Tube Poetry/Prose Contest

Tube Poetry/Prose Contest!

Here, for your browsing convenience, are the entries for the "Tube Poetry/Prose" contest, as it evolved on the rec.audio.tubes (RAT) usenet newsgroup.

The contest is now closed (as of 9 Nov. 2003)

Total points received by each entrant during the voting periodare posted in the Entries section below. Or jump straight to the Winners' List.

How It Started:

The contest started innocuously enough, with the following post by Yours Truly, Fred Nachbaur:

"Maybe it's just the post-equinox blues, or just the great piles of soggy lettuce and cabbage leaves lying about, but I for one miss the days when we were treated to Patrick Turner's, Alan Marcy's, and others' poetic musings on tube audio and related delights.

"So how about some tube (valve) related poetry (or prose, if you're so inclined)? Here's a haiku to start things off:

[My entry]

"See? It's easy. Here's your chance to get sappy and romantic, or coolly analytical if that's your thing.

"Maybe this could work into a little 'contest'? What do you all think? Anyone interested in contributing prizes?"

Cheers,
Fred

PRIZES:
Prizes are numbered in order donated. First winner (most number of votes) gets first pick of available pool of prizes, Second winner gets pick of remaining prizes, etc. Contributor also pays shipping, except as otherwise noted.

Prize No. 1: Two (2) used Western Electric 310A pentode tubes, in good condition. Donated by Fred Nachbaur in Canada. This is just the thing to Westrexify your next tube project! Electrically, these are not unlike the 6J7. Get the Full specs from Western Electric. Sockets included. Picture of the tubes here.

Prize No. 2: Four (4) 5B/110M power tubes - "quite a nice 11 W pentode including 4 loctal sockets - great for 'postalizing' your next amp!" Donated by Ruud Broens in Holland. Picture here. The specs for this tube (in PDF format) can be downloaded from here (right-click / Save As...).

Prize No. 3: Either a "Globe" tube paperweight in a green marble display base, or a new 5R4GY ST-style rectifier, or a new 5U4GT rectifier, donated by Syl in Canada.

Prize No. 4: - "Radiotron Designer's Handbook", 4th ed. on CD. Original Old Colony CD, not a burned copy. Donated by Choky in Serbia.

Prize No. 5: - Two (2) E90CC dual triodes. Photo and Datasheet at Frank's Tube Data page. Contributed by Mark Harriss in Australia. Winner pays shipping.

Prize No. 6: - Two (2) new 5U4G rectifiers. Modern production (Russian or Chinese) marketed by Chelmer Valve. Contributed by jim in the UK. Contributor pays shipping to UK, USA, CA, AU.

RULES:

Your entry may be any form of poetry or prose, and should have at least something to do with tubes or tube audio. No size limit, but be aware that if you write a huge tome it risks not getting read by all voters.

All submissions should be posted to the usenet newsgroup rec.audio.tubes, preferably under the thread "Tube Poetry/Prose?" If this is not possible, you can email it to me, and I'll post it to r.a.t. on your behalf. Deadline for posting your submission(s) is November 1, 2003 (that gives you almost two weeks from launch of contest).

Submissions will be mirrored here, if you don't see it here within a day or so after posting, send me an email just in case my news server drops your post.

Only one submission per person, but submissions can contain multiple sub-sections or even separate works. (This is merely to prevent the possibility of a single contributor taking more than one prize.) You can add to or subtract from your submissions at any time before the deadline for entry.

No votes accepted during the submission period. During the voting period, votes to be sent to me via email. One vote per person. That includes aliases! However, your vote can be assigned to a single entrant, or split two or three ways if you wish.

Each vote is be assigned a value of six points, which are applied in full to a single candidate, or split into 3 points (2 candidates) or 2 points (3 candidates).

Voting ends November 8, 2003 (giving one week to decide).

Admin doesn't get a vote, except if there's a tie, in which case I cast the tie-breaking vote.

THE ENTRIES

(Clicking on a link opens the submission in a new window, so you can simply close each window after reading to return to this index page.)

The number of voting points received is shown in bold black numbers.

Patrick Bouvyn 6

Robert Casey 3

Andy Evans 12

Roger in VT (Firedome) 5

B Foelsch

JamesG

Chris Grier

John Harper

Bob Hedberg 11

ldita 3

Alan Marcy

Fred Nachbaur 3

Henry Pasternack

Prodanovic Aleksandar (Choky)

Bill Ramsay 6

Phil Witt 29

Grant 6

Gregg 18

"Blue Glow" background image from a photo by Phil Witt.

THE WINNERS

A total of 17 votes were received, some of them split two or three ways. Since 5th place was tied three ways between Patrick Bouvyn, Bill Ramsay, and Grant, admin has invoked the tie-breaking vote option and assigned 5th place to Bill Ramsay, and 6th place to Patrick Bouvyn. Grant has received a consolation prize consisting of one 5U3c (Russian 5U4).

Place	Winner	Prize
First	Phil Witt	Prize 4: RDH on CDROM
Second	Gregg	Prize 2: Quad of 5B/110M
Third	Andy Evans	Prize 1: Pair of WE310A
Fourth	Bob Hedberg	Prize 3: Globe tube paperweight
Fifth	Bill Ramsay	Prize 5: Pair of E90CCs
Sixth	Patrick Bouvyn	Prize 6: Pair of 5U4Gs

Contest closed!
Thanks to all who participated.

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