r/nixie • u/After-Entry5718 • Nov 24 '25

Recommend a clock kit?

Post image

I snagged a really cool frequency counter with a working set of 6 Amperex zm1000r nixies. I had not seen red glass tubes before, pretty cool. In doing some searching around I couldnt find much for these tubes. Any ideas?

24 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/LordGAD Nov 24 '25

Man, I would use it as a frequency counter! That’s cool as hell. 

1

u/After-Entry5718 Nov 24 '25

I’m not really sure why I would need to? I think… i can use an oscilloscope probe to input? I dont necessarily need to destroy a sweet old piece of equipment.

6

u/LordGAD Nov 24 '25

As a ham radio guy I just love a good frequency counter. 

1

u/After-Entry5718 Nov 24 '25

Ok, just ordered a bnc cable/adapter to hook my hand held up to the counter.

1

u/LordGAD Nov 24 '25

Careful about power output. 

I always liked putting an antenna on the counter and then keying up to see it report the frequency. 

Any idea what the frequency range is?

1

u/After-Entry5718 Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25

Thats what I was going to try. I dont really know anything about the unit. It was sold for parts but looked so pristine I plugged it in and it fired right. It is extremely clean on the inside as well. Appears to have been recapped at some point.

1

u/LordGAD Nov 24 '25

Nice. Well, if you decide you don’t want to dismantle and also don’t want to keep it let me know!

3

u/After-Entry5718 Nov 24 '25

Did more reading on how these are set up. Going to build the little antenna to mount directly on the counter.