The data.

The data is in two parts; JPEG images of the original datasheet pages and multiple HTML indexes referencing the page JPEG images. Please keep in mind that these datasheets were made in the pre-computer era; undoubtedly the pages were laid out by hand, and no thought was given to archivability or electronically searchable indexes. ASCII-izing the information is simply out of the question for me.

The page-image format is a compromise of: adequate image quality at a today (1998) barely-tolerable file size, with the assumption that file size matters less and less every year, but once lost, data is gone forever. My apologies to those who have low-speed links today. All catalog pages are 8.5 x 11 inches, scanned at 150 dpi. File sizes are approximately 600Kbytes for color pages (all catalog covers and artwork), 150Kbytes for black and white (most of the data pages).

Given a tube's device number (eg. 6AU6, 5658, etc), find the catalog(s) containing specifications for that device. Many tubes will be found in multiple catalogs; you should check each reference to make sure you are looking at the correct data for your device. The tube number is followed by links to each catalog that contains information on that device; many tubes are listed in multiple catalogs, as well as a link to a separate index of the catalog itself, should you need to browse for idiosyncratic data such as pin base diagrams, etc.

There is a list of the catalogs comprising the database. This is essentially a list of manufacturers catalogs and catalog numbers; each is linked to a separate index of pages and the devices contained in that catalog. Note that many devices appear in multiple catalogs, so if you're looking for a specific device search the main device index instead. Use this if you just want to browse a specific catalog page by page.

For compactness, the indexes contain only the "canonical" device number; that is, the tube number stripped of all suffixes (eg. 6L6GT becomes 6L6) and for some tubes, non-alpha characters (spaces and dashes) removed (eg. 505-B becomes 505B).  Further, some devices have multiple designations (eg. EL84 is pin compatible with 6BQ5) and are listed with the standard number first, where applicable, and additional designation(s) followed by a slash (eg. 6BQ5/EL84). As a general rule, extraneous characters have been removed to make for less ambiguous searching. Some examples may illuminate:

Please note further that on proprietary and obscure numbering schemes, and some British numbers, I probably lopped off trailing letters that were signifigant indentifiers, as in the final example above.