I came across a different version that used a 7-segment electroluminescent display. It was sold for surplus because the display was too dim to read; those E-L panels were very cool looking, but they didn't last long.
Another oddity on a different model was the case. This device was intended for rackmount, and had the typical built-like-a-tank high-quality construction, yet the case, which I assume was an option, was a butt-ugly cheap steel shell. Kind of like taking your Ferrari to Earl Scheib for a paint job. Notice it wasn't called a "Frequency Counter"; it's an EPUT (Events per unit time) meter. When you plug it in, the crystal oven cycles on and off (bright red front panel light) with no way to turn it off except unplugging it; switch it on and it almost becomes a toaster. Plenty of warm air coming out the fan after it warms up. I recall the sealed transformer (that's another story in itself...quite a beauty) had 2 separate windings for the 6.3VAC filament supply. One was 12 amps, and the other 15 amps. I used one for the power supply of my home-built S-100 computer system. There was yet another version that did not have each decimal-column in a vertical line; instead there were odd and even columns, and the numbers zig-zagged upwards as it counted. Such weirdness. I hate to admit this, but the vacuum tubes in mine got tossed, literally, at a brick wall because we loved the 'pop' they made along with a small cloud of sparks that were visible at night. It was a lot of tubes.... And of course, that indescribable smell of the conformal coating. Your nose could always tell you mark of a fine piece of equipment. I never bothered to test what frequency it could measure, because I already had a 6-digit nixie-tube counter that went up to 550Mhz, using transistors. That was quite a feat for the early 1960's. That was eventually scrapped and the display is in my first nixie clock. On Monday, July 19, 2021 at 5:35:09 PM UTC-7 Terry Bowman wrote: > > On Jul 19, 2021, at 2:57 PM, Dekatron42 <[email protected]> wrote: > > Those are Neon bulbs (NE2A) driven by vacuum tubes (5963). > > > Boy would I love to have that beauty. I used to have an HP with > incandescent bulbs in the counter modules. They were easy to read from > across the room and simple to replace. It mysteriously disappeared from the > basement at some point. > > > Terry Bowman, KA4HJH > "The Mac Doctor" > > https://www.astarcloseup.com > > “...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it > said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl > Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", *Cosmos*, 1980 > > > -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/20eee3a0-9335-4ba0-aaa7-9c4754d03c13n%40googlegroups.com.
