TubeNexus

Most of the really great tube/valve books, both theoretical and practical, have passed into the public domain. Excellent scans of these books are available online for free! There are a number of sites… to be captured in the link directory, but one in particular stands out: Technical_Books_Online run by Pete Millett. Mr. Millett has done an incredible job of scanning books and publishing them… not as easy as you might think. An essential reference book for tube amplifiers is the famous Radiotron Designer’s Handbook (4th Edition). This book is available in reprint, CD format and on the web. The link provided is a nice version available for download and well supported by mirror sites.

I still find it difficult to read books on my computer and really want portable access to these tomes! I searched Amazon for e-book reader products and came up with the following:

• E-reader 6IN Portable Silver E-book Approx 170 Pix/inch
• E-reader 6IN E-paper Portable Dark Blue E-book Approx 170 Pix/inch
• Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System
• Sony (PRS-505SC) Silver Portable Digital E-Book Reader System w/ Case
• Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device

My main concern is the quality/useability of reading the scanned PDF books about tubes and circuits using these devices… I can imagine that you need to have pretty good pan & zoom controls and I’d like to have native PDF support.

I really want this capability/toy but can’t bring myself to spring for one without trying it on these old books. I’ll be on the lookout for friends that have one to try, but unfortunately, when it comes to stuff like this I’m usually the early adopter amongst my group of friends.

Please post your experiences if you try out one of the scanned tube books on a reader!

You may want to check out all the book review posts and look in the sidebar for other recommended books stocked by Amazon.com