Is Old-school Vacuum Tube Technology Worth Revisiting?
Artisan Vacuum Tubes and the Great Radio Controversy
The above photo features a home-made vacuum tube. Image courtesy of hackaday.com
Not too long ago, I watched a video about ham radio that was produced by a YouTuber who goes by the name “Devon Stack.” Mr. Stack has a channel called “Black Pilled.” Stack’s video about ham radio discussed the ins and outs of this creaky old technology, and frankly, despite this video offering valuable information, I still felt disinclined to watch it from start to finish — that is, unless driven by some sense of duty. I felt quite bored with Stack’s video about old ham radio technology because it was quite factual and dry, plus, it had very limited visual appeal. Despite proffering subject matter that was markedly technical and dry, this video still pointed to an interesting issue; namely, the prospect of utilizing ham radio technology as a back-up plan for if — or when — the internet either becomes unusable due to infrastructure related problems, or if the internet gets deliberately shut down.
The image above is a screen capture of Devon Stack’s YouTube video about ham radio. A link to the Black Pilled video about ham radio can be found below.
Ham radio is definitely not a new thing, in fact, a simple Wikipedia.org search reals that the first ham radio club started in 1908 at Colombia University. The original Colombia University radio club was called the Wireless Telegraph Club of Columbia University. This easily found online record that lists the earliest Ham radio club seems quite believable; however, the Ham radio hobby, and radio broadcasting in general, did not become very popular until the 1920s.
By the 1950s and 1960s, the number of Ham radio operators across the world was in the millions, and people from all over the world were able to communicate with one another via this technology. Despite seeing high levels of popularity in the middle years of the 20th century, Ham radio has been a dying hobby for decades. So, why has Ham radio been going gently into that good night for the last few decades? The answer to the previous question seems to hinge on newer and slicker technologies emerging and replacing Ham radio. Despite Ham radio functioning as a chew-toy for people with high IQs and left-brain personalities, this great old hobby has seen better days. The Ham radio phenomenon has seen better days because the internet now serves the same social functions that were previously filled by long-distance Ham radio communications.
Despite suffering from old age, having a thick coating of dust, and being covered in liver spots, the Ham radio technology is now worth re-considering as an alternative to conventional communications through the internet. So, why is the old ham radio technology now worth reevaluating? Vacuum-tube-based ham radio now seems to be worth a second look because this yesteryear-tech has the potential to become a back-up to the world wide web.
What is HAM Radio?
According to the American Radio Relay League’s website, this is what constitutes “Ham Radio.”
Look at the dial on an old AM radio and you’ll see frequencies marked from 535 to 1605 kilohertz. This is one radio “band.” There are other bands of radio spectrum for amateur, government, military and commercial radio uses. If you could hear the many different bands, you would find aircraft, ship, fire and police communication, as well as “shortwave” stations, which are worldwide commercial and government broadcast stations from the U.S. and abroad. Amateurs are allocated 26 bands (i.e., specific groups of frequencies) spaced from 1.8 Megahertz, which is just above the broadcast radio frequencies, all the way up to 275 Gigahertz! Depending on which band we use, we can talk across town, around the world or out to satellites in space. Hams can even bounce signals off the moon!
Why are Amateur Radio Operators also called “Hams”? –
The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who left their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought with them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession. In those early days, every station occupied the whole spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations, ships, coastal stations and the increasingly numerous amateur operators all competed for time and signal supremacy in each other’s receivers. Many of the amateur stations were very powerful. Two amateurs, working each other across town, could effectively jam all the other operations in the area. Frustrated commercial operators would refer to the ham radio interference by calling them “hams.” Amateurs, possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it up and applied it to themselves. As the years advanced, the original meaning has completely disappeared.
The image above shows a typical Ham radio operator his radio equipment as of 2025. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
Why Use Ham Radio?
What might be called “Ham Radio” equipment offers those who possesses these devices the ability to send and receive communications across a wide variety of radio frequencies such as established boat traffic communication channels, airplane traffic communication channels, internal communication channels from law enforcement organizations and internal communication channels from military and governmental organizations of all types. Having “Ham” radio equipment allows for people to communicate with relief workers during natural disasters and this equipment also allows people to coordinate events and efforts with other people on the local, regional, and national level. A list of key radio frequencies can be found on the Survival Sullivan website.
Ham radio is an attractive option to supplement, or perhaps replace, present-day internet communications because, unlike the internet, a Ham-radio communication networks do not rely on any centralized and capital-intensive infrastructure.This is an important point to remember because Ham-radio and vacuum tube electronics in general can potentially offer a technology base that can operate completely outside of any government’s oversight and can operate with a government’s complete disapproval.
If electronics can be manufactured with only local resources and made without any high-capital investments or a complex knowledge base, then this technology is at least worth studying and investigating in today’s world. In marked contrast to the internet, a decentralized, simple, and inexpensive Ham radio network is going to be hard for a totalitarian state to censor, sabotage, or shut down.
A decentralized network of Ham radios also offers long-distance communications that span continents and cross oceans. Given the Ham radio technology’s low cost, long reach, and mad potential for decentralization, it should come as no great shock that plans to ban this equipment have already been quietly set in motion1 by crooked governments around the world.
