Russian tube designations

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[edit] Receiver Tubes

In the 1950s a 5-element system (GOST 5461-59, later 13393-76) was adopted in the (then) Soviet Union for designating receiver vacuum tubes.

The 1st element (from left to right) is a number, specifying filament voltage in volts (rounded off to the nearest whole number).

The 2nd element is a Cyrillic character, specifying the type of a device:

• • D (Russian: Д) - diode, including damper diodes.
  • Kh (Russian: Х) - Double diode.
  • Ts (Russian: Ц) - Low-power rectifier.
  • S (Russian: С) - triode.
  • N (Russian: Н) - Double triode.
  • Ae (Russian: Э) - tetrode.
  • P (Russian: П) - Output pentode, or a beam tetrode.
  • Zh (Russian: Ж) - Sharp-cutoff pentode.
  • K (Russian: К) - Remote-cutoff pentode.
  • R (Russian: Р) - Double pentode or a double tetrode.
  • G (Russian: Г) - Combined triode-diode.
  • B (Russian: Б) - Combined diode-pentode.
  • F (Russian: Ф) - Combined triode-pentode.
  • I (Russian: И) - Combined triode-hexode, triode-heptode or triode-octode.
  • A (Russian: А) - Pentagrid converter.
  • V (Russian: В) - A vacuum tube with secondary emission.
  • L (Russian: Л) - Cathode ray tube.
  • E (Russian: Е) - A tuning indicator or "magic eye" tube.

The 3rd element is a number - a series designator, to differentiate between different devices of the same type.

The 4th element denotes vacuum tube construction specifics (base, envelope)

• • P (Russian: П) - small 9-pin or 7-pin glass envelope (22.5 or 19 mm in diameter.)
  • A (Russian: А) - subminiature glass envelope (5 to 8 mm in diameter) with flexible leads.
  • B (Russian: Б) - subminiature glass envelope (8 to 10.2 mm in diameter) with flexible leads.
  • S (Russian: С) - glass envelope (greater than 22.5 mm in diameter), typically with an octal base.
  • N (Russian: Н) - a nuvistor.
  • K (Russian: К) - metal-ceramic envelope.
  • D (Russian: Д) - glass-metal envelope with disc leads (for UHF operation).

For all-metal tubes the 4th element is left blank.

The 5th element is optional. It may be a single character or a combination of characters added following a dash after the main 4 elements. It denotes special characteristics (if any) of the tube:

• • V (Russian: В) - increased reliability and mechanical ruggedness (such as low succeptability to noise and microphonics).
  • E (Russian: Е) - extended service life.
  • D (Russian: Д) - exceptionally long service life.
  • I (Russian: И) - optimised for "pulsed" (i.e. switching) mode of operation.

For instance, -EV (Russian: -ЕВ) added after 6N2P (i.e. 6Н2П-ЕВ) signifies, that this variant of 6N2P has extended service life and low noise and microphonics. More often than not this means actual differences in internal construction of the tube versus the "basic" type, but sometimes designators like -V and -I simply mean that the tube was specially selected at the factory for those characteristics from the regular quality production.

The new designation convention was applied to all the common receiving tube types produced afterwards as well as to many of the previously produced types. For example, a Soviet produced copy of the 6L6 was originally manufactured in the 1940s under its American designation (in Latin lettering), or sometimes a Cyrillic transcription of it - 6Л6. Under the above convention the tube was redesignated 6P3S (Russian: 6П3С) and the 6V6 tube became 6P6S (Russian: 6П6С), Many specialized Russian tubes, such as special military or transmitting tubes, do not follow the above convention.

Some of the widely known Russian equivalents of West European and American tubes are the 6P14P (Russian: 6П14П) - an EL84, 6N8S (Russian: 6Н8С) - a 6SN7 and 6P3S-E (Russian: 6П3С-Е) - a version of the 6L6.

[edit] Transmitter Tubes

There is another designation table for high power tubes, like transmiting ones: 1st element ia always G (Russian Г, for "generatorni"), the following 2nd element is (it might not be there for some tubes like Г807):

• • K (Russian: К) for shortwave tube
  • U (Russian: У) for ultra shortwave tube
  • M (Russian: М) for modulating tube
  • I (Russian: И) for impulse tube

then follows "-" after wich is the design serial number. If the tube has to be forse-cooled there might be a letter 'A' (russian 'А') for water cooled or 'B' (russian 'Б') for air cooled. The most popular tubes are ГУ-50, ГМ-70, Г-807 (the 807 analog) and the ГУ-29.

[edit] External links

• [1] - Russian receiver tube designation system (in Russian)