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.