A little CRT fun
 

I've been slowly sorting through all my tubes for the last few months and came across some of my CRT collection. I figured it was a great time for a photo so here are most of them. I know a have the little 1" RCA 913 somewhere, but can't find it :( I can't find a few 3" scope CRTs either. Oh well, they've got to be around somewhere.

Mostly these are from 'scopes, radar and other specialized test equipment. Some have cool phosphor colors like purple and orange. Then there are the HUGE 12" electrostatic 12FP7 radar tubes in the background.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/...f7eb4964_b.jpg

3JP12 orange phosphor
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2702/...9cafc4f480.jpg

3HP7 magnetic deflection radar tube
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2737/...58ae1187fe.jpg

5SP7 dual-gun radar tube
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/...b30e13653f.jpg

Early Japanese CRT
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/...b13299e241.jpg

Radial radar CRTs - 3DP1+S2
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/...3e110c51_b.jpg

Infrared night-vision tube from 1952
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/...6e956b293e.jpg


That got me thinking - the basing and voltage specs is pretty close to a 7JP4 :scratch2: Time to try one out! I'm going to have to make an adapter first. The 6KV needs to be routing out of the socket and out to the ultor.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2752/...5099d233_b.jpg

Cool tubes - I'll have to try and find my photos of TV on a green-phosphor Oscilloscope. My brother and Dad got to messing with a scope one night and did the ol' X-Y-Z hookup and watched M*A*S*H on an oscope screen. Yep, it was a monchrome set, but their utilities were green!

I'd love to get my hands on the later F/A-18 Multifunction Display CRT - high def color in a aircraft cockpit! Mind you, I've only seen what the PITA:thumbsdn: video test station generated for video on one, but man, it is sharp!

Cheers,

Wow......200 years or so from now, people will look at those things & wonder WTF they were for....

Cool - I've heard you could do that with a a scope but never tried it.

Too true - unless maybe the ETF can setup a trust fund to stay open indefinitely :D

Here are some more early CRTs I'd love to add to the collection :yes:

6-gun tube
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/...5304be69_b.jpg

Potentiometer tube and a 10-gun tube :yikes:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/...716261b2_b.jpg

Here's what a 7VP1 looks like
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2716/...e365bf30e5.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/...6d5410bdaa.jpg

Here's what that big 12FP7 looks like. I couldn't find exact data on it so I did the best I could with an adapter.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/...6366fb918b.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/...2353ff324e.jpg

CRT collector: someone who is happy to find a bottle, and elated when there is nothing in it. :D

I know where a bunch of the radial radar crts are. I wasn't sure what they were for, and they were of no use to me, so I left them behind when the owner was trying to give them to me. Was this a mistake?

Nah. I don't think they're worth much - more of a curiosity.

I woulda got 'em "Just Because". But did I ever tell y'all I'm a World-Class packrat ?!? I could fill up the Vehicle Assembly Building w/"stuff" I collected....I'd like to have One of Everything that was Ever Made...(grin)

I used to use an Apple /// computer monitor (P1 green phosphor) with an TV tuner for analog TV DX.

The longer persistence of the P1 phosphor greatly reduced the "snow" on the screen, allowing me to see the video (including addresses, telephone numbers, and call letters) on weak signals, especially UHF by "tropo".

What would six- or ten-gun CRTs be used for, anyhow? Some kind of super-duper radar?

Phil Nelson

That's what I thought at first - or maybe for physics experiments. However, a little research turned up that at least one brand of those 10-gun tubes were for digital readouts!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimo_tube

Here's a mini version in action: http://mcnally.cc/clock.htm

Must . . . have . . . Nimo clock!! Suddenly my beloved Nixie clock doesn't seem so cool any more.

Phil

I remember seeing somewhere that somebody had made a CRT clock outta a late '40s 7" TV...it was Tres Cool... IIRC, there was some reason it couldn't/wouldn't work as a TV, but it did fine displaying the numerals for the clock...

Ditto :thmbsp: What a complicated way to display a digit! I bet finding 4 of these guys to make the HH:MM is going to be a real challenge.

