[Milsurplus] Radioactive OA2 tubes?

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Actually the warnings are a 60's thing.  A small percentage of the gas in 
the tube is the or one of the radioactive isotopes of that gas.  I never did 
understand the logic of the comment about cuts in the warning.  What you 
wouldn't want to do would be to inhale right over a tube that had just been 
broken.

In a message dated 9/26/2010 1:48:45 PM Central Daylight Time, 
jfor at quik.com writes: 
> 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?

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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MVPA 9480