Tornadoes in Minnapolis

[Unimatic1140]

Ohh Gary I'm sorry to hear you lost a Maple tree, we didn't have any damage in South Minneapolis. The storm was much worse further north.

Hugh, vintage vacuum tubes (or as you guys on that side of the pond call them valves) are very plentiful and easy to find. Its MUCH easier to find vintage TV parts than it is to find vintage washer parts, capacitors and resistors are still made today, and changing those are 90% of the work in restoring a vintage Television set.

 

[geoffdelp]

We lucked out in Foley. The storm was right near us in Duelm (about 10 miles to our southeast) and I could see the sky to my east was very "active" with churning clouds and lots of lightning.

Gary, I'm sorry about your tree; I know what that feels like. Last year, I lost my 30+ year old willow tree in my back yard; it split in half during a storm and flattened my garden mid-season. I lost my small maple tree in the front yard at the same time and early this spring, I lost another maple in the front yard; I watched it break in half.

So ... this year I started with new trees!! And no, insurance does not pay for tree removal due to a storm unless it damages a building. Isn't that great????

Geoff

 

[tolivac]

Unimatic-Glad the cable box works with your spartan-didn't think of the set connected to cable.If your TV is on the cable-it would work fine except the graphics-but a good thing-with the round picture tube sreen-you may not have to look at those awful "net Logs" that are broadcast in the corner of your screen-burning your tube if the set is CRT or plasma.If you find an older LaserDisc machine-you can use that to run old movies into your vintage TV's.Usually older Laserdisc machines had modulators-and not to overlook VCRs as well.The Macrovision encoding on some VHS tapes and DVD's may present problems with older TV's-Does it affect yours?It seemed to affect older color sets more so than monochrome ones.
As far as the tubes go-they are plentiful-but EXPENSIVE for some newer ones-esp "audio" tubes.Transmitter tubes are still plentiful-but more expensive.One Russian company makes them and two make "receiving" tubes-Audio and TV tubes.I am having trouble finding HV electrolytic caps-want to rebuild my McInTosh Monoblocks.Most of my tube "stock" came from radio stations that replaced their small tube gear with SS.And some of their burnt up transmitter tubes end up in my small transmitting tube collection.

 

[spiraclean]

Vacuum Tubes (Valves)

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the information on the vacuum tubes; I am surprised that they are still available. I have repaired a few pre WW2 radios and as you say it’s usually a capacitor or resistor that’s at fault. I love the way the old radios are put together with all the components soldered to the tube sockets and each other not a circuit board to be seen, are the vintage TVs made the same way? I have a fully working pre WW2 radio by Pye Radio Works Cambridge the sound quality is superb, I also have a fully working Grundig reel to reel tape recorder of the vacuum tube design not sure of its age though but it is not as old as the radio.

All the best.
Hugh

 

[scott55405]

Wow, just amazing all the awful/unusual things going on lately. I heard about the tornado activity in Minneapolis (for whatever reason it is always the same certain suburban areas that always seem to get hit). Gary I'm sorry to hear of the tree loss you suffered, but glad you're ok.

I was shocked to log into the Star Tribune and see it was in the mid 80s yesterday. Must have been humid to have triggered such a storm, unusual for this late in the season.

That Jet Blue thing was quite something. I work right by the airport and we were able to watch part of it from our windows. Also saw a lot of news and police cars and things lined up on the side of the road on the way home (drive right alongside the airport). So glad things worked out in the end, but what a production, flying around the city for 3 hours.

 

[DADoES]

Being involved in my own local weather conditions, I'm just now reading this thread. I did see something on TV about it, I believe a house with the porch torn off and a gaping hole in the side and roof. Scary, disturbing stuff. Happy to hear our guys are OK.