----

That was the plan, but my collection outgrew the case :D
I seem to be missing about 1/3 of the CRTs. Especially all the 3 & 5 inchers I pulled from scopes. All I could find was the ones that had their original boxes. I vaguely remember wrapping each of the loose CRTs in padding and stuffing them all in one big box. Where the heck did that box go :scratch2:

If I had seen these tubes being left somewhere, I, like my friend, Sandy G, would grab it all and squirrel it all away into the house! Im a total packrat, too!

If anyone is ever near Los Angeles and wants tubes like this, there's a place called Apex Electronics off San Fernando road in Sun Valley, which has 20-50 old round tubes (mostly p7 and p1 if I remember) in a dilapidated shack out back. I sorted through all of them one time I was there, and saw no regular p4 b/w tubes though. I haven't been there in over a year, so I can't say if they're still there or not.

Fair Radio Sales ran a special a few years ago on 1EP2s, or somesuch...It was a unideckar base (?) 1" optically flat CRT from some sort of military heads-up display, brand new in the box. I got one, & then some guy on the R-390 chatline wanted it, I sent it to him. He had some project he was gonna use it for, I wonder whatever became of it...I think I give $10 or so for it, I'm sure they cost Uncle Sugar a HELLUVA lot more than that...Cute widdle feller, though. Somewhere I have a book on CRTs, there was a guy, Sonny Clutter, who had an AWESOME collection of CRTs-Most of the pictures in the book were ones in his collection. There were some Wild 'n' Woolly lookin' Tooobages in that book...

Hah. Fair Radio Sales still has a bunch of CRTs including the same types I ordered 20+ years ago. Prolly not too many folks want these oddball tubes.

Is the Book "The Cathode-Ray Tube" By Peter A. Keller?... It also has the photo of John McQueen (with white shirt & tie) sealing the faceplate on a 30BP4, and the picture of the "DuMont lady" with two HUGE crts standing on end! I think we have have talked about both pictures before, and likely have copies of the same book.:scratch2:
Lots of crts pictured, many from the authors collection and other collections as well.

jr

Note..On page 101 he shows the 1EP2 with a "unidekar" (no "c") hard pin base. Cute little tube, I have one with a G/K short after it warms up a bit. :(

Yep, that's the one...Think I got mine thru the "Electric Radio" magazine bookstore years ago...I misplaced mine, its here somewhere, I just can't find it, dammittall...I'm a book nut...Yeah, you can find almost any kind of info on the internet, but I've never seen anything approaching the variety, depth, & just good general info that this book has. Must have been a big leap of faith writing/publishing a book like that, I rather doubt many were sold...Not a lot of folks want to/care to know about CRTs..A few industry types, some academics perhaps, & then how ever many Keepers Of Odd Knowlege (KOOKs) like me there are out there...(grin)

I just checked Amazon... Not exactly a best seller..."Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,168,051 in Books"... but there must be a few of us KOOKs out there!:yes:

jr

Hi Guys,

i purchased my copy directly from the author, probably still has a bunch of them. This was in 2000.

Fabulous book and great photography! no vintage TV buff should be without a copy in his library.

"The Cathode Ray Tube" - ISBN : 0-9631559-0-3

Just mail: peter dot keller at tek dot com and ask.

He's up in Oregon

Best Regards

jhalphen

Here's a 5 gun 9ZP1 CRT from my CRT collection:

http://www.myvintagetv.com/oscilloscopes/9ZP1.jpg
http://www.myvintagetv.com/oscilloscopes/9ZP1_guns.jpg

Chuck

That address went away when I retired from Tektronix. My current e-address is kellerp4@verizon dot com. New copies of the book are available for less than the used price.

Peter Keller

Welcome, Mr Keller ! You're among friends here ! (And fellow "Kooks"-grin...)

Ditto that! indeed KOOKs! :thmbsp:

I have been having difficulty getting a decent photo of one of my favorite tubes in my collection, the 2F21 Monoscope, used in early TV broadcasting to generate the "Indian Head" test pattern. This is about the best that I have achieved. Note that some paint was removed from the outside of the tube so that the pattern can be seen, normally the entire front of the tube would be painted black.

jr

That's really cool. Was this used for a 5 trace oscilloscope ?


Wow! I've always wanted one of these :) I saw one months ago on ebay, but they wanted a lot of $$ for it.

Don't know, the only thing I have been able to find was a small blurb about the tube being used in a high speed display unit used by NASA for radio astronomy.

Chuck