An example of Ham radio’s long reach can be illustrated by the fact that one of the neighborhood kids who I grew-up with had a dad who was an avid ham radio enthusiast. Thing is, my friend’s dad regularly boasted about his weekly chats with his ham radio buddy who just happened to be a climate scientist that was stationed at the McMurdo research base. For those of you who have not heard of the McMurdo Station, this place is a Zio-American Imperial climate research base that is in the dead center of Antarctica. Ham radios have such amazing reach because this technology has the ability for one Ham radio unit to receive the signal of another radio, then pass the signal on, which in turn functions something like a low-tech international communication system.
“Packet Radio” was a system developed back in the 1970s where Ham radios would transmit “Packets” of binary code that consist of short radio wave bursts which need to be decoded with specialized equipment called “Packet Assembler/Disassemblers” which decode sent and received messages. Packet Radio protocols that were developed back in the 1970s and 1980s basically went on to become today’s internet communication protocols.
It turns out that vacuum tubes will work for sending and receiving Packet Radio communications. Small vacuum tube modems that coded and decoded digital binary signals into audio information and text that humans can understand were used by the United States Air Force in the 1960s which provides a proof of concept that vacuum tubes can power workable Packet Radio modems if needed. Admittedly extra circuits would need to be added to a basic vacuum tube radio for such a device to send and receive Packet Radio transmissions, but such communications are still possible by using vacuum tubes. Vacuum tube radios that can send and receive Packet Radio transmissions would be larger that computer chip based radios of the 2020a, and vacuum-tube-powered radios would use more power, but vacuum tubes would work in such cases.
A vacuum-tube-powered radio systems would be able to handle voice communications, the transmission of documents and video clips, plus they could handle real-time video conferences. In the days of vacuum tube televisions sets, live broadcasting was still done, and these old television broadcasts were done in color, so most basic communications needs can still be fulfilled using vacuum tube technology, such vacuum-tube-based systems would just need to be larger and they would consume more electrical energy than computer-chip-based equipment.
Vacuum-tube-based “Technicolor” televisions sets were available to consumers in the 1950s, and cathode ray based television sets were still being manufactured and sold to the general public as late as 2008, so vacuum tubes can be used to make basic computer monitors, but vacuum-tube-based monitors will not have image quality that is quite as good as those of contemporary Liquid Crystal Display(LCD) monitors. The image seen above shows a RCA Model CT-100 Color Television set from 1954. The image seen above is furnished courtesy of Cindy Hart on pinterest.com
Indeed, there is continuing growth of “Alt-Tech” that typically takes the form of new social media networks whose proprietors are willing to provide political dissidents with uncensored and anonymous platforms where they can voice their opinions. In the realm of Alt-tech, places like BitChute.com, Minds.com and Gab.com seem to serve as places where the principles of free speech and anonymity are being put into action; none the less, despite the promising possibilities offered by the growth of various online Alt-tech platforms, the very real prospect of an ever-less-free internet still lurks in the woods.
Although many people who are now living in America might presently feel that their internet freedoms are reasonably secure, troubling incidents like Russia making moves to ban virtual personal networks back in 20172 still assemble cause for concern. Other troubling incidents relating to the issue of internet freedom of speech include the arrests of 789 people just in the city of London alone over the course of 2015. The 789 British people who were previously mentioned got themselves arrested for the heinous crime making wrong-think posts on Facebook3. Admittedly, 2015 is a while back now, but Freespeechunion.org has noted that in 2023, British law enforcement officials made 12,183 arrests, so nothing has really changed in this regard.
The Zio-American Empire is not totally immune from seeing citizens arrested for social media posts as well; for example, in 2018 a man was arrested in New Hampshire for accusing a local police department of being corrupt. The offending man was arrested by the same local police department that he accused of corruption, so this incident is not overly troubling in its scope because it really reflects a localized and petty spat as opposed to the state arresting a political dissident; none the less, this event does show that no country is totally immune from people being persecuted for exercising their rights to free speech.
Let us also not forget that WordPress.com has pulled websites that ZOG dislikes, and GoDaddy.com has also yanked the domains for White Nationalist websites, so yes, it does make sense for White Nationalist mustache-twisters to begin constructing a decentralized communication network that is based on Ham radios. White Nationalists should take note of Ham radio technology because this lumbering old tech could serve as a back-up to a forthcoming closed-off, heavily censored, and China-inspired version of our beloved internet 4.
Why Use Vacuum Tubes?
Yes, Devon Stack’s video about Ham radio did furnish some rather interesting information, but the most intriguing piece of information that I gleaned by watching his video did not come from the actual video itself, but instead, the most interesting take-away came from the carnival side show of real-time comments that were brought to the public courtesy of Stack’s live-stream listeners. The live-stream comments from Stack’s video about Ham radio that caught my eye above all others came from a few listeners who were discussing their plans to begin making their own in-house vacuum tubes.
