WHat did I get for $2.00?

I found out that the Gold Seal designation for the tube was GS 201-A (with some variations such as GS-201-A). During 1925, the company offered just the GS 201-A and GS 199 tubes. I located some pictures of actual Gold Seal tube boxes and some old advertising by doing a search online. The tube type is marked on the box. GS 201-A tubes were priced at $2.50 for 1925. The price was down to $2 in 1926 for the new GSX 201-A tubes. Tubes were getting more affordable with increased production and competition!

The GSX 200-A tube I just received has a sticker on the bulb with GSX 200-A printed on it. This tube is heavily gettered like a 201-A tube. It is the only 200-A tube I have ever seen like that. At first I thought this must be a mistake. Then I found a picture of one and its box (priced at a whopping $4.00) online. That was enough to convince me.

While the GS 201-A tube I have is lacking any identification, other GS 201-A tubes may have come with a designation sticker on the tube envelope as well. Later production Gold Seal tubes have the tube number hot stamped into the base.

There appears to have been a change or variation in company name: The "Gold Seal Products Co." as well as the "Gold Seal Electrical Co." are listed on various tube boxes as the makers of the tubes along with the same address of 250 Park Ave., N.Y.C., NY.

Rod  WB6FBF

Great tube addition to any collection Rod!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here is a picture of the Hickok 540 tube tester with the Gold Seal tube. Note that the meter is back lighted and a roll chart is present. Models with the built in multimeter used a separate tube chart in the lid. There was also a booklet of tube data available for all of these models. Also note the AC meter in the upper left corner. This replaced the internal Hickok line test and was installed on models produced for the Navy during WWII. It comes in handy when testing tubes that draw a lot of plate current. The line voltage is to be set by the user to 93 Volts (red mark on meter provided for this).

Here are (2) pictures I took of the Gold Seal UV-201-A tube in the Hickok 540 tube tester. Since the tube has a UV base and all (4) pins are the same diameter/size I was able to reverse the tube in the socket for the picture showing the "Gold Seal" label.

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Incidentally, I recently received a good original copy of Hickok tube data covering the 510X-530-540-550X-560 and I-177 models (copyrighted 1953). It is a big help with the newer heater-cathode type 7 pin miniature tubes that I use here and also some transmitting tube types. It may have been the last printing for the A-B tube tester series and was priced at $1 (reprinted April 1955). The earliest copies (1940) were priced at 25 cents.

Rod  WB6FBF

Ah, the venerable old Acorn tube 955. They also made from a 953 to  959 in the series.
 Typically used for VHF and radar.
 Really a great triode. Sockets are a bit hard to find, but still around.
 The TV series of Mil. tube testers will test them. Even my old Sylvania 123 will do it too.

Rod- that Gold Seal is a collectable. It is a 201A tube.
 I don't have one in my collection and 4 bux was a steal. I do remember reading an article on them somewhere, (maybe the TCA publications?).

Hi Rod...... OOOOOooohh! Got any photos of your$4.00 buy?

What did I get for $4.00? A "Gold Seal" UV-201-A type tube made by the Gold Seal Production Co. N.Y.C. This tube may very well have been what was known as a "Bootleg", "Unlicensed", or independently produced radio tube. The ebay seller had no other information. I took a chance on it (untested). The "Gold Seal - The Perfect Tube" decal label on the envelope is in very good condition. It has a long shell Bakelite base & short pins. It has the evacuation tip on top which is a plus. It fits in my Hickok 540 (4) pin tube socket quite well and makes good contact which surprised me. It tests excellent as well. Is it a 201-A type tube? Most likely but there are no markings on the base or tube envelope-not uncommon at the time especially for an independent producer. A dealer sales sticker on the tube suggests it was sold October 22, 1925. Amazing!

73, Rod  WB6FBF

I Finally found one!!! 

So This is a:
RCA 1698 Charactron Monoscope TV Character Display Tube

This tube is a pattern monoscope - it was used to generate numbers and geometric shapes.

Cyclopedia= "Charactron was a U.S. registered trademark (number 0585950, 23 February 1954) of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair) for its shaped electron beam cathode ray tube. Charactron CRTs performed functions of both a display device and a read-only memory storing multiple characters and fonts. The similar Typotron was a U.S. registered trademark (23 November 1953) of Hughes Aircraft Corporation for its type of shaped electron beam storage tube with a direct-view bistable storage screen.
The Charactron CRT used an electron beam to flood a specially patterned perforated anode that contained the stencil patterns for each of the characters that it could form. The first deflection positioning of the electron beam steered the beam to pass through one of the (typically 64 or 116) characters and symbols that could be formed. The beam, which then had the cross-section of the desired character, was re-centered along the axis of the tube and deflected to the desired position of the screen for display. Alternately, as in the accompanying image, the entire matrix was filled with the electron beam then deflected through a selection aperture to isolate one character.
The term Charactron is sometimes mistakenly applied to another type of CRT properly called a monoscope which generates an electrical signal by scanning an electron beam of uniform cross section across a printed pattern on an internal target electrode.




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You will find this a project site for those acorn tubes. High Freq triodes with range to around 400MHz.
Hmmm wonder if they could be used for substituting the 1L6 Pentode with a Triode?

Here's a link   Click Here for Acorn tubes

Local ham radio flea market on Saturday. Picked up some really important stuff I needed. <grin>

In a box of assorted goodies was 4 NIB JRC955 Acorn tubes and this tube in the photos. Any ideas as to what its purpose was?

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