Things made in Russia
 

While installing Noico at 3am in the morning I started wondering where it's made ... turns out .. Russia. For some reason I'd rather give them my money than China.

Anyway... Russia also produces some other interesting things. Like some of the best vacuum tubes in the world, and some of the hardest to find tubes. Evidently since USSR technology was a bit behind they continued using vacuum tubes in lots of military and industrial equipment a couple decades beyond the US. So by the time they stopped using vacuum tubes there was a market around the world for people maintaining vintage electronics and the factories just switched to supply that market.

They have quite a business going now providing numerous types of vintage electronics, electro-mechanical devices, vintage military sort of hardware, even some old Soviet era looking light fixtures, clothing, boots etc. A lot of it very ... well, I guess durable is the right word. Fine quality might be a bit lacking, along with wonderful fit and finish, but most of it is built with that 50's sort of durability in mind.

It has been known for years that a fighter built with modern electronics will fall from the sky if attacked with EMF radiation. Vacuum tubes are not affected nearly as much or not at all by EMF. So in simple terms the USA/NATO fighters fall from the sky and the Russian Vacuum Tube planes, continue to fly and be able to deliver their "packages" of death against whoever they are fighting at the time.

That knowledge has been known for 30+ years.
The USA assumes we would not do a land based retaliation but would do a Sub Based Nuke strike.

As far as vintage electronics goes the collectors benefit. And the Russian Military benefits.

And the Russian Planes would continue to fly in Europe/Asia.

Tom V.

I have a shortwave radio that will survive EM pulse. Look up the Collins R390A radio. It is serial #3 of the 55,000 made for the US military. Fantastic history. Not a single transistor in the whole 50lbs of machine.

It is a beast, and with nothing more than a magnetic CB antenna, I can listen to SE Asia. And FWIW, Radio Havana has some good music!

Spring project is a 30ft Rohn antenna.

There's a lot to be said about running a points distributor.

I think EMP will destroy the condensor in a points system.

I used to dabble in the vintage stereo culture a bit. Like us with our cars, there are audiophiles who are devoted to one make over others, tube vs. transistor etc. The hunt for vintage tubes, NOS parts is every bit as fun and challenging too. Purists tend to view eastern European tubes as a mixed blessing. While certainly a necessity to keep the hobby going, like everything else there’s a wide variation in quality. And guys who swear they can "hear" differences between different batch runs of vacuum tubes let alone different brands are not easily satisfied. Quality control standards apparently not nearly as high in Eastern Europe as when Westinghouse or Zenith made tubes.

There's a novel from maybe 15 years ago titled "One Second After" about a targeted low level nuclear attack on North America using the resulting EMP to take out things like communications and the electrical grid rather than destroying cities. It paints a rather bleak picture as to how dependent modern civilization might be in terms of a fragile technology. Found the premise very thought provoking and very disturbing to say the least.

I have a few things that go pew pew made in the Motherland.

Speaking of things made in Russia, I was looking at an old fuel filter on one of my cars and it says it's made there.

In the last century things being "rad-hard" were common. Tube electronics are much more robust but also use a lot more power.

My Judge will still run.

I work in defense. Around here a current hot button is Counter UAS. Not big GA Predators, but more like Amazon quad copters that you can strap a little plastique to and perform a little bit of terror with. Its kinda the new form of the IEDs that we were all so afraid of when we first went back to the middle east in the early 2000s.

I asked a friend who works on that topic why we dont just fire an EMP blast at them. He said that everyone always says that, but that it actually violates some international arms treaty or something. I cant quote the exact law or what its from. Essentially its firing a hot weapon at a foreign nation. So for anyone who has ever seen Charlie Wilson's War, the line "Thats how a cold war becomes a hot war real quick. Thats something you want to keep a close eye on." comes to mind

Moral of the story being that it isnt really that big of a threat because in the world of mutually assured destruction era your big players mostly avoid firing that hot weapon at each other. Not that its a non factor, but so is a nuclear bomb and we just dont think about it overly much because everyone wants to avoid what would come next.

Funny story, the other thing people always say is "Well just give me a shotgun and ill knock that thing out of the sky for you". So we actually tried that, we put a bunch of former soldiers on a boat at the lake here and flew a bunch of small UAVs around and had them take their shot at robot trap shooting. Lets just say that their success rate was not very high at shooting those things down.

I probably should have said "Eastern Europe" while yes a lot of made in Russia, a lot is also made in former Soviet Bloc countries. I think most of the tubes come from these former Soviet countries.

Vintage guitar amps fans are very familiar with the Russian tubes, they are the affordable option to very expensive matched sets from Germany I think (and probably former Eastern Germany).

I'm fascinated by some of their Soviet era gadgetry, electro-mechanical devices, self powered radios, flash lights. And of course the Czechoslovakian AK's which are the best in the world I think.