The image above shows the basic internal components of a Thermionic Valve or an “Electronic Vacuum Tube.” The image above shows a diode type of vacuum tube. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows the internal parts of a triode type of vacuum tube. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows the most popular type of vacuum tubes that are used today. The “Grid” inside of a Thermionic Valve or electronic Vacuum Tube permits control and variation of the electronic signals that pass between the cathode and anode. Image courtesy of EdgarFX Kits on pinterest.com
Tetrodes are vacuum tubes that incorporate two sets of grids. Tetrodes are used for many applications withing the field of electronics. Radios are one crucial area where tetrodes find their use. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows a Pentode. A pentode is an electronic vacuum tube that incorporates a third grid in the middle of two other grids which moderates the “secondary emissions” which result from electrons striking the first inner grid. This inner third grid is called a “Suppressor Grid.” Pentodes offer the advantage of being more energy efficient and they allow for more powerful signals to be sent with a higher lever of clarity. The image seen above is furnished courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The idea of making vacuum tubes at the community level is worth considering because vacuum-tube-based Ham radios can be easily built, easily serviced, and easily repaired for a very low cost. Having the capability to procure all the needed replacement parts for simple vacuum-tube-based radios by an in-house manner makes the task of shutting-down these devices difficult to say the least.
Despite their drawbacks, vacuum tubes that are made at the local level at the local level offer the advantage of not leaving paper trails for purchases and shipping that a hostile national government might track. Locally produced vacuum tubes offer the advantage having private ownership and production.
Admittedly, vacuum-tube-based electronic switches were a great step forward in the field of computing back in their heyday, but the technology was replaced with transistors, then it was replaced with integrated circuits for good reasons. Early vacuum tube computers from the 1940s and 1950s were large and power-hungry by today’s standards, plus these early computers were rather unreliable by today’s standards. For example, a vacuum tube computer from the 1940’s would use around 18,000 vacuum tubes and occupy several rooms. A computer such as this from the 1940s usually needed one vacuum tube replaced every two days, and these routine tube replacements typically took around 15 minutes. Admittedly, 15 minutes is not a long time; however, identifying and replacing one burned out vacuum tube still represented 15 minutes of downtime.
The image above shows the Colossus Mark I vacuum tube computer that was instrumental in World War II codebreaking. Image courtesy of beaver.my
Despite the prospect of vacuum tubes getting burned out, vacuum-tube-based electronics can be designed and built with redundancies and bypasses so that having one vacuum tube burn out will not cause the entire device to stop working. Vacuum tube computers that are built with redundancies will perhaps lose a bit of operational function for a short interval whenever a vacuum tube burns out, but they will not stop functioning all together.
Thomas Flowers was one of the men who was working to break the Third Reich’s Enigma codes during World War II at Bletchley Park in England, Flowers also developed parallel designs for vacuum tube computing systems while working for the British Postal Service during the 1930s. Flowers devised computer architecture that operated in parallel, and using this design philosophy meant that losing one vacuum tube or one set of vacuum tubes would slow but not stop a computer’s activity.
Having back up processing sections that only operate when an open circuit develops within one part of a vacuum-tube-based electronic device makes such pieces of equipment larger and more expensive to construct, but these backup sections do make such equipment much more robust and reliable when in use. During the 1950’s more reliable vacuum tubes were developed by eliminating silicone and aluminum from any internal parts within these vacuum tubes, and other procedures were enacted to keep vacuum tubes in use for long periods of time such as using stepped voltage when bringing these tubes online.
Getters are strips of electrified metal or coatings of different materials that are placed on the insides of vacuum tubes. Getters scavenge spare gas atoms and molecules that might drift around inside a vacuum tube’s internal pace and negatively affect a tube’s long-term reliability. Most getters are made from compounds of beryllium or zirconium, but these materials are not easy to acquire on the local level. Titanium strips and even nickel strips will work as getters if these parts have some electrical current moving through them. Although nickel is imperfect as a material for making getters, none the less, a large strip of nickel that acts as a dedicated getter greatly extends the life of a locally produced vacuum tube. Getters are not strictly necessary to keep a vacuum tube running, but having a getter does increase the life expectancy of a vacuum tube.
The image above shows a metallic coating type of getter and a metal strip type of getter. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
Preventative maintenance which includes the routine stress testing of vacuum tubes also greatly reduces any system’s downtime. As noted in Wikipedia.org’s section about vacuum tubes, by the late 1950’s well-made and well-maintained vacuum tubes were known to last for hundreds of thousands of hours. These same long-lasting vacuum tubes produced very solid and reliable vacuum computer systems during the early 1960s.
One basic useful trait of vacuum tubes is their ability to amplify electronic signals while maintaining the essence of these signals, and this principle is the basis of radio broadcasting and sound application systems such as those used at live music performances, public speeches, and sporting events. Electrons jumping the gap between parts within the vacuum of each thermionic valve allows for electricity to pass between two points without needing direct physical contact, so this method of electrical transmission permits amplification of electronic signals. The degree that passing streams of electrons move from the giving anode to the receiving cathode can be controlled by installing an electrically charged “Grid” piece which allows for the flow of electrons moving through the vacuum gap to be adjusted or even stopped entirely.
