NL7094 is a myth!

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MichaelB

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Mar 6, 2013, 10:57:14 PM3/6/13
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OK, so this hobby has been an obsession of mine for about 8 years now (no where near as long as many on this forum), but I have YET to see a 7094 available, anywhere! All the other rare Nixie's pop up from time to time, CD 47, F9020AA, etc., but never the Burroughs 7094, that I have seen. Is it that there weren't that many of these manufactured or is somebody hoarding these monsters? Any thoughts from the old nixie-salts who MUST have seen some of these out there in the past? And I swear..they don't exist!!

Dieter Waechter

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:23:52 PM3/6/13
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They exist and they glow nice! ;-)
(attached)
B-7094.jpg

MichaelB

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:32:52 PM3/6/13
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Ahaa!!! That's where they are!!!! Dieter's got them all!!! Should've known! Send me an email Dieter..if you feel you JUST don't have room for 6 of those big 'ole nasty things anymore.

Nicholas Stock

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:35:15 PM3/6/13
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ooohh, they're lovely. I daren't ask what the going price of these are...;-)


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Dieter Waechter

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:37:37 PM3/6/13
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HI!
Well, but I'm sorry, I don't have any ;-(
This picture was not mine....
Dieter
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MichaelB

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:40:13 PM3/6/13
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PICTURES!! Yeah, I've seen pictures....still think they're vaporware

Dieter Waechter

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:47:38 PM3/6/13
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Then Jens is a good photo editor ;-))
Dieter
 
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/neonixie-l/-/y9XO-pmvz4AJ.

Dieter Waechter

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:48:16 PM3/6/13
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MichaelB

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:58:53 PM3/6/13
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Hmmm, Jens photos look decidedly different from yours, Dieter...Hmmmm

chuck richards

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Mar 6, 2013, 11:59:48 PM3/6/13
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Of course they exist! It is listed right on page 5 of
the National Electronics Readout Tubes data brochure.
It is the right-most listing on that page.
It shows NL-7094 to be the numerals 0 thru 9 and with
the symbols + and - being NL-825.

Recommended operation: 200 Vdc: 9.1K, 250 Vdc: 16k, 300 Vdc: 24k
Fits socket RTS-5, (same socket as B-7971 fits).

I saw 6 of them in sockets mounted in a bezel about 3
years ago on ebay, and the bids went clear out of this
universe...

Now, how about NL-7037? Anyone ever see any of those?
It's the front view version.

Chuck
>
>
>---- Original Message ----
>From: nick...@gmail.com
>To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] NL7094 is a myth!
>Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2013 20:35:15 -0800
>
>>ooohh, they're lovely. I daren't ask what the going price of these
>are...;-)
>>
>>
>>On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 8:32 PM, MichaelB <badn...@badnixie.com>
>wrote:
>>
>>> Ahaa!!! That's where they are!!!! Dieter's got them all!!!
>Should've
>>> known! Send me an email Dieter..if you feel you JUST don't have
>room for 6
>>> of those big 'ole nasty things anymore.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 8:23:52 PM UTC-8, Nocrotec wrote:
>>>
>>>> They exist and they glow nice! ;-)
>>>> (attached)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> *From:* MichaelB
>>>> *To:* neoni...@googlegroups.com
>>>> *Sent:* Thursday, March 07, 2013 4:57 AM
>>>> *Subject:* [neonixie-l] NL7094 is a myth!
$4.95/mo. National Dialup, Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, 5mb personal web space. 5x faster dialup for only $9.95/mo. No contracts, No fees, No Kidding! See http://www.All2Easy.net for more details!

Nick

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Mar 7, 2013, 8:47:13 AM3/7/13
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I have a few - both NL-7094 & B7094, some NIB.

They are indeed rare - I haven't seen any in the last few years, but there again, I'm not buying any more nixies so not looking...

Bought mine probably 10 years or more ago. If anyone needs photos, let me know...

Nick

Nick

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Mar 7, 2013, 8:58:52 AM3/7/13
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...bit more on this - many years ago I went a bit mad and bought a large quantity of tubes, many in big batches where there might have been a tube or two of interest.

I bought one batch simply because I saw "NIB 7094s" mentioned in the list - turned out they weren't quite what I expected - they were not "National" or "Burroughs", they were "RCA". Odd, I thought... bought the lot at auction for just a few pounds...

When the boxes arrived, turned out that they were not nixies at all, but beam tetrodes - rather cool looking ones at that - http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/079/7/7094.pdf - Turns out they are quite a desirable RF and audio tube...

Moral: Be careful when buying "Blind" - you may well not get what you were expecting.

If anyone wants, I'll photo the three variants together - Burroughs, National and... the RCAs !

Adam Jacobs

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Mar 7, 2013, 10:10:09 AM3/7/13
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That is one cool power tetrode you've got there, Nick. The datasheet
alone would make me want to build a linear amplifier around it if I had
one. 500w CW at up to 60mhz and 335w to 175mhz? I have no idea how
difficult it is to tame the self-oscillations at the higher frequencies
on that tube, but 300w of input power (keydown CW) on 2m band is pretty
impressive. Depending on the efficiency of the amplifier, might be
enough to work some moon bounce, with a decent antenna setup. How many
of those do you have?

-Adam W7QI
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Nick

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Mar 7, 2013, 10:30:23 AM3/7/13
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I have 2, NIB.

The thing is, although I'm heavily into tube audio, I have never been into high power RF - I have built a few low-power AM & FM xmtrs, but I'm not a radio amateur.

