Late 1950s Zenith Deluxe Roayal 500 Radio

[rca2000]

DO NOT think the 1U4 or 5 are radioactive..

Only tubes like the 0A2 B2, C3--etc.. I THINK these ARE radioactive....

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by rca2000

DO NOT think the 1U4 or 5 are radioactive..

Only tubes like the 0A2 B2, C3--etc.. I THINK these ARE radioactive....

Hmm, then I wonder why somone online would say that one would need to be careful around the old Zenith Transoceanic radios with the tubes in them then? Because I did honestly come across an article on one of these antique radio forums (not this one I don't think, maybe Audio Karma or ARF) that mentioned that some of the tubes in the Zenith Transoceanic Radios were Radioactive and that one needed to be careful not to break the tubes or one might risk getting radioactive poisoning.

[old_coot88]

I suspect they may have heard reference to the "regulator tube" used in some Transoceanics (type 50A1) that's used as voltage dropper/current regulator for the filament string, and conflated it with gas regulator types which are used for B+ shunt regulation in precision equipment, and do contain a trace of radioactive stuff. It promotes reliable ionization of the gas.
The 50A1, by contrast, is a thermally-variable resistor and contains nothing radioactive.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

I suspect they may have heard reference to the "regulator tube" used in some Transoceanics (type 50A1) that's used as voltage dropper/current regulator for the filament string, and conflated it with gas regulator types which are used for B+ shunt regulation in precision equipment, and do contain a trace of radioactive stuff. It promotes reliable ionization of the gas.
The 50A1, by contrast, is a thermally-variable resistor and contains nothing radioactive.

OK that makes sense. Sorry about the confusion, I didn't relize that it could of came from that. Anyways now that's cleared up maybe we should get this thread back on topic again. So anyways I've been having some issues with a scratchy volume control and was wondering how I might go about clearing that up?