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Old 7th Oct 2022, 8:42 am   #19
FrankB
Heptode
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Olympia, Washington, USA.
Posts: 663
Default Re: How safe are our collections?

Some tubes carry a radioactive marking on the box. That said, I went through the main gate of a military base with the back of my vehicle loaded with them and it never set off any radiation alarms they had at the gate.(I had forgotten those tubes were in the boxes). The radioactive material was used , IIRC, to stabilize the ignition point of many gas regulator tubes. I suspect I took more radiation from working on TV sets than the tubes or the paint.
I have several military sets missing meters because of the paint on the dial pointer.

I still have a can of florescent paint I bought from mil. surp. that will glow when exposed to light. Had that for more than 50 yrs now.

I don't worry much about it, as I am on limited time anyway.
They found my expiration date on the bottom of my left foot, but have not deciphered it yet.
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