[Milsurplus] Radioactive OA2 tubes?

[J. Forster]

My guess is that all gas tubes, including Regulators, indicators, and T/R
Tubes, have radioactive solids or gas in them in small quantities.  There
may well have been differences between manufacturers.

I suspect the manual cautions were a post WW II caution, when concern
about radioactivity grew.

FWIW,

-John

==============


> The Wikipedia entry on gas discharge regulator tubes states that some of
> these
> contained small amounts of radionuclides to facilitate ionization. The
> benefit
> would be more reliable turn-on, meaning lower striking voltage or if the
> tubes are
> in the dark.
>
> It would be interesting to know how tube that were enhanced in this way
> were
> marked. I wonder why they weren't given a different designation, since
> they
> are
> really a different tube?
>
> 73, ian K3IMW
>
> On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Niel Wiegand
> <nielwiegand at aggienetwork.com
>> wrote:
>
>> While scanning through the T-368 manual at
>> http://128.205.126.49/images/PDF-Files/T-368-11-809-10.pdf  I came
>> across the following warning on page 23:
>> > Tube types OA2 used in the transmitter contain radioactive material.
>> > These tubes are potentially hazardous when
>> > broken; see qualified medical personnel and the Safety Director if you
>> > are exposed to, or cut by, broken tubes.
>> > Use extreme care in replacing these tubes and follow safety procedures
>> > in their storage and disposal (par. 28.1).
>> > Never place a radioactive tube in your pocket.
>> > Use extreme care not to break radioactive tubes while handling them.
>>
>> I had not realized OA2s were radioactive.
>> - Is this true of all OA2 regulator tubes?
>> - Did the T-368 use special OA2s?
>> - What's the advantage of the radioactive OA2s used in the T-368?
>> - How are T-368/radioactive OA2s marked?
>>
>> 73,
>> Niel - W0VLZ
>>
>>
>>
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