There are some that have built audio PAs with these tubes - I just like the look of them !

Nick

Adam Jacobs

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Mar 7, 2013, 10:35:46 AM3/7/13
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Well, it's never too late to become a radio amateur! With the removal of
the morse code requirement for all license classes, it's really just a
practical engineering written test. A fairly simple one at that. Really,
it is a little sad to say that a ham radio license doesn't imply the
same level of technical ability that it once did. You no longer need to
design oscillators as part of the test (or even identify them? I can't
remember if I had to identify one on the extra test). However, with that
being said, I very much approve of the FCC's move to make it easier to
obtain a license for the casually interested engineer. They even release
the test questions (and answers!) ahead of time. At $10/10 years, I
maintain that amateur radio licensing is the current best deal available
from the US government.

http://www.eham.net/exams/

-Adam W7QI
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kay486

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Mar 7, 2013, 11:56:06 AM3/7/13
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Whoah, you say that the F9020AA show up from time to time? I havent seen any availible yet. Do you know when they sold and what was the pirce?

John Rehwinkel

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Mar 7, 2013, 12:09:02 PM3/7/13
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> Well, it's never too late to become a radio amateur! With the removal of the morse code requirement for all license classes, it's really just a practical engineering written test. A fairly simple one at that.

Yeah, I got licensed in 1999, when there was still a vestigial Morse code requirement. The electronic part of the exam was a cakewalk, as I've
been dinking with electronics most of my life. I was trying for 20WPM, and had gotten up to 12. However, at that point 5WPM was all that was
required, and it seemed like a crawl to me.

I read up on the question pool and did several (free) online practice exams, so I was pretty sure I knew the stuff well enough to pass. You can
miss a couple of questions and still pass. I passed the first try, no sweat.

> Really, it is a little sad to say that a ham radio license doesn't imply the same level of technical ability that it once did. You no longer need to design oscillators as part of the test (or even identify them? I can't remember if I had to identify one on the extra test).

I don't remember either, but I can still identify a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce oscillator easily. Not so sure about a Clapp oscillator.

I actually used that knowledge recently while building a vacuum tube visual theremin. I was lifting Bob Moog's version of Theremin's circuit,
but didn't have the tapped inductors required, nor did I feel like winding them myself. It was a simple Hartley oscillator, so I rearranged it into
a Colpitts configuration, which needs two capacitors instead of a tapped inductor. Better yet, I can easily make one or both of the capacitors
variable, as this is a high-inductance, low-capacitance implementation. Worked a treat.

> However, with that being said, I very much approve of the FCC's move to make it easier to obtain a license for the casually interested engineer. They even release the test questions (and answers!) ahead of time. At $10/10 years, I maintain that amateur radio licensing is the current best deal available from the US government.

Agreed. I've had a lot of fun with my license, using it to do fun things like legally broadcast a colour TV signal from a balloon travelling to the edge of space. If I run out of range with my radio-controlled quadcopter, I can move it to the 6-meter band and have plenty of range.

- John KG4L

threeneurons

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Mar 7, 2013, 3:03:40 PM3/7/13
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I have a F9020AA. Unfortunately, its a dud. No Gas.  :o(

kay486

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Mar 7, 2013, 3:18:12 PM3/7/13
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Well, i think that somebody here should have the means to refill it pretty soon (even with mercury)! Re-pinch the leads and you should be good to go. I think it would be worth it with tube like this!
I wonder, do you know where these tubes were originaly used?

MichaelB

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Mar 7, 2013, 3:39:40 PM3/7/13
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Nick, email me if you would consider parting with some of them! I REALLY want to build a clock using these bad-boys.

MichaelB

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Mar 7, 2013, 3:41:55 PM3/7/13
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About 3 years ago, I have 6, however 2 are dark smoked glass. Would really like to exchange these for clears. Maybe someday I'll build a clock with these if I can't 2 more clears


On Thursday, March 7, 2013 8:56:06 AM UTC-8, kay486 wrote:

Tidak Ada

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Mar 7, 2013, 3:43:12 PM3/7/13
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Hi John,

Can you mail me as schema and eventual obligatory information ?

Want to build one for a grandchild.

eric

-----Original Message-----
From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of John Rehwinkel
Sent: donderdag 7 maart 2013 18:09
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: NL7094 is a myth!

>SNAP<

I actually used that knowledge recently while building a vacuum tube visual
theremin. I was lifting Bob Moog's version of Theremin's circuit, but
didn't have the tapped inductors required, nor did I feel like winding them
myself. It was a simple Hartley oscillator, so I rearranged it into a
Colpitts configuration, which needs two capacitors instead of a tapped
inductor. Better yet, I can easily make one or both of the capacitors
variable, as this is a high-inductance, low-capacitance implementation.
Worked a treat.

> However, with that being said, I very much approve of the FCC's move to
make it easier to obtain a license for the casually interested engineer.
They even release the test questions (and answers!) ahead of time. At $10/10
years, I maintain that amateur radio licensing is the current best deal
available from the US government.

>SNAP<

- John KG4L

threeneurons

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Mar 8, 2013, 2:08:29 PM3/8/13
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That's one reason, I haven't chucked it. But, I look at it as, bringing back Walt Disney's frozen corpse, from the dead. Not getting my hopes up too high. 

On Thursday, March 7, 2013 12:18:12 PM UTC-8, kay486 wrote:
Well, i think that somebody here should have the means to refill it pretty soon (even with mercury)! ...
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