I do recall Krypton-85 as being one component of the gas brew. The KR85 half-life helps explain why we sold so many replacement displays for seven to ten year old units. As I recall, the brew included seven gases with two of those being radioactive. The required light dynamic-range of aviation displays is demanding. They must be readable in blinding sunlight and barely lit at night to avoid night blindness. The gas mixture played an important role in meeting those requirements. The details of the displays themselves and the techniques for driving them were figured out long before my time.
The beginning of the end for the King panaplexes began in the late 90's. We were down to a single supplier for the proprietary gas mixture. If I recall correctly, that supplier was Dale Electronics (contemporarily, Vishay) in Columbus, NE. At some point they informed us they could not find a carrier to deliver the gas from Columbus, NE to Olathe, KS due to new, onerous regulations for hazardous material transport. So we, King Radio, sent in-house trucks to pick up the gas cylinders. One of my last great (in my head anyway) acts at King was having my crew develop a retrofittable LED replacement module. It used bespoke, neon hued, Nichia LED's. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 3:29:36 AM UTC-5 Audrey wrote: > Indeed my point in mentioning it. > > On Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 6:31 PM n1ist <n1...@arrl.net> wrote: > >> The Kr85 mark indicates that they have (or rather now have just a little, >> since the half life is 10.7 years) Krypton-85 mixed in the gas to help with >> the ionization >> >> On Monday, April 15, 2024 at 6:09:42 PM UTC-4 Audrey wrote: >> >>> That's fascinating Neil, I have a few boring Bendix panaplexes and was >>> curious about their manufacture. I believe they're marked Kr85. >>> >>> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 5:47 PM Neil QQ <nei...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Until, at least, sometime in the early 2000's 90's King Radio (aka >>>> Bendix/King) was still selling NAV and COM radios using their own numeric >>>> panaplex type displays e.g. KX155, KX165. These displays were custom >>>> designed and fabricated in-house in Olathe, KS. To the best of my >>>> knowledge they were all neon orange monochrome. The gas used was a >>>> proprietary witches brew that included several radioactive trace elements. >>>> >>>> I recall seeing a prototype ILS indicator similar to the one referenced in >>>> this thread. I don't believe the King display was commercialized. >>>> >>>> An ILS display shows deviation from the localizer (right-left guidance) >>>> horizontally and the glideslope deviation (up-down) guidance vertically. >>>> By "keeping the needles centered" the ILS will guide a pilot to the runway >>>> threshold. Such displays were also used for VOR navigation using only the >>>> right-left needles (or lit segments in this case). In the simplest case >>>> they would provide guidance to the VOR station and identify the cardinal >>>> radial direction that was being flown to reach the station. When >>>> executing >>>> a simple form of an instrument landing system (ILS) the pilot flies, at a >>>> particular altitude, along a "to" radial to find a particular VOR station. >>>> >>>> Once directly over the VOR the pilot flies on a specified VOR "from" >>>> radial >>>> until the localizer (right-left) and glideslope (up-down) needles move >>>> into >>>> the active range (no longer parked and "flagged" at the display extremes). >>>> >>>> From there the pilot "keeps the needles centered" until visual runway >>>> confirmation is obtained. >>>> >>>> On Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 11:27:41 PM UTC-5 Audrey wrote: >>>> >>>>> The seller is the author of this article. >>>>> https://www.industrialalchemy.org/articleview.php?item=3247 >>>>> >>>>> On Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 11:36 AM Nick Andrews <nickja...@gmail.com> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Never seen or heard about this one before. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/276389569367?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=AkFpft62ST6&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=9S4jfnnKS4i&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY >>>>>> >>>>>> Anyone heard of this or have one? >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>> send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>>>>> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAJD4P-ivW5%3DSwf_3hXWVXdad%3DYzA89swwt%3DP%2BqRK2xEMKJ%2B5Gw%40mail.gmail.com >>>>>> >>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAJD4P-ivW5%3DSwf_3hXWVXdad%3DYzA89swwt%3DP%2BqRK2xEMKJ%2B5Gw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>>> . >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>>> >>> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/42ea136c-7ed5-480f-9c29-2ba40025ac3an%40googlegroups.com >>>> >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/42ea136c-7ed5-480f-9c29-2ba40025ac3an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "neonixie-l" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >> > To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6e423ef4-db33-49a3-b32e-a10996ee34c9n%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6e423ef4-db33-49a3-b32e-a10996ee34c9n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. 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