A while back I had found a 50+ year old Eimac 4-65A transmitting tube made back in 1960. I figured it would make an interesting conversation piece, especially if I could mount it like a paperweight for my desk. — and if it glowed, it would be outstanding.
I sat the tube aside for awhile, but stumbled across a company called “Jim’s Engraving” that had some nice looking illuminated name plates, one of which featured a small clock. I thought the clock was just about the same size as my tube, so I contacted Jim and asked if he could mount a tube. He took it on as a personal challenge. He located a power supply to power the filament but scrapped that idea when it became apparent that the tube would get too hot (20 watts of filament power). Eventually he decided to use more of the multicolor LED strips that were already illuminating the name plate, and placed them under the tube base (one of the nice things about the 4-65A is that the base is entirely glass). The results were outstanding, and are shown here:
The LEDs are multicolor and it shipped with a IR Handheld Remote that allows you to pick the color and intensity, or setup several different color changing effects.
Jim plans on being at the 2012 Boxboro Hamfest this August — I plan on going up to shake his hand and thank him for his wonderful work. You meet so many nice folks in Ham Radio — Jim is one of them.
Hi bob,
Your posting on the Buddipole mentions a 32 inch arm (to use for turning the dipole into a 20-and-up vertical). I don’t see this item on the Buddipole webpage. Is it something you got recently? Thanks for any info.
–Ed–
Hi Ed,
Yes they came out with even longer arms last summer/fall. They are $5 more than the cost of the 22 inch arm, and they are quite useful for making the vertical full size on 20m. They also have some neat shock-cord whips that have adjustable bottom and top sections that aren’t listed as well. I’ve been trying to order one of those for a few weeks — I think the order went astray. A phone call is your best bet.
Personally I really hope that BuddiPole will update their website sometime soon. It is very outdated at this point and they have so many more useful products that few people know about.