I responded to your other post before reading this. I would stay with an 83 tube although 83V would work but reading may be low on high current tubes. Alan Douglas will probably comment as he wrote a book on tube testers.
Norm
: I have a stark tube tester it has an 83 and a 5y3 in it I have the schem but wonder if somone could explain to me the roll that the 83 plays in the circuit?? I know it's a mercury rectifier but wonder what exactly it does and also if it could be replaced with an (83V)
: Thanx Brian
http://www.0wned.org/~hstraub/hickok.htm
An 83V won't work, or more properly, it will work but the calibration for high-current tubes will be wrong. Maybe for all tubes. I never really checked, since 83Vs are scarcer than 83s. You can install a pair of silicon rectifiers, 1N4007 will do: wire them from the plate contacts on the 83 socket, to the heater center tap on the transformer.
Im assuming you own a model 9-66 that was manufactured under lic. from Hickock back in the mid 60s. Well both the 5y3 and the 83 are rectifier tubes and the only other similarity is they have 5 volt fil. heaters. Think of the #83 as a super duty rectifier that can produce up to 300 ma. of d.c. current that is used to apply to the various elements of the tubes under test. Remember that this tester is a mut. cond. tester and is therefore used to test amplification as well as emmissions, shorts etc.
Now the 83v and the #83 are not the same tube, they are different bcause the 83v has an additional cathode element, as I recall the 83 has a slightly higher current rating and would not recommend substituing it for the 83. There are still lots of 83 tubes to be had on ebay but stay clear of the 83v.