Tuning pulser

This video is about adjusting and using tuning pulsers or "tuning peckers". The pulser in this video is my new tuning pulser design. It connects via the CW jack on the radio. This video also shows how a few power meters behave with good, so-so, and bad examples. The tuning pulser in the video is now listed at this link: https://www.ctrengineeringinc.com/tuning-pulser-tuning-pecker-pkr-1/ I would like to remind everyone that most tubes are not hurt by drive power or grid current. When you hurt the tubes in your AL-811 amplifier is not from "frying the grids". It is also not from drive power. Don't let anyone tell you that low drive power or low grid current guarantees more life. The exception to this are tubes with low grid intercept and gold plated or very fragile grids. Tubes like the 8877/3CX1500A7, YC156, 4CX1500B, and 4CX1000A are grid current damage sensitive. Generally tubes requiring warmup time delay before drive or high voltage application are grid current life-sensitive. Tubes using directly heated thoriated tungsten emitters, 811, 572, 3CX1200s, 3-500s, and so on are relatively immune to grid current worries so far as the tube itself goes. We still do not want excessive current because of IMD, splatter, and tank circuit arcing..... but the tube grid itself is not easily hurt. The real reason to watch grid current in an 811 tube is to ensure proper tuning and to minimize anode heating, not to prevent control grid damage. The primary failure mode of 811 tubes is the anode heat dissipation or "red plating" of the tube anode. A bright red anode can kill an 811 tube in a few dozen seconds. With other directly heated tubes, like 3-500ZG thick graphite anode tubes, the glass and seals are the thermal weak points. The primary failure in directly heated filament tubes is generally overheating of the anodes or seals, not grid current, grid temperature, and most certainly not drive power. It is a peak temperature problem that is specific to the weak area in a particular tube. The primary tuning induced failure in indirectly heated oxide cathodes with low-intercept grids (especially gold plated grids) is most often the grid current. Kinetic energy from electrons striking the grids can hasten gold migration and even poison the cathode. Gold plated grid tubes must be protected by very fast grid trip circuits. This type of tube can be damaged if peak grid current is excessive even while using a pulser. A pulser will certainly help, but it will not eliminate, the requirement for a very fast peak-detecting grid trip system with this style tube.