The image above shows the basic function of “Control Grids” within vacuum tubes. The control grid pieces allow for the flow of electrons between the cathode and anode to be throttled or even shut off. Image courtesy of engineering.com
Vacuum tubes also offer the ability to be shut off and turned on quickly without need for mechanical actuation which in turn allows for binary on and off switches to be used very quickly and in mass. Adding a third powered electrode between the emitting and receiving parts of a vacuum tube allows for the current flow through these devices to be throttled and shut down at will from a remote location, which is useful for creating quick on and off switches. Using masses of quick-acting on and off switches running in parallel forms the basis for digital computing as we know it.
Interestingly, some hobbyists have made vacuum tube computers in recent times that are far more efficient, and compact than the original vacuum tube computers from the 1940s and 1950s, and even the 1960s, but these new computers are not really comparable to conventional modern personal computers. Using small vacuum tubes and nuvistors also permits vacuum tube computers and other electronic equipment to use less energy and come in lighter and more compact forms. Nuvistors are very small vacuum tubes that are sealed within vacuum chambers because they are too small to have suction ports on their outer vacuum sealing shells.
The image above shows a Nuvistor. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image seen above shows the inner parts of nuvistors. The image seen above is furnished courtesy of r-type.org
The image above shows the inner parts of a nuvistor. Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
Nuvistors were designed to compete with transistors after transistors first arrived in the common market. Nuvistors initially offered the same small size as transistors along with better resistance to overloading, but nuvistors ultimately became replaced by transistors because transistors were still more energy efficient, plus transistors could become miniaturized to an even greater degree than nuvistors. Transistors eventually gave way to integrated circuits which in turn led to the development of more recent computer chips.
The 1960s saw the introduction of military “Sub Miniature” vacuum tubes that were used in aircraft electronics, portable field radios, and even the likes of guided missiles. If sub-miniature vacuum tubes are well-tested and well made, then they can survive impacts of 20,000 G and they have average working life spans of around 10,000 hours (416 ½ days). The military sub-miniature vacuum tubes of the 1960s were able to function at high altitudes in aircraft, in extreme cold on land and at sea. Sub miniature vacuum tubes also proved their value in searing blast-furnace heat of desert areas, and they functioned well in the sweltering heat and humidity of places like Viet Nam. These same sub-miniature vacuum tubes from the 1960s were in fact downright reliable and rugged despite whatever the haters and critics might say.
The image seen above shows a sub-miniature thermionic valve or “Vacuum Tube.” Image courtesy of EdgarBopp on the r/diytubes forum from reddit.com
Vacuum tubes can also be used to control electric motors, so theoretically remotely controlled drones could operate using nothing small vacuum tubes and nuvistors. Early air-to-air guided missiles such as Sidewinders also used small vacuum tubes, and it turns out that small vacuum tubes and nuvistors can still fulfill the same function in today’s world when it comes to directing basic guided missiles. Despite having basic utility and value, vacuum tubes fell out of favor for building missile guidance systems primarily because they require more storage space and larger batteries than transistors or computer chips. Aircraft that would work well for contemporary applications can easily function by using nothing except vacuum tubes and nuvistors to handle their electronics needs as evidenced by observing military and civilian aircraft from the 1960s.
The Boing 720 jet liner which was a predecessor to Boeing’s very popular 737 jet liner. The 720 airliners first began passenger service in 1959, so this proves that at least adequate jet aircraft can be made while using nothing but vacuum tubes and nuvistors for their electronics. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
Another nice feature offered by vacuum tubes is the fact that if a tube goes bad, then it can be repaired. A burned-out vacuum tube can be removed, its glass shell can be opened, then the bad piece of wire can be replaced, next a new piece of wire can be fixed into the same place where the old section of wire went bad. Finally, the repaired tube can be re-sealed and put back into use. Basically, if a vacuum tube goes bad, then its glass casing can be opened, the internal components can be repaired, and finally, the newly repaired tube can be resealed and put back to work. So, what is the upshot is this rambling? The point to remember: individual vacuum tubes can be cheaply, quickly, and easily repaired in-house.
Another angle to consider when owning a vacuum tube radio is the fact that diagnosing problems with these devices will mostly consist of continuity testing each vacuum tube until the defective one is identified. Troubleshooting a vacuum tube radio may also involve testing a limited number of simple electric circuits for continuity.
Essentially, troubleshooting and repairing a vacuum-tube-based electronic device does not require a whole lot of specialized training, nor does becoming an amateur repairman for a vacuum-tube radio require investing in a wide variety of expensive equipment. Thus, a typical family could easily keep their vacuum tube radio running for decades without needing any professional help while spending pennies on the dollar. The ease and low cost of troubleshooting and repairing vacuum-tube-based electronic products actually makes them viable choices for a wide variety of consumer goods, even when a lot of newer and slicker stuff is readily available. If the circuitry inside of vacuum-tube-based consumer electronics is build with parallel architecture and backup systems, then such devices would not see much downtime.
The above image shows a very rudimentary, yet still usable, vacuum tube radio designed and assembled by an electronics hobbyist in Cleveland, Ohio. Image courtesy of radioboatanchor.com
Vacuum tube electronics also require a warmup time for the anode to get hot enough to start emitting electrons in sufficient numbers; however, vacuum tube electronics last longer and begin working more quickly when they always have a certain baseline of electric current run through them.
