The diary of a TWT engineer vacuum tubes don't suck

It was popular opinion that solid state was the future and vacuum tubes were an obsolete technology. After almost 20 years as a TWT engineer I subscribed to that ideal and left the industry only to return to the business 15 years later as an end user working with Satcom Amplifiers. So what does it takes to be a Vacuum Tube Engineer, how has the industry progressed and where does the future lie? Have we kept pace with other technologies as we strive to produce more powerful, more efficient and broader band devices?