TV Audio Tube Makes a Transceiver

It’s not often we see a tube project here, so [Helge Fykse]’s PCL86 transceiver is a welcome find. If you know anything about the European Pro-Electron device naming system you’ll …. TV Audio Tube Makes a Transceiver.

The first letter denotes the heater specification, for example “E” is for a 6.3 volt heater. Everyone wants the familiar 6.3 V devices, but they have a set of cousins which often pass unnoticed. “P” tubes have a 300 mA heater designed such that all tubes in a device could be connected in series at the same current.

Of those tubes the PCL86 is a mundane example, filling the function taken in the semiconductor years by the LM386. It’s a small-signal triode and a power pentode in one device, and it’s an audio amplifier. Every 1960s TV set in Europe had one, and thus it’s a good choice for experimentation.