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FrozenGate by Avery

LPS SOX Sodium Lamps

Hey.What strange & interesting hobby's you have.Damn,i use to have a strange facination with SOX lamps years ago.our local council are now replacing LPS SOX lamps around the city so i decided to visit the street lighting dept before they scrapped the lamps.I have a nice 35w lantern and my favourite a Philips (MA60) 180w 240v lantern,its a massive beast nearly 6ft long.
And my lasers are mostly from lazerer.400mw 532 Stick,400mw 532 firedragon,100mw 532nm Rifle 3X. and a cyber 1w ,
And my Transceiver is a kenwood ts 850.
I used to work the space station quite alot on 2mtrs.Now just active on HF.
Hope to catch you on the air or echolink some day.
Whats your callsign? e-mail me via QRZ.
73 de Robert m0odv
 
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@ M0ODV
There's a bunch of riff raff that comes here now and then so I had to withdraw my callsign from my signature for security reasons, but I'll PM it to ya. I haven't been active on HF for a while (a few months), other priorities and projects are taking my time. We do have a few members who's username is their callsign so I wouldn't worry too much. I had identity theft a few years back so I'm a little more careful these days is all.

After reading the specifications for mounting angles I decided to modify my plans and just use some scrap wood I had left for a simple fixture in my office. When I get the B22 to E26 adapter in I'll remove my soldered on leads and hook it up properly (electrically) but for now it is pretty well set. I'm not going to waste cash on a fancy fixture, I'm a pragmatist.

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edit: MO0DV it appears you must have PMs disabled or something? It won't let me PM you. I'll hit ya up on QRZ when I get a chance.
 
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Lol, 30k lumens....

Someone needs to mount one into a gigantic mirrored parabolic reflector and add an equally large focusing lens....

Sodium ray of death!
 
Jokes aside, the massive emitting area means you'll get no ray at all. Ever try to get a beam out of a fluorescent tube? ;)
 
Haha, I know, just joking about the death ray, hehe. Still, quite a beastly lamp. I wonder how many watts of incandescent it would take to get 32k lumens...
 
I've always loved the cool yellow sodium glow since i was a kid. And these tubes contain an amalgam of sodium and mercury- my two favorite metals :)
We have the low pressure ones at work which are more pink, not as pleasing.
Iv'e always been curious about sodium lasers they use in astronomy, although a little too ambitious to make at home.
 
AUS said:
I've always loved the cool yellow sodium glow since i was a kid. And these tubes contain an amalgam of sodium and mercury- my two favorite metals :)
We have the low pressure ones at work which are more pink, not as pleasing.
Iv'e always been curious about sodium lasers they use in astronomy, although a little too ambitious to make at home.
Click to expand...

I Think Youll Find that low pressure sodium lamps are sodium only , High pressure sodium contain mercury and sodium .
 
Sigurthr said:
I wonder how many watts of incandescent it would take to get 32k lumens...
Click to expand...

Higher power incandescents approach 20lm/W. So 1500W should do it.

AUS said:
We have the low pressure ones at work which are more pink, not as pleasing.
Click to expand...

They are still HPS. The color changes slightly as they age because of minor leaking.

AUS said:
Iv'e always been curious about sodium lasers they use in astronomy, although a little too ambitious to make at home.
Click to expand...

They excite sodium, but they do not use sodium as a lasing medium. Sodium doesn't lase.
 
ionlaser555 said:
I Think Youll Find that low pressure sodium lamps are sodium only , High pressure sodium contain mercury and sodium .
Click to expand...

Yep, you are correct, sorry my bad. And the lamps at work are the pinkish looking ones- the high pressure ones. I believe they have some neon in them to help the arc strike?
 
Cyparagon said:
They are still HPS. The color changes slightly as they age because of minor leaking.

They excite sodium, but they do not use sodium as a lasing medium. Sodium doesn't lase.
Click to expand...

OK I was a tad confused so I just consulted Wikipedia......
"High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps are smaller and contain additional elements such as mercury, and produce a dark pink glow when first struck, and a pinkish orange light when warmed."

And yes I knew sodium lasers used a laser to excite sodium, like a dye laser. Kinda...
 
It has arrived! (finally) :)

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No ballast for it yet though, and no variac for it either :(
 
Bah, couldn't resist hooking it up to my CO2 tube PSU just to check it was gas intact .. and watch it for a bit of course :)

Not enough power to warm it up, and DC, thus why 1 electrode is glowing more than the other. Not good to run them this way, but I had to see it :)

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Yep! Wasn't so sure at first, as the box is pretty bent out of shape, but the bulb is pretty solid. Happy it survived. It's sitting here on my bench being admired until I get my ballast in around 2 weeks :(
 
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