Picked up a scrapped 5065A tonight. It was an early unit but a later one than the one I amtrying to fix. The XO was gone. From what I could see, it had beena 10811 type with adapter since there was no 115V wiring. The RV Cavity was loose and I think that what was in this unit mayhave been a replacement since it featured the more modernbrownish color. It also had the Thermo-electric devicein the receiving end. The RV cavity circuitry checked out OK. No shorts.  Resistances was OK too. The TX lamp had a slight golden/brownish glass color.It did turn on about 20 seconds after applying DCpower to it. What does the community say: Can the lamp still be useableas a spare, or is the color a sign of end-of-life? I am considering either use this instrument as spare parts or tryto fix this one too... Ulf Kylenfall  - SM6GXV

I would say fix both units The color of the bulb is simply Rb vapor condensed on the walls of the envelope. 10811 units are fairly common at good hamfests and ebay Content by Scott Typos by Siri > On Sep 12, 2017, at 4:54 PM, Ulf Kylenfall via time-nuts <time-nuts@febo.com> wrote: > > > What does the community say: Can the lamp still be useableas a spare, or is the color a sign of end-of-life? > I am considering either use this instrument as spare parts or tryto

Totally agree with Scott. On the lamp thats good it lights. If you search older threads on Time-nuts you will see that on the FRS rubidiums you can heat the lamp with a heat gun and re-migrate the RB off of the glass. It makes them re-usable and extends the life very nicely. I do not suggest doing this if the lamp lights and the system can be recovered. Just something to know about. I have done this several times on different FRS units. Wow now you have 2 5065s. Nice. Regards Paul WB8TSL On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Scott McGrath <scmcgrath@gmail.com> wrote: > I would say fix both units > > The color of the bulb is simply Rb vapor condensed on the walls of the > envelope. > > 10811 units are fairly common at good hamfests and ebay > > Content by Scott > Typos by Siri > > > On Sep 12, 2017, at 4:54 PM, Ulf Kylenfall via time-nuts < > time-nuts@febo.com> wrote: > > > > > > What does the community say: Can the lamp still be useableas a spare, or > is the color a sign of end-of-life? > > I am considering either use this instrument as spare parts or tryto > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/ > mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. >

Hi Ulf Also you noted the bulb had the thermionic device, That's used for remigrating the Rb into the reservoir there is a procedure for doing it in the manuals on the web. It can take up to a week to draw all the Rb back into the reservoir after long inactivity. Just make sure you use a well regulated power supply while doing this procedure Content by Scott Typos by Siri > On Sep 12, 2017, at 7:01 PM, paul swed <paulswedb@gmail.com> wrote: > > Totally agree with Scott. > On the lamp thats good it lights. > If you search older threads on Time-nuts you will see that on the FRS > rubidiums you can heat the lamp with a heat gun and re-migrate the RB off > of the glass. It makes them re-usable and extends the life very nicely. > I do not suggest doing this if the lamp lights and the system can be > recovered. Just something to know about. I have done this several times on > different FRS units. > > Wow now you have 2 5065s. Nice. > Regards > Paul > WB8TSL > >> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Scott McGrath <scmcgrath@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I would say fix both units >> >> The color of the bulb is simply Rb vapor condensed on the walls of the >> envelope. >> >> 10811 units are fairly common at good hamfests and ebay >> >> Content by Scott >> Typos by Siri >> >>> On Sep 12, 2017, at 4:54 PM, Ulf Kylenfall via time-nuts < >> time-nuts@febo.com> wrote: >>> >>> >>> What does the community say: Can the lamp still be useableas a spare, or >> is the color a sign of end-of-life? >>> I am considering either use this instrument as spare parts or tryto >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/ >> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there.