The AM Forum

When you have many mostly small pieces of junk in the shack, stuff tends to break and get set aside. Well I am almost up to my ears in basically functional "but not right" gear. Time to go into troubleshooting mode. Problem is any one of these projects could kill a weekend...

HP606B - Low output - a cursary check of tubes and voltages revealed nothing and I have a feeling that this one will be deep.

Apache - does not whoop - still stuck on the hum issue in the mic 12AX7...WA1QHQ says to drive it at line level and get on with it.

Marauder - Carrier not nulling - Hey who cares - its AM!

BA-AR-430 Transmitter - Intermittant Oscillator - this one is killing me becuase it is such a simple rig and I have changed about everything...

TCS - Oscillator Jerking around- This is new - not the tube or contacts - likely a cap.

Heath Grid Dipper - output intermittent around the phono connector used for the coils.

R390A - RF Deck Caps - Deck needs to be pulled out etc...what fun.

ART-13 - backwave problem on CW - this is basically uninstalling a failed grid block keying mod directly from the surplus conversion manual. They tell you to grid block key the final. works as advertised but trouble is the multipliers are quite strong and with no neutralization, this rig has a lot of back-wave.

BC-652 - AGC Problem

SP-400 - AGC Problem and needs the noise limiter put back in.

ARC-5 Transmitter - oscillator jerking around

WS-19 MKII - Oscillator Jerking around - sense a theme? I am told that this is normal...

Morgan Receiver fell off bench and cracked panel :( No components damaged though.

A few things are still 100% but my wounded are growing in number.

Mike WU2D

Mike,
Pick out your favorite piece and work on that otherwise things can get a bit overwhelming.  If your in a mood that its not fun, don't work on it! 
Joe, W3GMS   

Hi Mike,

I hear ya!  ;D

Here's what I do when I get to that point... (and most everyone eventually has stuff crapping out on a periodic basis.)


Sometimes you have to have no mercy and clean house. I have a rule that if something doesn't work, it either gets fixed immediately or put down the cellar in storage. If it stays in storage for more than a coupla of years, I get rid of it - or if homebrew, tear it down for parts.

Most of us accumulate a lot of stuff and become repair slaves to it. There was a time when I had a few commercial AM rigs like the Ranger. They crapped out MORE than my homebrew stuff, so I no longer have any commercial tube AM gear here.  Also, there's lots of homebrew rigs that I get tired of and tear them down to recycle into something else.


I'm going through that right now. Basically going through all the rigs in the shack and rebuilding them to improve or taking them off-line, some for parts. I tore down my 4X1 PDM rig (it was too frickin dangerous) and starting over to build up a new 4X1, plate modulated by a pair. My SSB amp had lousy cooling (so I found after blowing a seal) and made big improvements on that. Sometimes a crapout sparks a huge change. This blown tube seal started me on several weeks of work...

Don't get stuck in a rut thinking you HAVE to repair all that stuff. It might be better to sell some off and get something new to play with.

Just some thoughts that might help...  ;)

T

Just going by the title of the thread.. Hmm.. when did you first notice this?
That is the norm around here. Things that have not been used in a few years get turned on and Boioioioing! the smoke comes out or it just sits there innocently and doesn't work. I try to turn everything on for a day at least once a month. It took a year to get around to fixing a Scott hi-fi amp due to an intermittent. It would stop playing then as soon as you even touched it, it would start. It turned out to be the tape input switch. I had looked everywhere but there and put it aside. When I went back to it, the fresh approach led me to the switch. My problem is people give me broken stuff and I have no time to fix all of it.

The Heathkit grid dipper  -that is easy one, you have to replace the jack. The jack is very cheaply made. Any sort of poor contact there and it will be intermittent. This means you may also have to replace some of the plugs.

Oscillators jerking, if they have multiple grids, it can be a screen cap or the resistor. Many old sets, you know they have the carbon resistors. My SX-28 would do this all the time.

Why not pick the one piece of gear you like the most and work on it? Friday nite, drink a few beers and go look at the equipment. Stand in front of it and stare at all of it and think about the schematics. Then pick one to work with on Saturday. Just have to dive in!

Tell me about it! I had to finally bite the bullet and let a lot of stuff go. Didn't want to, but it was just getting too insane. Stuff sitting on top of stuff sitting on top of other stuff. Couldn't get to my toolboxes, didn't have any room to take anything apart to work on. Couldn't find anything when I needed it. Insanity! I took a break for a month and decided what to move and what to keep.

I've got a lot of things waiting: HB Tx., two ART-13's, two Bandmasters, six ARC-5's, about 6 receivers, and a Valiant rebuild to fix a CB'ers "improvements". That's just a small list.

Right now, I'm doing two receivers and when they're completed, I'll take a break and move on. Take the biggest PITA to work on first and when you get it out of the way, the rest will feel a lot easier.

I have a Heath FET dipper and I found mine was shorting out due to the case fit / insulating fiberboard floating around at the RCA jack. Be careful of the case screws also.

For my next project, I hope to get the mobile set up with an ARC-5 and maybe a Elmac Rx. The Elmac's are getting hard to find, so if I have no luck there, I'll have to figure on something else.

Phil

 Your estate sale would be a good place to send people we don't like. Like the rude folks in the "Estate Sale" thread elsewhere.

Yeah I have a quite a number of German airplanes around here too, you know, 'Messashitzs'. I'm trying to drive my self to work on one unit at a time and get it done. But there are times I will sit down and begin something and get completely overwhelmed and just throw in the towel.

Geez... such woes!

I can help.

Just give me some notice and I can arrange to drive up and remove those evil, no-good, uncooperative pieces of gear from your enviornment and life! Just think about the open space you will have, the improved karma, and the relief that this prudent move will have!

                           ;D

                                        _-_-

Riding that HB train is the only way to go. parts is always cheaper than store bought. I'm gonna hit that 4E27A rig hard now that all the drama is over with the muddy water slappa.  8)

Then I have to get the 75A2 and the RAO-7 working. then I need to get going on a pair of 4-400's. then...

I worked on my tuner yesterday instead of digging in to any of that stuff!

The TCS comes first. It is stock and has never had a cap changed out. And the problem is likely as mentioned, a cap on one of the screens!

Mike WU2D

Here's an idea:

If you or the XYL are good cooks or there's a great pizza shop nearby, have a work weekend or Saturday and invite folks from the forum to your place and start fixing things. Towards the end of festing bring out the beer. Bringing the brew too early and nothing will get done.

It may take several of these weekends to evaluate and collect repair parts to complete the task

Fred