[bgadow]

Success! Now, the rest of the story...

After replacing the filters & vertical/horizontal caps I had decided to power the set up for the first time. Prior to that I happened to peer into the HV cage & noticed that the HO tube had gone to air. This set, per Sams, was built with either a 6CD6 or 6BQ6-mine had the former. No problem-I have thousands of tubes, mostly NOS, & 10' away I'd find a stack of these. But wait...I don't have a single one! How could that be? I coulda sworn...so out comes my trusty Riders tube substitution guide which says 6DN6 or 6EX6. Well, I'm POSITIVE I have some of each...nope! Not a one! I really didn't want to wait for one to be shipped in so I grabbed a thicker tube sub book off the shelf, one published by TAB books. Yep, here it is-says a 6DQ5 also works. Well, that I had-5 NOS ones right at hand. Fast forward.

Later on Christmas Eve, after my wife settled in for her "long winter's nap", I pulled out "GE Essential Characteristics" to study the base diagrams of 6CD6 vs 6DQ5-maybe there's something that's blank on one & a tie point on the other? Well, it turns out they're totally different! Not a sub at all (unless, maybe, if you re-wired the socket-in which case I might as well re-wire to a 6BQ6). Lousy misprint! No wonder the circuit didn't work!

I went to the attic & dug out a box of surplus tubes. I knew for fact that there wouldn't be a 6CD6 in there because, well, I put those tubes there & it just didn't belong. But, there it was, pretty as you please, a NOS Rogers of all things. 10 minutes later & I was staring at a bright raster!

I did some further tweaking today, swapping out some tubes & buttoning up some things. I should have it all back together later in the week. Thanks, guys, as your advice really did work to put me on the right track & helped me learn a thing or two. Now, back to your reguarly scheduled program...uh, thread!