No doubt, there is room for improvements and new innovations in the field of vacuum tube-based electronics, but more work and focus are needed in this field.
Vacuum Tube Radio Broadcasting
The early vacuum tube computers from the 1950s were a big improvement over mechanical computers, but these massive vacuum-tube-powered calculating machines had slightly better computational abilities than today’s digital calculators. Vacuum-tube-based computing may not be the way to go if other options are available; however, vacuum tubes will work for making basic electronic devices such as Ham radios, workable radar systems, functional radio broadcasting stations, simple television screens and computer monitors. Vacuum tubes will also work for creating decent stereo systems. The main advantage of vacuum tubes is their ability to operate outside of the mainstream industrial complex. For whatever it is worth, vacuum tubes are much more resistant to being shut down by electromagnetic pulses than solid-state electronics.
The image above shows the vintage vacuum tube radio system on the ocean liner named Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is a now a museum and hotel that permanently sits at a pier in Long Beach, California. The vintage radio on the Queen Mary is still usable and is still maintained by vacuum tube hobbyists. Within the Ham radio community there is a subset of hobbyists who love to build, restore, and operate vacuum tube radios, this hobby is called “Vintage Radio.” The vintage radio community already provides a great well of knowledge about how to build, design, operate, and repair vacuum tube radio systems. The image seen above is furnished courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image seen above shows a vintage vacuum tube Ham radio from the 1930s. Image courtesy of vrcmct.org
Besides just broadcasting with Ham radio frequencies, vacuum tubes offer the possibility of sending out radio waves in the AM Radio frequencies, FM radio frequency band, and the Short-Wave radio frequency range. Short Wave radio frequencies have amazing reach for their power consumption, so it comes as no surprise that our current Jewish power structure is very leery about who gets access to this technology. As of now, one company in North America called Continental Electronics makes powerful short-wave broadcasting units, but this company is watched like a hawk and is tightly regulated by Jews for fear that National Socialists will get their message out the masses by this route. A Swiss company named Ampegon also makes shortwave broadcasting equipment, but once again, international Jewry is very paranoid that the “Wrong People” will use this technology to spread un-Kosher ideas.
As a side note, there has been an established history of pirate radio ships broadcasting dissident political messages and music from international waters which dates back to Radio Veronica in 1960 which broadcast to The Netherlands from an offshore radio ship. Some radio station ships preceded Radio Veronica, but Radio Veronica is credited as the first unlicensed outlaw pirate radio operation that was broadcasting from a ship sitting out in international waters.
The laws concerning broadcasting dissident political content from boats that are sitting offshore in international waters do still seem a bit fuzzy due to a broadcasting ship sailing under the laws of the nation which registers and flags the ship such as Panama or Vanuatu, but it seems likely that any ship that broadcasts National Socialist media radio content will run afoul of the Jewish power structure at some point. The internet may very well be the best medium for spreading the word about National Socialism in the 2020s, but perhaps the idea of broadcasting in Shortwave and AM radio frequencies from offshore or from indifferent nations such as Guiana is still worth a second look at this time.
The image above shows the MV Ross Revenge which was the last pirate radio ship in operation off the coast of Britania. The MV Ross Revenge made its final pirate broadcast in November of 1990.
Making Artisan Light Bulbs
An added bonus that comes with the ability to make vacuum tubes in modest workshops is having the tooling to manufacture artisan “Edison” lightbulbs. Basic Edison light bulbs can easily be created by using the same equipment that is used to make vacuum tubes. Many of the same components that go into vacuum tubes also go into light bulbs. So, think of having local access to inexpensive and easily repaired lightbulbs as a perk that would arise along with the process of establishing a cottage industry of artisan vacuum tube manufacturing.
Interestingly, there is already a thriving market for artisan lightbulbs on places like Etsy.com It seems that many people have recently come to love the aesthetics of old Edison lightbulbs, and taking advantage of their softer lighting is now an established method of choice for creating intimate and cozy atmospheres in homes and public spaces.
A 2017 article featured on pacificstandard.com lamented the fact that the number of Edison lightbulbs which can be counted while walking the sidewalk of a city block is now a solid numerical indicator of just how far the disease of gentrification and the creep of Whiteness has advanced within a given urban enclave. Fortunately, making in-house lightbulbs is a whole lot faster and easier than making vacuum tubes. The option to purchase cheap vacuum tubes along with cheap locally made artisan light bulbs that are made by folks who consume distilled spirits of questionable quality and dubious origin is also a possibility in the future as an artisan electronics industry takes root. We can eventually listen to our favorite old tunes as they are belted-out by the likes of Steve Earl and the Kentucky Headhunters on vacuum-tube-powered home stereos.
The filaments in Edison-style lightbulbs can easily be made from small cuttings of bamboo stalks that have been cooked in well-sealed and airtight containers included being heated in wood-fired pottery kilns5. Once made, a typical bamboo-filamented Edison light bulb offers its users around 1200 hours of illumination6.
