[GreenKeys] Western Union Rectifier 69-B

[Jim Haynes]

Well, first off, I wouldn't want to power it up without first checking and
probably reforming that capacitor, or you may damage the tube.

I've seen some W.U. power supplies made for use with an 83 tube and
they had substituted a solid state plug-in rectifier.  With the tube
you need a choke-input filter to limit the peak current to the tube.
And it doesn't hurt with a solid state rectifier, but it isn't
necessary.

83 is a mercury vapor rectifier, and with the larger mercury vapor tubes
you need to warm up the filament for a while before applying plate
voltage.  Apparently that is not necessary with a tube as small as an 83.
However it would be a good idea, after a long period of non-use, to
run the filaments alone for a while before applying plate voltage.