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What happened to ECONCO and it's staff?

C

ChiefEngineer

Anyone know what took place at ECONCO that has changed their service level or knowledge of tubes?

I have been speaking with Sales about a rebuild. The tube is a 3cx3000A7. Because this is a CCA transmitter the socket size and tube size are of concern.

I requested a tube a month ago and have spoken with staff noting the need for a specific size tube. CCA utilized a 3cx300a7 that is slightly smaller. Not all of the 3cx3000a7 tubes fit this transmitter. After several calls from the sales rep (wanting to sell me a tube I thought) I was told there was a replacement available and I would get a callback. I was to receive a callback. This has been over two weeks. I have left messages for sales but haven't heard a word.

Having had this problem before I am concerned I have requested a tube, NEED a tube, and haven't received any support. I NEED A REPLACEMENT TUBE.

Not only am I concerned that I seem to be speaking to people who know nothing about tubes.("no, all tubes with that part number are the same size")..what about the entire tube staff??? If this is something our records show shoudn't this be easy to confirm?

I have an old pull in the transmitter now and it is at low emission, but more than the former tube. I have been an Econco customer for years, what has happened?

Normally if i told someone I needed a tube I would hear (from them) every day or two until it was in hand. Any other suppliers out there? Guess my putting the eggs in a single basket hasn't worked out. I used to think this was customer loyalty.
 
Call the fine folks in Covington, La. Freeland Products Company. Even though Harry Jr passed a whiole back, they're still building tubes. They have stock and meet deadlines. I wrote Econco off a year ago - Calavari is either gone or not available, the person to whom I was trying to speak had English as a second or third language, and we were unable to communitcate. I took my custom elsewhere.

I'm given to believe that several of Econco's key people in the rebuld shop have started their own rebuilding business. Someone listed it on this board a while back. perhaps they can re - list it?
 
Calavari is the one who was able to fix problems and resolved our issues with this tube model as having two sizes.

The customer support is gone and it has been over a year since I ordered a tube. Apparently a lot happens in a short period of time?

Thanks for the advice on Freeland.
 
littlejohn said:
Call the fine folks in Covington, La. Freeland Products Company. Even though Harry Jr passed a whiole back, they're still building tubes. They have stock and meet deadlines.
Click to expand...

I second the motion for Freeland. I have pretty much used them exclusively over the past 10 years for everything from 3CX5000A to klystrons I have used in UHF transmitters.
 
I've started talking to a place in California called Zonum. I can get that tube for $545 from them. Anyone heard of them before? This is the place that Energy-Onix recommended instead of Econco.
 
You are the first person to mention this problem with the 3CX3000A7. I used to have fits trying to get the correct tube for my CCA 3000. The wrong size tube would not fit inside the filament collet correctly.
I never found anyone who knew why, or if there was a difference in the spec.
 
taylorengineer said:
You are the first person to mention this problem with the 3CX3000A7. I used to have fits trying to get the correct tube for my CCA 3000. The wrong size tube would not fit inside the filament collet correctly.
I never found anyone who knew why, or if there was a difference in the spec.
Click to expand...

I have been told by Freeland that this is can also be a product of the tube not being rebuilt round. like a cheap ring on your finger. In our case we discovered this and after a second tube from E measured a working tube and compared it to a new tube and discovered a difference.
 
ChiefEngineer said:
Anyone know what took place at ECONCO that has changed their service level or knowledge of tubes?

I have been speaking with Sales about a rebuild. The tube is a 3cx3000A7. Because this is a CCA transmitter the socket size and tube size are of concern.

I requested a tube a month ago and have spoken with staff noting the need for a specific size tube. CCA utilized a 3cx300a7 that is slightly smaller. Not all of the 3cx3000a7 tubes fit this transmitter. After several calls from the sales rep (wanting to sell me a tube I thought) I was told there was a replacement available and I would get a callback. I was to receive a callback. This has been over two weeks. I have left messages for sales but haven't heard a word.

Having had this problem before I am concerned I have requested a tube, NEED a tube, and haven't received any support. I NEED A REPLACEMENT TUBE.

Not only am I concerned that I seem to be speaking to people who know nothing about tubes.("no, all tubes with that part number are the same size")..what about the entire tube staff??? If this is something our records show shoudn't this be easy to confirm?

I have an old pull in the transmitter now and it is at low emission, but more than the former tube. I have been an Econco customer for years, what has happened?

Normally if i told someone I needed a tube I would hear (from them) every day or two until it was in hand. Any other suppliers out there? Guess my putting the eggs in a single basket hasn't worked out. I used to think this was customer loyalty.
Click to expand...
I have a never used Econco 3CX3000A7 here...for sale.
 
RE: Zonum

They rebuilt a 4CX20000A for us.
On initial tune-up it arced a couple times, then settled down & ran fine, for 3 months. Good efficiency, stable tuning.

3 month in use the transmitter wouldn't stay up. Into the DL it showed very poor efficiency.
After a few minutes it's output dropped rapidly.

Put the original back in & it ran fine at around 90% for another 3 months. Good efficiency.

Zonum looked at it and found the ceramic cracked. They claimed we didn't have sufficient cooling so no warrantee.

We claimed the tube became gassy and THAT caused the overheating.

$5200 later we had a new tube in.
 
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