Hi Thomas, OK, you are teetering on the edge of a very bad potential addiction by wanting to dabble with dekatrons... :)
I can't offer any help on the shipping point, but with regards to the tubes themselves: 1. Orange (neon-based) dekatrons are *much* brighter in reality than the purple ones. Depending on how you're operating the tube, you may struggle to see the purple glow from distance in a brightly lit room, though they can be OK in subdued lighting. 2. Reliability of tubes. The issue I think you're referring to is the observation that high-speed dekatrons have an unfortunate habit of dying in storage - even a true NIB tube can be stone dead on arrival. Low-speed dekatrons don't have this problem and generally speaking are tough reliable tubes. The difference is primarily (but not exclusively) down to the gas mixes being used. Most purple-glowing tubes are in the high-speed category, including your OG3 and OG7. So yes, they can be dodgy, so ideally buy from a seller who has tested the actual tube they're selling you, not just relying on the fact that the factory tested them before they were boxed up 50 years ago. 3. Subject to the comment above, the Russian tubes are no less reliable than Western ones - ie their low speed tubes work just fine, and their high speed ones can be a lottery. Manufacturing tolerances can be less good, with the occasional wonky fitting of the base. The one area where the Western tubes do seem better is in the visibility of the glow. Many Russian tubes seem to be manufactured in a way that deposits a metal film on the inside of the glass dome at the top of the tube - I assume this is sputtered material from initial cleaning of the cathode surfaces. While Western tubes have been through a similar process, in those tubes that material tends to be confined to the outer walls of the tube, leaving the top dome clear, and therefore providing a better view of the glowing electrodes. The degree of darkening is very variable between individual tubes and can be quite significant in reducing the visible light output of the tube (which may not be that high to start with for purple-glowing tubes...). My experience on this point with OG7 is better than with OG3, and better for the variants of the tubes that have metal shells around their bases compared with the plain black Bakelite type. But don't take that as a firm rule - ask the seller to send you a top-view picture of the actual tube you're buying and check you can see the cathode pins clearly. Where does this net out? As a top-level practical answer, if you're fixed on having a purple glow from a readily-available cheap tube, I'd go for a metal-based OG7. If you want to maximise visibility of your do-hickie, I'd suggest one of the Ericsson GC10B family, 6802 or a well-chosen OG4. Now, if you're wanting to imbibe more deeply of the drug, there are more interesting and exotic possibilities you could explore... But the tubes get harder to find of course. :) Cheers, Jon. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/b49d47e2-4d43-4fdc-9ad1-047074004caf%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