Just kind of fascinating how lots of the old factories didn't miss a beat, kept on making the same old stuff and started selling to a new market. In the US where growth demands, share holder demands, market share etc. lead to the demise of so many old businesses the Russians just shifted from supply the govt. to supplying niche markets. With no shareholders to answer to, no demands for dividends, no pressures to modernize .. they just kept on trucking.

"success rate was not very high". Depends on what they were using. Sawed off 12 gauge with birdshot would have quite a spread. Glock not so unless using .410 shot.

Could really screw up television reception with a model T magneto. Don't need to knock out all electronics, just about 100 yard radius.

Key is having the proper tool for the proper job. WMD not needed.

They need to practice up with full auto 22LR And with tracers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_PuEc2OPbM

Clay

They were using 12 gauges from why I’m told. Yeah wasn’t there but about 4 different dudes have told me about it.

What you gotta remember though is that A. This was from a boat. And more importantly B. This was a simulated combat situation. So these UAVs were casually hovering but were actively trying to avoid being shot.

I finally got to go meet my mother’s parents (East Germany) after the wall came down. It was like stepping back in time. Even as late as 2012, the old EG towns were still “closing” at dark.
Went NE of Moscow several hours by train to see a co worker once. I was the town “attraction” lol. Had to take my own sunshine in with me, as Rodion lived in a remote area

"What you gotta remember..." considered that so would want to be sitting and use birdshot (lotsa small pellets) and a shortened barrel for maximum spread.

Circus sharpshooters often load revolvers with .410 shot. Hard to miss a clay target.

Now if being he-men standing in a boat with long guns and double-ought buck (6 pellets) man stoppers well....

Personally follow the Penske rule, unfair advantages are good.

Google "Box IEMP and Mission Cyber" for a decent read

Vacuum tubes: the good ones have thoriated tungsten filaments for long electron emission life. your China tube mileage may differ from GE/RCA, Svetlana, Groove tube. Ebay search "russian power tube" and see the smoking hi-power value for low cost.

Working on a TWT tube-based payload for long-life spacecraft

Heathkit HW-101 with all the updates.
73
KB3ULA

In the world of ‘80’s power rock and metal, Sovtek tubes and tube amplifiers were hot items. Ungodly loud amplifiers as I recall.

I think there are some Soviet electro mechanical reverb/distortion units are very popular right now ... original old ones, often still in their original wooden cases.

Want a tube to last forever, reduce the filament voltage by about 10%. Back in the day boosting the filament increased everything (sensitivity, power) at the expense of longevity.

Was very deep into tube Trans-Oceanics back at the turn of the century.

No, it isn’t an integrated circuit. Capacitors and vacuum tubes care nearly indestructible in regards to EMP. This is WHY the Soviets stayed with them so long.

Back in the mid 1970s I remember some “talking head” at Popular Mechanics pontificating about the “backward” technology of the avionics in the MiG-25 when the first one was examined by the USAF in Japan. I also remember many people laughing about the Soviets still using vacuum tubes. One person who wasn’t laughing was Edward Teller, father of the thermonuclear weapon ( hydrogen bomb). He was stunned! EMP was a phenomenon first observed at the first atomic bomb’s detonation in July, 1945. The Soviets saw this effect determined that their military weapons would not be subject to it. They possessed what was arguably the best vacuum tube production system in the world. While the West was producing weapons systems totally dependent on integrated circuits and transistors, the Soviets were developing weapons systems that utilized the tried and true vacuum tubes that resisted EMP. Teller warned the DOD that the U.S. was at least a decade behind the Soviets in “hardening” the electronics in weapons systems. The Soviets weren’t so stupid after all.

I wonder how many of the (at the time high tech) vacuum tube plants ended up in East Germany. Siemens, Telefunken (sp) etc. I know the allies frequently targeted the vacuum tube plants in Germany during the war.

If you want to have a laugh. Go on eBay and search "Tonika Electric Guitar". Soviet made Russki interpretation of a western electric guitar.

I lived, worked and travelled through out Russia and many of the USSR client states for 5 years To my knowledge everything they built except for aircraft was 100% crap. Vehicles, Tv's , fridges, stoves, furniture, steel, buildings...you name it it was ****. I was in the oil and gas side and everything outside of the actual drilling was bought in the west. Things like downhole pumps, Jacks, service rigs, drill pipe, sucker rods etc all came from Germany or the US. Their drill rigs were crap and it would take them 6 months to drill a three week hole. Their pipelines were crap and never buried, no swamp weights , float up in the middle of a lake, it was laughable if it wasn't so sad. Pipes broke all the time, water lines broke every day, Sewage was pumped into the ditches. Roads were built on a sand base with concrete mats thrown down on top.

The aircraft, however were first class. I rode on all their rotor wing fleet including Mi8 s and mi 6's .....They ran with little maintenance and crap fuel and kept on ticking. Their fixed wing fleet was well built also....all designed to operate from dirt airstrips. The people for the most part were great and easy to get along with.