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Technical

Single-tube audio oscillator c. 1946

Download a four-page article from RADIO NEWS, November 1946, containing data and plans for constructing a surprisingly simple tube audio oscillator.  Author is R.W. Ehrlich.

DOWNLOAD: SimpleTubeAudioOsc

One 6SN7 tube plus a handful of caps, resistors, and pots (oh and a power supply).  12 of these would make the basis of a pretty interesting synthesizer.  I was wondering what I was gonna do with the 100000 6SN7s I have accumulated.  Why so many 6SN7s?  It’s like the Whipped Cream And Other Delights of used vacuum tubes.  At least one in every pile.

3 replies on “Single-tube audio oscillator c. 1946”

The 6SN7 is a highly desireable tube and should not be used frivolously.

Plus, why on earth would anyone build a tube audio oscillator when HP 200s and their clones are widely available, cheap, and superb? Coals to Newcastle and all that.

That Collins transmitter on the cover would be worth a lot of money today. So would the receiver off on the right.

Note also in this oscillator, the frequency setting element is a pair of pots rather than a capacitor or PTO/inductor. The frequency stability is going to be terrible. remember, the Wien bridge only oscillates when gain is exactly at a certain figure. Commercial audio oscillators were of the heterodyne type until Dave and Bill figured out how to use a light bulb as a stabilizing element. This made them multimillionaires and built an electronic empire that lasted until the Broad Restructuring and the spinoff of Agilent.

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