Vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...

s produced in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and in present-day Russia carry their own unique designations. Some confusion has been created in "translating" these designations, as they use

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

rather than Latin characters.

1929 system

The first system was introduced in 1929. It consisted of one or two letters and a number with up to 3 digits denoting the production number First letter: System type: *B (Russian: Б) – Power oscillator tube or barretter *V (Russian: В) – Rectifier *G (Russian: Г) – Transmitting tube ("генераторная" "generator") * J (Russian: Ж) – Low-power oscillator tube *M (Russian: M) – Modulator *N (Russian: Н) – AF amplifier *P (Russian: П) – Receiver tube *S (Russian: С) – Special tube, such as a tetrode, a pentode or a CRT *T (Russian: Т) –

Carrier frequency In telecommunications, a carrier wave, carrier signal, or just carrier, is a waveform (usually sinusoidal) that is modulated (modified) with an information-bearing signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave usually has a ...

tube *U (Russian: У) – Amplifier tube Second letter (optional): Type of cathode: *B (Russian: Б) –

Barium Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Th ...

-coated *K (Russian: К) – Carburized *O (Russian: О) – Oxide-coated *T (Russian: Т) – Thoriated * C (Russian: Ц) –

Caesium Caesium (IUPAC spelling) (or cesium in American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that a ...

-coated Examples: *VO-116, VO-188, VO-202 (Russian: ВО-116, ВО-188, ВО-202) Full-wave rectifiers with an oxide-coated cathode *SO-118 (Triode), SO-122 (Power pentode), SO-124 (Tetrode) (Russian: СО-118, СО-122, СО-124) 4-volts indirectly heated tube set for premium radios *SO-148 (Russian: CO-148) Variable-mu tetrode with an oxide-coated cathode *SO-242 (Russian: СО-242) Heptode with an oxide-coated cathode *UB-110 (Russian: УБ-110) Triode with a barium-coated cathode In 1937, the Soviet Union purchased a tube assembly line from

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, including production licenses and initial staff training, and installed it on the Svetlana/Светлана plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. US-licensed tubes were produced since then under an adapted RETMA scheme; for example, the 6F6 thus became the 6Ф6.

Receiver tubes

In the 1950s a 5-element system (

GOST GOST (russian: ГОСТ) refers to a set of international technical standards maintained by the ''Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC)'', a regional standards organization operating under the auspices of t ...

5461-59, later 13393-76) was adopted in the (then)

for designating receiver

vacuum tubes A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as a ...

. tp://pti.kpi.ua/pub/electric/http/Oldradio/maillist/045.html ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЯ ЛАМПОВОЙ РАДИОАППАРАТУРЫ (Encyclopedia of tubes for radio equipment)/ref> The 1st element (from left to right) is (for receiving tubes) a number specifying filament voltage in volts (rounded to the nearest whole number). The 2nd element is a

character specifying the type of device: *D (Russian: Д) – Diode, including damper diodes. *H (Russian: Х) – Double diode. *C (Russian: Ц) – Low-power rectifier (

kenotron A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an inver ...

). *S (Russian: С) –

Triode A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube (or ''valve'' in British English) consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's ...

. *N (Russian: Н) – Double triode. *E (Russian: Э) –

Tetrode A tetrode is a vacuum tube (called ''valve'' in British English) having four active electrodes. The four electrodes in order from the centre are: a thermionic cathode, first and second grids and a plate (called ''anode'' in British English). ...

. *P (Russian: П) – Output

pentode A pentode is an electronic device having five electrodes. The term most commonly applies to a three-grid amplifying vacuum tube or thermionic valve that was invented by Gilles Holst and Bernhard D.H. Tellegen in 1926. The pentode (called a ''trip ...

beam tetrode A beam tetrode, sometimes called a beam power tube, is a type of vacuum tube or thermionic valve that has two grids and forms the electron stream from the cathode into multiple partially collimated beams to produce a low potential space cha ...

. *J (Russian: Ж) – Sharp-cutoff

(also transliterated zh, sh or j). *K (Russian: К) – Variable-mu / remote-cutoff

. *R (Russian: Р) – Double

or double

tetrode A tetrode is a vacuum tube (called ''valve'' in British English) having four active electrodes. The four electrodes in order from the centre are: a thermionic cathode, first and second grids and a plate (called ''anode'' in British English). ...

. *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 The pentagrid converter is a type of radio receiving valve (vacuum tube) with five grids used as the frequency mixer stage of a superheterodyne radio receiver. The pentagrid was part of a line of development of valves that were able to take an ...

