On Apr 3, 2011, at 3:52 PM, Robert Pease wrote:
Recently I had a debate with an engineer about the neons in a K2-W. He was surprised that the zener could do the job of the neons.
I pointed out that when we first needed this function, there were no Zeners you could buy. And when they came along, they cost 80x the cost of an NE-2. And some were probably pretty leaky.
ONLY the K2-WJ's need for a "neon that didn't emit nuclear rays" caused the Zener to get in to that amplifier. So the K2-WJ can be used in Nuclear submarines.
Hey, an NE-14 will start in the dark; But an NE-2 may not. Why not put a grain-of-rice bulb in a K2-W to throw light on the NE-2's? That would be cheap. Come to think of it, that bulb might not last as long as the K2-W, even running at derated voltage. So maybe that's not such a good idea.
The zener in the K2-WJ runs at 140 UA; the neon in a K2-W at 60.
That is probably because MOST 140-volt zeners would run at 60 UA; but to keep the yield high and the price low, Bruce had to slide the 60 UA bias up to 140 UA? - Plausible.
Beast reg rds. / rap / Robert A. Pease (graduated from Philbrick in 1976.)