The 50C5 generally gets quite hot... and I don't think I have any that the plate (normally) gets red hot too...
.
Smiles- that's one thing you don't want to see -- a red (or orange- or yellow) Plate !.. Something is definitely wrong then !
Old timers have told me of how they adjusted the Plate current resonance dip by watching the colour of those plates.
"..........Can't trust the meters"
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We had (my father) an ancient WW2 real boat anchor- a BC 610E. When we moved from one station (Air Force family) to another my mother would always groan that we were overweight on our household goods (translate that as $'s)- but the 610 usually went with us.
To my point- that transmitter had a 250TH final- about the size and appearance of a very! big light bulb-- glass envelope and a filament that glowed white (as many high power'd tubes do.)
When it was run 'full out" (Hi-Pwr) my father would watch its plate's colour- a nice mild cherry glow on AM.
Seeing it glow like that always made me nervous (glowing plates still do
) But he would shrugged it off.....
.
.
Lauri
(the Beast- note the glowing pair of 100TH's- the plate modulator's- the 610 had beautiful AM !)
(Also note all that open wiring- over 2.5KV in there-- it had safety interlocks, but one nibble from that plate cap and it was "goodnight ladies!"
)