Tube Testers and Classic Electronic Test Gear Paperback – August 1, 2000

I bought this because I wanted to find out what makes a great tube tester.Mr Douglas has a very good way of making technical jargon understandable.Includes lots of great photos and illustrations, company history, and "how it works" information.Highly recommended for anyone who listens to vacuum tubes, collects tubes, and/ or collects old test gear.

Great book for tube technology collectors, and hollow state enthusiasts. Lots of good information.

I believe this began as a book about old tube testers (though there are very few that aren't old), and the "Classic Electronic Test Gear" got tacked on to pad it out. The first half is tube testers and the second half is everything else.I'm not knocking it, but it definitely looks like a lot of niche books from small publishers where the books are organized in an "eclectic" manner. This one's better than most, but it's still in that camp.The first half is about tube testers, and it breaks into two sections. The first deals with testers in general: how they work, their (many) shortcomings, and a serious attempt to explain why they're apples, oranges and all manner of fruit when comparing them, even though they supposedly all do the same thing in a similar manner. The good part about that is you learn something useful about these things; the bad thing is you probably won't trust any of them ever again.The second section of tube testers deals with actual makes and models, categorized by maker. In come cases (e.g. Seco) you only get a smidgeon of information; the more popular makes like Hickok will have more data. But even then, what's available varies greatly from one to the next: in some cases there are little more than a couple of advertisements (e.g. Sylvania's machines), while Sencore's Mighty Mites are documented model-by-model.The second half of the book deals with different kinds of test equipment: VOMs, VTVMs, q-meters, grid-dip meters, C-and-L meters, signal generators, signal tracers and oscilloscopes. Here the models covered and discussed are mainly just representative of the group. In some cases, such as the VOM, there's some background on the machines as a whole, but overall it's thin. The VTVM section in particular surprised me with its paucity of info.Overall, I like the book and I'm glad I bought it. It has been an interesting read and as a resource it's better than nothing. But for potential buyers I suggest moderating your expectations. Also: the book is available in generous preview mode in Google Books, so definitely look it over first and make sure it's what you want.

Covered several topics of interest. Restoring tube radios and test equipment is a hobby now and this book was insight into several areas that were related.

I you like to collect or own electronic test gear ,this is for you ;Very well done and has very complete records and pictures of meny different kinds of test equipmt.A lot of info related to "what ever happened to"I find it well worth the price.

I was disappointed in this book. I met Alan Douglas in Elgin, Illinois many years ago and I thought his 3 volume set "Radio Manufacturers of the 1920s" was the best set on radio history. The book doesn't cover test equipment in any detail and is mostly a photo-history. RIP Alan.

A lot of good info and a good reference for technicians and engineers interested in vintage gear. Lacks some organization but it's a keeper in my test equipment library!

This book was recently recommended by Brian Belanger in his article "Tube Tester Basics", printed in the December 2013 issue of RADIO AGE magazine. I found it to be a good reference source on older test equipment that every ham radio operator should have in his/her library.