Keep the electrons flowing and the tubes glowing.

JOIN NOW! Join the Fun with Tubes discussion group. Now all of you who have been exchanging email messages with me can communicate with each other directly. To subscribe send an email to funwithtubes-subscribe@yahoogroups.com See you on the list.

An Observation.

If I worked on radios the same way doctors worked on people when ever a capacitor, resistor, or tube, failed I would just take it out and throw it away. Yet the radio would be expected to work as well as when it was new. So far I am down my tonsils, adenoids, about one and a half feet of large intestine, and a gall bladder. My power output is down and my distortion percentage is up.

Fun With Tubes now has a sister site. It's called Fun With Tran-sisters. If you would like to tinker with electronics But you would rather not poke around among High voltages, check it out.

New! Here are several tone control circuits with frequency response curves. Practical Tone Control Circuits. Pll Frequency control for AM band receivers New information and better graphs on The effects on coupling in IF transformers This page is linked from other pages and Will never be linked directly from this page. Modify a Heathkit IG-18 sine/square wave generator to get 0.015% distortion. A 50 watt per channel ultra linear amplifier using EL34s. Here's a test of an RC amp with and without the cathode bypass capacitor. Distortion in RC Amplifiers. All three monoblocks now have new information About a better output transformer. Triode Monoblock Amplifier

Attention: All who are blind. The menu below was designed to be red by the sighted. It is arranged in three columns and is meant to be red down each column. Screen readers reed it across each row. Red that way it doesn't make much sense and you won't know what goes with what. I strongly recommend you "click" the link below to the screen reader friendly menu.

All schematic diagrams and a few photographs are now described in words on a separate page with a link right below the diagram. Your screen readers should be able to reed them. There is a link at the end of the description that will take you back to exactly where you were before. I am only one person and mortal to boot. That means I make mistakes. If any of the links don't work at all or don't work right be sure to let me know. I want everything to work right.

"Click" here for a screen reader friendly version of the menu below.

If you are sighted
what are you doing
trying to read this?
It doesn't apply to you.

What do I need to have fun with tubes? Click here for the answer.

The Basic Stuff	Radio	Audio Amplifiers How They Work
DC Circuits	How AM Radio Works	Power and Output Transformers
AC Circuits	Winding Coils	A Basic Power Supply
Vacuum Diodes	Build a Crystal Set	A Technical Discussion of Power Supplies
Vacuum Triodes	Build De Forest's Audion	Resistance Coupled Amplifier, A Basic Building Block
Tubes with Multiple Grids	Grid Leak Detector	Magnetic Phono Preamp
AM, SSB, and FM	Plate Detector	Volume Controls
What is ground?	Infinite Impedance Detector	Tone Controls
How To Do It	Regenerative Detector	Balance Controls
Restoring Dead Capacitors	TRF Receiver	Phase Inverters, Phase Splitters, and Drivers
Testing Capacitors	Simple Superhet Receiver	Push-Pull Outputs
Reading Resistor and Capacitor Color Codes	3-Tube Superhet	Overall Feedback, Pros and Cons
Eliminating Ground Loops	4-Tube Superhet	The FTC and Amplifier Power
Soldering and Unsoldering	5-Tube Superhet No Coil Winding	Building Amplifiers
Designing and Building Speakers	The All American 5	How Much Power is Enough?
Construction Projects	Introduction and Power Supply	A Low Distortion Gain Block
Low Resistance Adapter for a Digital Multimeter	The Converter	Distortion in RC Amplifiers
Using Unmarked Power Transformers	The Intermediate Frequency Amplifier	Practical Tone Controls
Filter Choke Analyzer	The Detector	Phase Inverter/Driver The Heart of an Amplifier
8 Simple Power Supplies	The Audio Section	An Amplifier Test Bed
Power Supply & Amplifier	Cautions, Precautions, and Troubleshooting	Experiments with a Triode Power Amplifier.
4 Ways to Breadboard	Photo Gallery	Designing an Amplifier with Feedback.
An IC Socket for Tubes	Atwater-Kent's Missing Model.	An Amplifier Smorgasbord
The Best Breadboard	Projects by Viewers of this Page.	Restoration Projects
A Dedicated Headphone Amplifier	Tour My Kilowatt Ham Station	1937 Philco Radio
A Load Box for Testing Power Supplies	Tour My Old Tube hi-fi and Stereo	Heathkit Power Supply
Story of the Original Koss Headphones	My Woodshop and Other Construction Projects	Harman-Kardon A-300
Making IF Transformers No Coil Winding	Operating Instructions	A Blank Space
Modifying a Heath IG-18 For Ultra Low Distortion.	Silvertone Wire Recorder/ Phonograph/Radio	A Blank Space
PLL Frequency Control For AM Band Receivers.	A Blank Space	A Blank Space
A Blank Space	A Blank Space	Things you can download.
Viewer's Projects	Catalogs of Discontinued Parts	Textbook, Electronics for Physicists
Useful and Interesting Links	Free Programs You Can Download	E-mail me

Do you like music? I also write songs which are arranged and mixed so you can understand the words, and the lyrics are worth listening to. Take a peak into my right brain. Visit Max's Music Place. Click here.

Everything you always wanted to know about vacuum tubes but didn't know who to ask. Ask Tube Man. Would you like to tinker around with tubes but don't know what to do? Want to fix up that radio that belonged to your great-grandfather but don't know where to start? Are you experienced in working with tubes but you just came across a problem which has you stumped? Tube Man knows all and tells all. Just click on the super hero's picture to email a question to him. See questions submitted to Tube Man and his answers.

!tzalist Science Directory

Who and What.

This web site is owned and operated, as a hobby, by Max Robinson. As time goes by I will post tutorials on the fundamentals of electricity and electronics, interesting circuits you can build with vacuum tubes and op amps, and I will share some of my experiences restoring antique radios and early electric phonographs.

I have a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida 1966. My early EE classes covered vacuum tubes so I know what I am talking about and doing. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to email me.