. *V (Russian: В) – Vacuum tube with secondary emission. *L (Russian: Л) –

Nonode A nonode is a type of thermionic valve that has nine active electrodes. The term most commonly applies to a seven-grid vacuum tube, also sometimes called an enneode. An example was thEQ80UQ80, which was used as an FM quadrature detector. It wa ...

. *Ye (Russian: Е) – Magic eye tube (e.g. used as a tuning indicator). *U (Russian: У) – Power triode (was soon deprecated). The 3rd element is a number – a series designator that differentiates between different devices of the same type. The 4th element denotes vacuum tube construction (base, envelope): *P (Russian: П) – Small 9-pin or 7-pin glass envelope (22.5 or 19 mm in diameter). *R (Russian: Р) – Subminiature glass envelope with a diameter up to 5 mm *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. *G (Russian: Г) – Glass envelope (greater than 10.2 mm in diameter) *S (Russian: С) – Glass envelope (greater than 22.5 mm in diameter), typically with an octal base. *N (Russian: Н) –

Nuvistor The nuvistor is a type of vacuum tube announced by RCA in 1959. Nuvistors were made to compete with the then-new bipolar junction transistors, and were much smaller than conventional tubes of the day, almost approaching the compactness of e ...

. *K (Russian: К) – Metal-ceramic envelope. *D (Russian: Д) – Glass-metal envelope with disc connections (for UHF operation). *J (Russian: Ж) – ''

Acorn tube The 955 is typical of the acorn designs, named for the glass cap holding the terminals with the main part of the tube extending from it. An acorn tube, or acorn valve, refers to any member of a family of VHF/ UHF vacuum tubes starting just befor ...

'' For all-metal tubes the 4th element is omitted. The 5th element is optional. It consists of a dash ("-") followed by a single character or a combination of characters and denotes special characteristics (if any) of the tube: *V (Russian: В) – Increased reliability and mechanical ruggedness (such as low susceptibility to noise and microphonics). *R (Russian: Р) – Even better than V. *Ye (Russian: Е) – Extended service life. *D (Russian: Д) – Exceptionally long service life. *I (Russian: И) – Optimised for "pulsed" (i.e. switching) mode of operation. *K (Russian: К) – Vibration-resistant For instance, -YeV (Russian: -ЕВ) added after 6N2P (i.e. 6Н2П-ЕВ) signifies that this variant of the 6N2P has extended service life and low noise and microphonics. More often than not this means actual differences in internal construction of the tube compared to the "basic" type, but sometimes designators like -V and -I simply mean that the tube was specially selected for those characteristics from the regular-quality production at the factory. The new designation convention was applied retrospectively to many of the previously produced types, as well as to those produced afterwards. For example, a Soviet-produced copy of the

6L6 6L6 is the designator for a beam power tube introduced by Radio Corporation of America in April 1936 and marketed for application as a power amplifier for audio frequencies.J. F. Dreyer Jr."The Beam Power Output Tube" New York: McGraw-Hill, ''Ele ...

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). The 6V6 tube became 6P6S (Russian: 6П6С). However, many specialised Russian tubes, such as special military or transmitter tubes, do not follow the above convention. Some of the better-known Russian equivalents of West European and American tubes are the 6P14P (Russian: 6П14П), an EL84; 6N8S (Russian: 6Н8С), a

6SN7 6SN7 is a dual triode vacuum tube with an eight-pin octal base. It provides a medium gain (20 dB). The 6SN7 is basically two 6J5 triodes in one envelope. History Originally released in 1939 it was officially registered in 1941 by RCA and Syl ...

; and 6P3S-E (Russian: 6П3С-Е), a version of the

Professional tubes

There is another designation system for professional tubes such as transmitter ones. A number before a cathode-ray tube designation gives the screen diagonal or diameter in centimeters (rounded to the nearest whole number) The 1st element: Function *V (Russian: В) – High-power rectifier *VI (Russian: ВИ) – Pulse power rectifier *F (Russian: Ф) –

Phototube A phototube or photoelectric cell is a type of gas-filled or vacuum tube that is sensitive to light. Such a tube is more correctly called a 'photoemissive cell' to distinguish it from photovoltaic or photoconductive cells. Phototubes were previ ...

*FEU (Russian: ФЭУ) –

Photomultiplier A photomultiplier is a device that converts incident photons into an electrical signal. Kinds of photomultiplier include: * Photomultiplier tube, a vacuum tube converting incident photons into an electric signal. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs for sh ...

