Cs for $100 each with a money back guarantee. I bought them both and they work just fine. When I scrounge up some more cash I would like to buy a pair of those Chinese 211s to try out in the '375. It get expensive to keep these things going.

Regarding the BC-375 being obsolete by the time the war started, I would guess GE was tooled up and could crank them out so quickly that they figured if it met the need why go through the hassle of redesigning to make something else fit.