03-06-2011, 12:12 PM
Well, if you have a particular radio, you can get a schematic and/or sams photofact and you will soon know where everything is, and what it does. I would assume you would want to start with a pretty simple 5 or 6 tube set from the late 30's to late 40's . If it's a Philco, there is tons of information here.
Schematics also available for free at Nostalgia air http://www.nostalgiaair.org/ or for beitmans schematics, http://www.schmarder.com/radios/beitmans/index.htm .
If you want to do some textbook learning you can get gigs of free downloads at Pete Millet's site at http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm .
That's just a start. All these places have information from fellow hobbiests, and since it's all in the public domain, it can be shared.
You will need to have an isolation transformer to safely work on transformerless sets, a decent digital or VTVM, A variac to bring sets up slowly would be nice, and a signal generator completes the basic lineup. Nice to have is a scope, digital frequency meter, tube tester, capacitor tester/bridge. If you are patient, you can pick these up in a couple of months of searching Ebay, swap meets, etc...
You will also hear not to ever plug anything so old without changing out the electrolytic and all other wax capacitors first. It's true. Even then, it is wise to proceed slowly and carefully when powering up.
Your turn, Ron
Schematics also available for free at Nostalgia air http://www.nostalgiaair.org/ or for beitmans schematics, http://www.schmarder.com/radios/beitmans/index.htm .
If you want to do some textbook learning you can get gigs of free downloads at Pete Millet's site at http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm .
That's just a start. All these places have information from fellow hobbiests, and since it's all in the public domain, it can be shared.
You will need to have an isolation transformer to safely work on transformerless sets, a decent digital or VTVM, A variac to bring sets up slowly would be nice, and a signal generator completes the basic lineup. Nice to have is a scope, digital frequency meter, tube tester, capacitor tester/bridge. If you are patient, you can pick these up in a couple of months of searching Ebay, swap meets, etc...
You will also hear not to ever plug anything so old without changing out the electrolytic and all other wax capacitors first. It's true. Even then, it is wise to proceed slowly and carefully when powering up.
Your turn, Ron