The image above shows an artisan Edison lightbulb with a glass casing made by traditional glassblowing techniques. Photo courtesy of johanfrancoise.blogspot.com
Old glass bottles of all types, and even old canning jars, can easily be repurposed as lightbulbs; provided that a proper vacuum can be established. Image courtesy of makezine.com
The image at left features a light bulb made back in 2011. The lightbulb seen in the photo at left was made from a finished bottle of Bacardi rum. Image courtesy of permies.com
True, making titanium and tungsten wire for light bulbs at the homestead level does not seem very plausible; none the less, having large stockpiles of the needed components for making backwoods vacuum tubes could permit bespoke heirloom electronics to be constructed and maintained on the community level for centuries if needed.
Components like titanium wire and tungsten wire are very cheap and easy to obtain; Amazon.com and Alibaba.com both sell spools of tungsten and titanium wire fit for making vacuum tubes. Spools of tungsten wire that would work well for making light bulbs and thermionic valves are legal to purchase and cost about 140 USD for 25 feet of wire in 2025. Like mercury, tungsten wire that is suitable for making electronics on the local level does not rot or spoil, so large stockpiles of this material can be stored for decades if needed.
The image above shows a 25-foot spool of fine pure tungsten wire that is suitable for making vacuum tube electronics and light bulbs. The image above is furnished courtesy of midwesttungstenservice.com
Examples of vacuum tubes lasting for decades are not terribly unusual, and these stories of long-lived and Methuselah-like vacuum tubes often relate to old guitar amplifiers that were built in the 1960s which have remained in use up to the present day. Other testaments to the longevity of vacuum tubes can be found in tales of antediluvian British radio stations that used the same funky old equipment from the 1930’s through the early 1990s. The life of a vacuum tube in the old British long-wave radio station called Radio 4 was around 10 years, so the same supply of the same old vacuum tubes was forced to last the entire length of long-wave radio’s 60-year run of use7. However, despite some vacuum tubes living long vacuum tube lives, a typical vacuum tube will have a service life between 5,000 and 10,000 hours, which adds-up to just over one year of continual use8.
Making Vacuum Tubes
After watching about half of Devon Stack’s YouTube video, I then went about searching online for information about how to make vacuum tubes in a home workshop. After a brief bit of searching, I discovered that there are quite a few videos posted on YouTube that provide information about how to make your own vacuum tubes. Examples of YouTube channels that feature how-to videos for making artisan vacuum tubes include the FilmsJp channel that features vacuum-tube-making videos which are furnished courtesy of the Frenchman named Claude Paillard, and the Signal Ditch YouTube channel. The YouTube channel called Computer Hardware Repairing also features a pretty decent video about how to make your own vacuum tubes. The jdflyback YouTube channel also posted a good video that instructs people in ways to make basic vacuum electronics parts at home on a shoestring budget. Lastly, Reddit.com operates its own forum for hobbyist looking to make their own vacuum tubes. Reddit.com’s forum for vacuum tube makers is called r/diytubes.
In addition to discovering a rich supply of online how-to videos for making vacuum tubes, I also learned that many electronics posting forums like elecronicspoint.com, and tubecrafter.com provide a lot of relevant information for those who are seeking to construct their own vacuum tubes for the first time. Lastly, many different books about vacuum tubes and how to make your own vacuum tubes are available from various online book sellers. Examples of books about vacuum tubes and how to make them yourself are sold on Amazon.com. These titles include Inside the Vacuum Tube by John F. Rider and Getting the Most Out of Vacuum Tubes by Robert Tomer.
Manufacturing vacuum tubes can be thought of as a valuable cottage industry for the 21st century because the organic development of a down-home cottage industry that is made up of artisan vacuum tube manufacturers would allow people who are living in rural areas to produce their own reliable and inexpensive consumer items. Some of the consumer items that can be made from vacuum tubes include stereos, AM/FM radios, shortwave radios, adding machines, and yes, even very basic television sets and computer monitors can be made from vacuum tubes.
Author’s Note:
A YouTube video that I watched several months ago was posted on a channel I cannot remember nor relocate. This lost vidoe featured a Czech university student who built a simple and robust television set and computer monitor out of old military-surplus Russian-made vacuum tubes from the Soviet era. The total cost for this Czech science project was less than 20 USD.
Fortunately, it turns out that vacuum tubes can be made in a home workshop without putting-in too much time or labor, and the set-up cost to get a small vacuum tube factory up-and-running is surprisingly modest. The only materials needed to make the vacuum tubes themselves are glass or ceramic shells, metal wires of various diameters, and metal sheeting. Keeping a supply of isopropyl alcohol and acetone to clean and prepare the components of future vacuum tubes helps as well. Having mica sheeting is also nice, but not absolutely necessary9.
Admittedly, tungsten wire is the material of choice for making anodes inside of thermionic valve types of vacuum tube electronics, and tungsten wire with a bit of thorium added seems to work best, but workable and cheap vacuum tubes can be made by using nothing but nickel for the internal components. Nickel cathodes wear of faster than cathodes that are made from a mixture of tungsten and thorium; however, nickel-alloy vacuum tube cathodes will last for a decent amount of time and their replacement cost is comparatively low. Cathodes are the parts inside of vacuum tubes that get hot and emit electrons, so these are the parts that are the most prone to wearing out over time. Graphite can also work well enough for making internal components inside of high-wattage vacuum tubes. Graphite is most often used to make control grids inside of triodes.
