I bought a amp and it was shipped with the tubes in the sockets. The amp arrived shipped by UPS and had no broken tubes. That tells me that it is OK to ship amps with tubes still in the amp. So from now on I will ship the amp with tubes intact without worries of broken tubes. But to be safe I will state on e-Bay if tubes are broken to bad, no refund on broken tubes, but will ship sperate by request only.

As far as the transformer there was no damage from that either. But I could see it now, I could cut or unsolder  the wires to the transformer and when it arrived I would get an e-mail asking how am I supposed to put it back in? I am not an electoral engineer how am I supposed to figure how to wire it back in.

I got one a few weeks back, it's a Hickok 6000 in great electronic shape. I have ordered and received torlex to recover the box for my benefit and pleasure. It will be used for my personal restoration of old boat anchors I restore.

I would say as long as it is a 100% tube type radio it is a boat anchor. The Kenwood TS-530 doesn't qualify the TS-520 would and would be the last in line of the boat anchors.

Still looking for a good tube tester lost out on a Hickok 6000-A on e-Bay and the Hickok 539 A is starting to get a little high. Watching a Mercury 2000 would like to know from anyone who has owned one, was it a decent tester? If I spend $300 to $500 for one, I want a good tester.

I have found some information and from what I have found Hickok is the bench setter. But I do not know where B&K, Sencore, Mercury and so fall in line.

OK I decided to get a tube checker, now lets narrow down the possibilities. I want to test tubes form the late 50's to the last made in the early 70's. I know the  mutual conductance testers are the best, and the Dynamic Mutual Conductance are kinda sort of  mutual conductance but not really,  but if most of the tubes are in receivers or not the actual transmitter finals the others should do fine for about 80% of what you test as long as you have a good calibrated tester.

Looking at the following:

Hickok 939- B or C if I can afford a good one. mutual conductance tester
Hickoc 6000-B  mutual conductance tester


Mercury 2000 Dynamic Mutual Conductance

Jackson 648-S Dynamic Mutual Conductance

Sencore Continental MU 140 Mutual Conductance

B&K 747 & 707  Dynamic Mutual Conductance because they are the most current / newest of the bunch.  Late 60's to 70's manufacture time frame

But in the real world I may settle on the Hickoc 6000-B  just because it's a Hickoc. Or the Mercury.

Am I leaning in the right direction?

I have a used Mosley Cl-33: when I bought it I think the guy said he cut wire inside the capacitance tube the to improve the antenna for the CW part of the band. As of now it is 86" I think the original length was 88". Does any one know for sure. If so I will get some heavily insulated wire and put it back to the original length.

What tube tester should I get: the Mutual Conductance tube tester, or a dynamic mutual  Conductance?

And Why, one over the other.

TL-922A meter lamps:

Anyone ever replace them with Blue LED's and if so what type of LED and voltage type?

I e-mailed this guy some years back about building a 600 watt amp for 6 meters. Never heard from him.

'Amateur radio is only for rich people'.

Why do you say that? It is how much you spend that could make it an expensive hobby.
A Kenwood TS-830 to a TS-450 can be bought for $400 to $500 in excellent condition. Another $50 for coax and $50 for some wire and you are on the air.
Most ham shacks were built over the years. So the money for a $5000+ set up was spread out over time.

I would think that 75% of the sales of Texas towers, AES, HRO are on line sales. So saving tax on; on line sales should not affect them at all.  No harm to the store. Most hams live more than a few 100 miles or more from the nearest ham retailor, For me:

Texas Towers: 220 miles
Associated radio: 321 miles
Austin Radio Supply: 438 miles
The Ham Station: 623 miles
AES: 825 miles
Universal Radio: 878 miles

I don’t think they would care as long as there was no interference. From 2 to maybe as much as 2.5 kw, but 5 to 8 kw might just raise a red flag.  So I would say you would be safe a 2 kw.

I have bought a few items from TT and never had a problem.

No I don’t think they will. It would be easier for Ten-Tec to expand as an established company than Drake who has been out of the ham market for years.

The fan on my Kenwood TL-922A went out some years ago I replaced it with a similar size fan at 120 CFM, it moves a lot of air but the noise is not bad.