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Tube socket
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{{short description|Plug-in vacuum tube holder}} [[Image:Tube sockets.agr.jpg|thumb|300px|Left to right: octal (top and bottom view), loctal, and miniature (top and side view) sockets. An early transistor socket and an [[integrated circuit]] socket are included for comparison.]] '''Tube sockets''' are [[Electrical connector|electrical sockets]] into which [[vacuum tube]]s (electronic valves) can be plugged, holding them in place and providing terminals, which can be soldered into the circuit, for each of the pins. Sockets are designed to allow tubes to be inserted in only one orientation. They were used in most tube electronic equipment to allow easy removal and replacement. When tube equipment was common, retailers such as [[drug store]]s had vacuum [[tube tester]]s, and sold replacement tubes. Some [[Nixie tube]]s were also designed to use sockets. Throughout the tube era, as technology developed, sometimes differently in different parts of the world, many tube bases and sockets came into use.<ref>{{cite web | last = Qvigstad | first = Just N. | title = Sokkel oversikt radiorør | work = Vacuum tube bases overview | publisher = Radio amateur LA9DL | year = 2012 | language = no | url = http://www.la9dl.no/Ror/Ror%20base/sokkel-innhold.html | access-date = 9 January 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Tube Bases|url=http://www.tubedata.org/bases.html|work=Frank's Electron Tube Pages|access-date=20 July 2013}}</ref> Sockets are not universal; different tubes may fit mechanically into the same socket, though they may not work properly and possibly become damaged. Tube sockets were typically mounted in holes on a sheet metal chassis and wires or other components were hand [[solder]]ed to lugs on the underside of the socket. In the 1950s, [[printed circuit board]]s were introduced and tube sockets were developed whose contacts could be soldered directly to the printed wiring tracks. Looking at the bottom of a socket, or, equivalently, a tube from its bottom, the pins were numbered clockwise, starting at an index notch or gap, a convention that has persisted into the [[integrated circuit]] era. In the 1930s, tubes often had the connection to the [[control grid]] brought out through a metal [[top cap]] on the top of the tube. This was connected by using a clip with an attached wire lead. An example would be the 6A7 [[pentagrid converter]]. Later, some tubes, particularly those used as radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers or horizontal deflection amplifiers in TV sets, such as the 6DQ6, had the plate or [[anode]] lead protrude through the envelope. In both cases this allowed the tube's output circuitry to be isolated from the input (grid) circuit more effectively. In the case of the tubes with the plate brought out to a cap, this also allowed the plate to run at higher voltages (over 26,000 volts in the case of rectifiers for color television, such as the 3A3, as well as high-voltage regulator tubes.) A few unusual tubes had caps for both grid and plate; the caps were symmetrically placed, with divergent axes. [[Image:Tube 75.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Tube 75 from the 1930s with UX-6 base and top grid cap]]
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