THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — CV numbers

Having broken off from my historical diatribe on Mullard, here are a few useful snippets about the pre CV valve numbering system used by the British Armed Forces - here is an explanation of what the various alpha suffix codings used by the different service arms mean - now you'll at least be able to identify the valve type if not the type number:- British Army Comprises of an alpha coding which signifies the valve use or configuration followed by a numeric code that signifies valve.  The most commonly seen are listed below:- ACR - Army  cathode ray tubeAR - Army...

I have just received an e-mail asking for details of military valve markings so here's a little primer for anyone who might have a similar interest. Valves used by the British military Armed Services were marked with a  CV or common valve name which was defined by the  Inter-Service Technical Valve Committee in 1941.     Often, below the CV number,  a two part  alpha code of the form KB/xx  or JB/xx will be seen  which gives the devices manufacturing specification and qualification .  For the first part of the alpha code, the K designates a valve manufactured to specification K1001 or K1006; similarly a J designates a...