b+,b-

[Guest]

what does b+/- mean?

 

[gyraf]

Battery-plus and battery-minus

...which most often really means supply voltages..

 

[NewYorkDave]

In Ye Very Olden Days, radio sets were powered by batteries. The "A" battery supplied power for the heaters/filaments, the "B" battery supplied the plates, and the "C" battery (if used) was for grid bias. Even after battery powering of tube sets ceased to be common, these terms for the various supplies stuck. So "B+" and "B-" refer to the positive and negative ends, respectively, of the plate supply. (It's sometimes applied to transistor circuits, too, in which case it refers to the collector supply).

 

[ebartlet]

[quote author="NewYorkDave"]In Ye Very Olden Days, radio sets were powered by batteries... [/quote]

I used to have a set which used 90v batteries... never powered it with batteries though, I haven't a clue where you could even find them nowdays

 

[CJ]

Triplett/Simpson sells the batts.