I built up the new socket needed to test the slightly oddball nixie tubes. They appear to be NL-845s, with an RTS-14 base - it took some doing to find that, because if they ever had markings those were long gone before they arrived here. Wound up doing an elimination comparison using the Swiss Nixie site - jotted down all the possibilities based on the base, then started looking and crossing the ones it couldn't be off. Digit height and decimal point placement are what finally confirmed it as much as I can.
It's an unusual 14 (13 in this case) pin base with an outer ring and up to a quad of pins inside the outer ring.
All the tubes from the counter were run through the tester - it steps thought all ten digits sequentially, and has an adjustable step rate and variable voltage.
All were functional, but a few had some possible cathode poisoning in a few spots, with sections that were less inclined to light at lower voltages, but did fully illuminate once the level was turned up a bit. I'll let them burn at a slightly higher current later if it's a problem once they're back in the actual counter. The pins will get a cleaning as well. Funny how when illuminated, the light hitting the inside of the tube envelope makes it appear that they have colored filters when they're really clear.
-Pat