Some of the manufacturing equipment that is needed to turn glass and metal into vacuum tubes includes a torch for shaping the glass outer shells. A pump that can produce a sufficient vacuum within a glass tube is also handy to have along with a set of tin snips, a hammer, an anvil, and a spot-welding machine. Having electronic solder is also handy, but not absolutely necessary for the production of in-house farmer’s-market-style vacuum tubes.
How to Make the Shells for Vacuum Tubes on the Local Level
It is also worth noting that the outer shells of electronic vacuum tubes can also be made from glazed ceramic instead of glass. Ceramic shelled vacuum tubes also tend to be more durable and more tolerant of heat. Ceramic vacuum tube electronic components are still manufactured and used in medical diagnostic equipment. These types of ceramic-shelled thermionic valves are designed to operate with high voltages and at high hertz rates, so these devices typically come with metal cooling fins around their ceramic cores to reduce the operational heat.
The image above shows a ceramic-shelled high voltage and high-frequency vacuum tube that is typically used in diagnostic equipment. Image courtesy of zemat.com
The image above shows a vacuum tube with a glazed ceramic outer shell. Ceramic shells for vacuum tubes are less prone to breaking and better able to handle high levels of heat and cold. The downside to ceramic-shelled vacuum tubes is that they do not look as cool, especially in low-light conditions. The image seen above is furnished courtesy of the Radio Electric Supply store on ebay.com
Glazed ceramic vacuum tubes can easily be manufactured on the local level with basic wood-fired pottery kilns and locally made glazes. Clay can be found locally in most places, so sourcing this material is not difficult. Glazed porcelain clay is well suited for making the outer shells of vacuum tubes, and locally made wood burning kilns can easily achieve lasting operational temperatures of around 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit, but hillside “Step Kilns” or “Dragon Kilns” can achieve operating temperatures of around 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The image above shows a large wood-fired pottery kiln. Image courtesy of robskiln.com
Small porcelain pieces show a possible model for making ceramic vacuum tubes at the local level. Various metals and glass can be used to create the needed vacuum seals that are needed for making vacuum tubes from glazed ceramic pieces. Image courtesy of the abDesignCeramics store on etsy.com
Traditional glass blowing techniques will work for making vacuum tubes at the local level because glass-blowing kilns can be fired by wood and biogas. Not every locale around North America has deposits of high-silica sand that are suitable for making glass, so making anything from glass on a purely local level can be a real challenge for some people. Glass has traditionally been the go-to material for making the outer shells of vacuum-tube electronics because glass holds a hard vacuum for much longer than other materials such as metals or ceramic compounds, but glazed ceramics will still work for this purpose.
Coal typically burns hotter than wood and this higher level of heat produces cleaner and more pure glass that is also more resilient, but charcoal-fried retort kiln operate at temperatures of around 2750 Fahrenheit, which is around the temperature that modern industrial glass is heated for purification. Charcoal can also reach temperatures of 3200 Fahrenheit if this material is burned in a good blast furnace.
The image above provides a rough and incomplete map of where North America’s major high-silica sand deposits are located. Image courtesy of coviacorp.com
The image above shows a traditional wood-fired glass blowing furnace. Image courtesy of blog.cmog.org
Production molds allow for traditional glassblowers to achieve a decent level of uniformity for their works, so the art of traditional glassblowing can produce fairly decent and consistent vacuum tube shells. If more consistency and precision is needed for producing the outer casings of vacuum tubes on the local level, then the cooled glass shells can be turned on lathes for tighter tolerances. Image courtesy of vectomecc.it
Achieving the Needed Vacuums
A few forum posts have discussed how vacuum tubes of decent quality can be made with affordable vacuum pumps that are manufactured in China. One microTorr is one millionth the atmosphere at sea level, and vacuumtubes.net lists the needed vacuum to be around 1 microTorr for a vacuum tube to work properly. One Torr is defined as being pressure that is equivalent to 1/760 of the Earth’s atmosphere at sea level. In this case the Pa measurement refers to standard pressure units of Pascals, so a hard vacuum is one millionth of a Pascal. Most common electronics operate with ah Hard Vacuumwhich is measured as being <0.1 Pa to 1×10−6 Pa. However, if a large and well-electrified getters are included within the designs and manufacturing processes of vacuum tubes, then good and long-lasting vacuum tube electronics can work well with vacuums of only 1×10−4 Pa.
However, the emptier the vacuum is inside of a vacuum tube electronic device, the longer the component will last, and the better it will function. Luckily, vacuum tubes can still work effectively with levels of vacuum that are obtainable by amateurs who are using basic equipment.
Vacuum pumps that are capable of producing the Ultra High Vacuum lack of pressure that is recommended for making proper vacuum tube electronics can be purchased online for prices that vary between around 3,000 USD to as much as 10,000 USD. Some of these pumps from differing manufacturers are targeted at scientific research applications and others are targeted at electronics manufacturing. Some pumps work on the “Turbomolecular” platform that uses mechanisms which are similar to those of jet engines to evacuate gas through a set of moving turbines and fixed stators.
