Writing is molded into the polymer housing:
“KM” 273297-26
Serial: 853838 DC 05 06

There’s no other information on the tube. The objective of the tube has a deep blue/indigo tint. The tube came out of an Armasight unit labeled as having a Gen “3Alpha” tube... obviously with manual gain. It produces a pretty nice clear image without any blems. There’s no data sheet.

Attached File


Attached File

I have a similar one. I thinks yours is in the Omni 7 range. Older ITT tube from 2006

CAD date says 0506 which is 6th week of 2005 or made in feb 05.

Do  google search with the K&M and the part number and site:ar15.com and if anyone has posted it  before it will show up.

K&M is ITT evenutally and omni 7 start date is 06 so possible omni 6. should be a nice tube, not steller specs but very nice.

Edit, second post on the below page and thread. has the same part number with an 04 cad date, so that still makes me think its an omni 6

https://www.ar15.com/forums/Armory/How-to-tell-what-type-of-tube-you-have/18-426658/?page=12

Run of the mill ITT tube, probably Omni VI equivalent. The numbers on the power supply pretty much tells you nothing because that's just a serial number and date for the KM power supply/tube boot. Not necessarily the actual tube assembly itself. That information would be on a label that's placed over the top of the tube, and usually a serial number engraved on the side.

That seems odd. The original receipt says the Armasight unit was purchased new in 2016. It sat on the shelf for a decade? Is that common?

Yes its common, why would they buy a brand new tube for what could be hundreds more when they can buy off the self stuff that is new old stock. There was a guy selling NOS in the box omni 7 pvs-7 tubes made 10 years ago or longer for 800 and something.

That is an OMNI V thin-filmed Tube, non-gated. If if it was a commercial grade, it is probably a SELA if your lucky, nice tubes, I like the late OMNI V ITT tubes. Edit- not a SELA tube, The power supply part # has the -8 suffix on those.

The power supply part # tells you a lot about a tube, especially ITT tubes of that era. The -26 suffix series of KM power supplies were non-gated and used on both MX11769 and MX10160 tubes. If the tube were gated it would have a three digit suffix. Attached File

@1paintball

Out of curiosity, what makes you say OMNI V instead of OMNI VI?  I'm not disagreeing, but the more info I seem to gather, the less clear things seem.  I've seen a few posts around saying these early 2000's K&M tubes are anything from OMNI IV through OMNI VII...

And cj7hawk's chart lists OMNI V contracts starting in 1999 and OMNI VI in 2002 and OMNI VII in 2006.  With an '05 date, wouldn't that indicate mine more of a late VI tube?  
https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/US_Omni_Classifications__Table_of_Differences/18-317705/

To add even more confusion, they could have been making omni 3 tubes in 2020. If the contract is still running, no likely but possible. Also most likely they would have been omni 7 or 8 spec, just under a omni 3 contract.

Thats why the born on date does matter, as well as the contract number which will give min specs. A contract of omni 6 made the day before a new contract for omni 7 is most likely a 7 spec tube, but still a 6 contract.

Thats why we like omni spec, it gives us min spec levels with out data sheets, yes data sheets are better and mean more than omni specs. Your tube is a commercial tube so realistically could be anything, could have specs that are 7, or 4 or any where in the middle.