With apologies for borrowing the title of the final episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, all of us hams will inevitably exit this mortal tank-coil someday, leaving another ham - hopefully - with a lot of our stuff, much of it home-brew. Given that, I think it's prudent to take some steps to insure that the howls and curses of mortal discomfiture don't echo in our ears even into the afterlife.
This nifty old amplifier I recently acquired (
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=45414.0) had absolutely no labeling or identification on any of the panel meters, indicator lamps, switches or connectors: bad enough in itself, but in going through and making my own schematic for the thing, I find that the original builder used zip-cord for all of the low voltage control, switching, filament primary, and much of the metering. Bundles of the stuff - all the same color of course - disappear into harnesses that snake their way up to the front panel, and since it's mostly tied to very low resistance items - relay coils; transformer primaries; ammeters - it's nearly impossible to trace it via continuity tester, since it invariably all reads as tied together. No quick disconnects or spade lugs, either.
So, it's down to hours of prying through bundles of mono-colored wire, pulling and tugging and pushing to see what moves, skinned knuckles and cut fingers; not to mention a few choice words calling into question the parentage of the builder and certain items of his anatomy.
To paraphrase Russell Crowe in Gladiator: "Death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back, and keep zip-cord out of our radio projects."