The image above shows the inner workings of a turbomolecular vacuum pump. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows an industrial turbomolecular vacuum pump that is capable of producing 10x 10-8 pascals of vacuum, which is more than enough for making good vacuum tube electronics. The unit seen above is made by the Beijing Super Q Technology company and is for sale on Alibaba.com for around 5,500 USD with shipping included. Image courtesy of Alibaba.com
Other Ultra High Vacuum pump units work by using a combination of a rotary vane vacuum pump that works in combination with a diffusion pump. A diffuser pump works best when there is as much vacuum as possible before the pump begins working, and this pre-set working vacuum is achieved by using a simple rotary vane pump. Diffuser pumps work by spraying a jet of heated mercury or heated jets of specialized heavy petroleum-based oil though an opening in the vacuum chamber which in turn pulls any spare gas molecules out of the intended space. The diffusion pump is just a more updated version of the old Sprengel Pump. Diffusion pumps vary in price from a few hundred USD up to millions of USD. The size of diffusion pumps varies from small table-top models to huge industrial pieces that are used in mass manufacturing of different types of electronic products.
Sprengel Pumps are worth mentioning somewhere because they are very simple devices that do not require any electricity or moving parts to fulfill their needed function. Sprengel pumps can also achieve vacuums of 10 to the power of (-11) Pascals, so these simple devices will work for producing good electronic devices.
Like the outer shells of vacuum tubes themselves, Sprengel pumps can also be made at the local level using old traditional glass-blowing methods, and mercury can be purchased on the open market for as little as 135 USD per kilogram. Mercury can be manually poured into the top feeder tanks in Sprengel pumps by using simple cups and containers, so no expensive equipment is needed to make vacuum tubes or light bulbs when a good Sprengel pump is available. Mercury also does not rot, so this material can be used to make electronic components over and over again for years. It is also legal to purchase mercury at this time.
The image above shows the basic working principle of Sprengel pumps. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows the basic working principles of a rotary vane pump. Image courtesy of Michael-smith-engineers.co.uk
The image above shows a simple rotary vane vacuum pump that is sold on Amazon.com. The image above is furnished courtesy of GYZL Store on amazon.com
The image above shows the basic working principles of a Diffusion Pump. The image above is furnished courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image above shows the internal components of an oil-based diffusion pump. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
The image seen above shows an Indian-made oil diffusion pump that sells for 20,000 Indian Rupees, which is about 235 US dollars in 2025. Image courtesy of indiamart.com
Sorry folks, pumps like the one pictured above will not suffice for making vacuum tubes or lightbulbs. Image courtesy of dailydot.com
Unfortunately, the cynic in me is now urging people to begin stockpiling the components needed to manufacture vacuum tubes that cannot be easily produced at the community level. For those interested in fighting the powers that be, I recommend stockpiling items like tungsten wire that is suitable for manufacturing vacuum tubes. Interestingly, the tungsten wire that is best suited for making vacuum tubes contains minute traces of thorium inside of its alloy. Let us also not forget to stockpile titanium stripping and tungsten stripping along with vacuum pumps that are suitable for producing electronic components. Presently, I believe that as many people as possible should stockpile the largest amounts of certain basic electronics manufacturing materials and equipment as they can because I think that ZOG will soon begin looking for ways to restrict access to these items.
Notes
1. Dick Norton, “Report Causes Concern and Confusion in California’s Amateur Radio Ranks,” October, 25, 2019
http://www.arrl.org/news/report-causes-concern-and-confusion-in-california-s-amateur-radio-ranks
2. Timothy B. Lee, “GoDaddy has shut-down Richard Spencer’s white supremacist site,” May 7, 2018,
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/godaddy-has-shut-down-richard-spencers-white-supremacist-site/
3. David Meyer, “VPN providers pull Russian servers as Putin’s ban threatens to bite,” March 29, 2019,
https://www.zdnet.com/article/vpn-providers-pull-russian-servers-as-putins-ban-threatens-to-bite/
4. Sadie Levy Gale, “Arrests for offensive Facebook and Twitter posts soar in London,” July 4, 2016,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arrests-for-offensive-facebook-and-twitter-posts-soar-in-london-a7064246.html
5. Elizabeth Palermo, “Who Invented the Light Bulb?” August 17, 2017,
https://www.livescience.com/43424-who-invented-the-light-bulb.html
6.”Incandescent Lamps: The most profound invention since man-made fire” January 22, 2012,
https://edisontechcenter.org/incandescent.html
7. Dan Sabbagh, “Radio 4’s Long Wave Goodbye,” October 9, 2011,
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye
8. Post #2 of 44, “How long is the lifespan of tube amp,” April 4, 2003,
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/how-long-is-the-life-span-of-tube-amp.138377/
9. Dan Moloney, “Home Brew Vacuum Tubes are Easier than You Think,” May 4, 2016, https://hackaday.com/2016/05/04/home-brew-vacuum-tubes-are-easier-than-you-think/
