Good morning to all!
I joined the original Neonixie-l group on Yahoo many years ago when Raymond W. was moderator. I had the privilege of paying him $100+ for a ‘Four Letter Word’ kit that never arrived. Raymond was good at making excuses ( waiting for parts, illness, earthquakes, no reliable help, etc.) and always promised that no matter what I would get a kit. Meanwhile, the time had run out for a refund. The (4) B7971’s were gathering dust while waiting to broadcast their message as tame, colorful, or indecent per your preferences! I think there was something in there about nuns blushing as well. I still get a twinge while checking my postal mailbox and recalling the 2 years of looking for a package from ‘Indonesia’. R.W took a lot of money from people and didn’t deliver. I believe many of his unfortunate customers were, and still are, responsible for the renewed interest in using nixie tubes. Kits were being designed by hobbyists and enterprising individuals found and marketed tubes that could be used to build clocks. I had bought the (4)B7971’s for my FLW on eBay in anticipation of the kit arrival. I love clocks-flip clocks, nixies, and electronic types especially. Online auctions made access to these clocks easy and somewhat affordable. I ordered another kit from a seller on eBay named Pete Hand. I actually received the kit, built it, and I was now the proud owner of a Four -Letter- Word. I’ve owned quite a few four letter words in my lifetime but once they fall out of your mouth….. I bought and built another kit and was hooked on nixies. I watched prices rise for certain tubes and bought them and others as my budget would allow. The intention was to make clocks with them when I retired. I bought a few kits that featured newer display types and learned about SMD’s through trial and error. This past weekend I made a trip to Madison Alabama which is a suburb of Huntsville AL. NASA and it’s supporting industries (Northrup, Intergraph, Boeing, Dynetics, etc.) put Huntsville on the map as a hub for technical and engineering products and services. The area has computer scientists, mechanical and electronic engineers, Material Science PHD’s, and thousands of really smart people. Please bear with me as I feel there is a story to be told here. A computer scientist, whom I’ll call RS had a more than passing interest in Nixes. Unfortunately he passed away suddenly while in his prime years. I believe this person was personally known to members of the Nixie community. I am in possession of RS’s extensive collection of Nixie tubes, built clocks, and collector's pieces. Technical documentation and assembly manuals were kept in file folders. Included is some correspondence related to RS’s support of the art of manufacturing Nixie tubes. I arrived home yesterday after having flown to Huntsville, renting a truck, packing the collection, and driving 12 hours. Saturday and Sunday were one long day for me and I need to rest a bit and recover. If RS’s brother reads this I want to say it was great to meet you and thank you for giving (no it was purchased) myself and the world this fine collection to enjoy. I plan on keeping this collection complete. Now for the good part……… I believe RS was friends with engineers in the aerospace industry as a lot of the tubes are NOS in original boxes with identical date codes. These would have been backup replacements or engineering samples used by NASA . Most of these were American manufactured and include the full range of tubes from Burroughs, RCA, Amperex, National, AEG, etc. The items range from 6 to 20 pieces of each model. There_is_a_ mouth_full_of_hen’s_teeth_here! That last sentence is a matter of fact. I’ve seen the pages of Claus-Dieter, Cathode Corner, and Sphere and a few others. Are these pages of tubes they actually own or just reference info and sale availability? Does anyone have a complete list of every type of nixie tube that was manufactured? RS’s collection contains some Russian and Chinese tubes but I think they were extras for the clocks he built. Most of the shipping boxes for all the tubes he had were emptied in preparation for the sale. I took me 5 hours to pack up everything and RS’s brother and Estate agent were very gracious in the time they allowed me to pack everything. I didn’t have time to wrap each tube that didn’t have a box and I have a 3’x3’x4’ box of loose tubes. The egg cartons you see in the photos were literally stacked atop each other in a box and transported. So far I’ve found 1 broken tube and my heart sank -it was an E1T. This message has become way too long but I want everyone to know these tubes weren’t scattered to the wind or thrown out. PLEASE BE PATIENT PLEASE BE PATIENT PLEASE BE PATIENT PLEASE BE PATIENT I work and am in the midst of remodeling my home so my time is spread out thinly. I plan on inventorying the collection, trading with other collectors to mutually enhance our collections, and putting together a website that features the collection. Any surplus that I have will be auctioned on eBay. I have no idea what those tubes will be but members here will be alerted. It may be 3-6 months before I can unpack everything. I’m not a tube dealer so getting things listed and sold is not my priority. Please don’t message me asking to buy something you saw in the pics. Until I know what all is there nothing is for sale. Don’t ask what I paid for the collection- If you do I will block you from messaging me. Don’t be rude money was not the issue here it was about keeping this collection intact. If you know RS personally I would love to hear what your interactions were. Many of the shipping boxes were from familiar names and were from all over the world. The number of tubes is overwhelming and I feel very fortunate to own them. There are tubes that I thought I would never in my lifetime be able to see or touch. I’m an old school guy and I don’t take pictures of many things. I may start to Instagram or something to share my finds but if I I get bombarded with offers to buy etc I’ll have to stop. I don’t keyboard very fast (cause I didn’t take typing in high school- I thought I’d have a secretary) so answering emails and messages takes me awhile. Took me 2 plus hours to get this out from the computer. Have a good afternoon, Jeffry *** -- 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]. 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