Question for the military historians/preservationists

I have these 3 old CRT tubes that I believe are for old radar systems.

The two smaller ones are new and sealed in the box, and dated 5/45. The larger one is open(but also appears new) and dated 9/63.

I imagine someone out there has more of a use for these than I do - maybe someone who collects/restores old military equipment, or a museum? I'm not sure where to start though - and I'm definitely NOT interested in dealing with Ebay.

So any suggestions how/where I should try to find a home for these?

Wowzers! Those are pretty old!

I want to say looking at them that they are not radar but for oscilloscopes

I'll ask a guy who would know.

From what I know, people are always looking for old vacuum tubes for restoration reasons.

Awesome, thanks everyone!

wearymicrobe wrote: I want to say looking at them that they are not radar but for oscilloscopes

From what I have seen of old radar scopes, they basically were oscilloscopes, not the modern sweep and beep type. The pointed them in a direction and they measured range.

(edit): Looks like the early sets where as I described. The appearance of the microwave radar (1943) may have brought about the sweep and beep type (still on a round tube though)

Go to Vegas and get on an episode of Pawn Stars.. I bet he knows a guy that knows about this stuff..

"What you have there is disfluxual combobulator. They only made 4,322 of these in the Westinghouse lab in Pokipsey, NY. This is a really nice piece, thanks for showing it to me."

Cue Rick, "I'll give you five bucks for it."

kazoospec wrote:

That guy is so "wanna-be-Amish"..

What about contacting the Smithsonian, or these guys: Naval History & Heritage Command.

There might be a few of the pieces of equipment those were made for still around, but it would be very hard to find them. In other words, connecting buyer and seller would be challenging. ebay would probably be the best place to show them, really, as the people who mess with that kind of thing tend to keep an eye on ebay. You might also look into one of the maritime historical societies. One of them has a fully restored Liberty ship. I don't think they had RADAR on them in WWII, but that one might have some period piece on it. It probably has a modern small system today or it wouldn't be allowed out.

Dr. Hess wrote: ..One of them has a fully restored Liberty ship..

There may be more then one. I know there is one in Los Angeles (not sure if it's fully operational), sitting next to the cruise ship docks in Long Beach. There is also a fully functional one (they do cruises etc) in the San Fransisco area, the Jerimia O'brian ( http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/ ). I suspect there are others.

If nothing else, probably a good group to talk to. They should at least be able to point you in the right direction.

I do kind of doubt the ever put radar in a Liberty ship though. Radar was pretty common in US ships towards the end of the war but Liberty ships are way down on the list of priority / importance (kind of throw away ships).