Can I hook a neon tube and disc to a modern radio and get pictures?
ANSWER. Some Depression-era radios included a jack for neon tube drive. In those days, you could indeed plug a neon tube directly into the receiver. The amplifier was widebanded enough to produce mechanical TV pictures on the tube. Of course, you had to synchronize your scanning disc to the station. As long as the station was local and line-synchronized, scanning disc sync would be easy. Your scanning disc also had to match the one in the station. In the US, typical line standards varied from about 24 to about 60. Many others existed, too. Also, the image polarity, rotation direction and scanning speed varied between stations. In 1929, the RMA proposed and passed regional standards. National standards waited for years. As you know, we still don’t have international standards. Modern radios can drive an LED display, and you can scan the display. The technique isn’t as simple as plugging in a neon tube, though. (But almost.) My site provides a 12-LED circuit. You can build such a circuit