*G (Russian Г, "Generator" (transmitting tube), two-lettered with some notable exceptions such as the Г-807). :*GD (Russian: ГД) –

Longwave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...

tube :*GK (Russian: ГК) –

Shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

tube (≤25 MHz) :*GU (Russian: ГУ) –

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

tube (25-600 MHz) :*GS (Russian: ГС) – UHF tube (>600 MHz) :*GM (Russian: ГМ) – Modulator tube :*GI (Russian: ГИ) – Impulse tube :*GMI (Russian: ГМИ) – Pulse modulator tube :*GP (Russian: ГП) – Power tube for use in series-pass voltage regulators :*GPI (Russian: ГПИ) – Pulse power tube :*GG (Russian: ГГ) – Gas-discharge rectifier :*GR (Russian: ГР) – Mercury-vapor rectifier *I (Russian: И) – Ignitron *K, KU, KIU (Russian: К, КУ, КИУ) –

Klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequen ...

*LK (Russian: ЛК) – CRT for TV with magnetic deflection *LM (Russian: ЛМ) – CRT for Radar with magnetic deflection *LN (Russian: ЛН) – Storage CRT *LO (Russian: ЛО) – CRT for oscilloscopes with

electrostatic deflection Electrostatic deflection refers to a way for modifying the path of a beam of charged particles by the use of an electric field applied transverse to the path of the particles. The technique is called electro''static'' because the strength and di ...

*LP (Russian: ЛП) –

Trochotron A Nixie tube ( ), or cold cathode display, is an electronic device used for displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge. The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like numerals or other symbol ...

*MI (Russian: МИ) –

Magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and currently in microwave ovens and linear particle accelerators. It generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field while ...

*MU, MIU (Russian: МУ, МИУ) –

Crossed-field amplifier A crossed-field amplifier (CFA) is a specialized vacuum tube, first introduced in the mid-1950s and frequently used as a microwave amplifier in very-high-power transmitters. Raytheon engineer William C. Brown's work to adapt magnetron principle ...

*OV, OVS (Russian: ОВ, ОВС) – Backward-wave amplifier *SBM, SBT, SI (Russian: СБМ, СБТ, СИ) – Geiger-Müller counter tube *SG (Russian: СГ) –

Voltage reference A voltage reference is an electronic device that ideally produces a fixed (constant) voltage irrespective of the loading on the device, power supply variations, temperature changes, and the passage of time. Voltage references are used in power sup ...

*ST (Russian: СТ ) – Baretter *TG, TGI, TX, MTX (Russian: ТГ, ТГИ, ТХ, МТХ) – Gas-filled

thyratron A thyratron is a type of gas-filled tube used as a high-power electrical switch and controlled rectifier. Thyratrons can handle much greater currents than similar hard-vacuum tubes. Electron multiplication occurs when the gas becomes ionized, p ...

*TR (Russian: ТР) – Mercury-vapor thyratron *UV, UVI (Russian: УВ, УВИ) – Forward-wave amplifier *EM (Russian: ЭМ) –

Electrometer An electrometer is an electrical instrument for measuring electric charge or electrical potential difference. There are many different types, ranging from historical handmade mechanical instruments to high-precision electronic devices. Modern ...

tube The next elements are: *Ignitrons, Rectifier tubes, Thyratrons: ::A digit ::A dash ("-") ::Anode current in A ::A slash ("/") ::Anode voltage in kV ::A letter specifying the cooling method: ::* – Radiation ::*A (Russian А) – Water *Transmitting tubes: ::A dash ("-") ::A sequentially assigned number ::A letter specifying the cooling method: ::* – Radiation ::*A (Russian А) – Water ::*B (Russian Б) – Air ::*P (Russian П) – Vapor *Phototubes and Photomultipliers: ::A dash ("-") ::A sequentially assigned number ::One or two letters: ::*V (Russian В) – Vacuum ::*G (Russian Г) – Gas-filled ::*S (Russian С) – Caesium-activated

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...

cathode ::*C (Russian Ц) – Caesium cathode Popular transmitter tubes include the ГУ-29, ГУ-50, ГМ-70 and Г-807 (the Russian 807 analogue).

References

External links

Explanation of tube designation systems
(in English)
Russian receiver tube designation system
(in Russian) {{Thermionic valves Vacuum tubes Electronics lists Tube designations

1929 system

Receiver tubes

Professional tubes

See also

References

External links