03-05-2015, 11:34 AM
So I started messing around with the radio last night and wondered if you guys can point me in the right direction. Keep in mind I have no idea what I am doing and so far I have only understood about 30% of what you honyacks are saying.
I bought a used variac, tube continuity tester and made a dim bulb tester. I plugged the variac into the wall, the dim bulb tester into the variac and the radio into the dim bulb tester. I figured this way I could slowly up the voltage and still see what was going on with the current. There were no sparks, smoke, burning, or other bad signs so I took it to 100% voltage. When the radio is powered up the dim bulb tester burns brightly at first and then slowly dims back down like it is supposed to…. But it doesn’t seem to dim back down as much as I have seen in videos online. It went down to about 20-30% of the amount when it first turned on? I used a 60W bulb? Not sure if this is okay but I figured at least it shouldn’t have a bad short or it would have stayed bright right? After that I just plugged into the variac directly and powered up and left on for a little bit and most of the tubes started to glow very dim, but no sound at all or any other signs of life.
So next I took all the tubes out noted what was supposed to be in that spot, what actually was in that spot, and tested them with the continuity tester. Table of the results is attached and at this link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58236519@N00/16698888316/
A little detective work and you can see that it appears that someone put two sets of tubes in the wrong place. The Rectifier and AVC tubes appear to be switched as well as the Push/Pull and one of the discriminators. All the rest appear to be the correct tubes or substitutes in the right places. Would this have caused some damage elsewhere in the radio? I am thinking about putting them all back in the right position tonight and seeing what happens? From the continuity tester the Driver tube didn’t light the indicator light at all, the Rectifier and AVC light up the indicator light but very very dimly, and one of the discriminator tubes is separated from its base and nearly falling off, but indicator lights tests okay, but I don’t trust it and think I should probably get a new one? Wondering if I should put the tubes back all in correct position and see what happens, or just order 4 new tubes (Driver, Rectifier, Discriminator, and AVC)?
Also, after all of the tubes were taken out I tried the dim bulb tester again and when turned on the light did not come on at all? Is that what it is supposed to do?
Any thoughts on next steps?
Thanks, Bill
I bought a used variac, tube continuity tester and made a dim bulb tester. I plugged the variac into the wall, the dim bulb tester into the variac and the radio into the dim bulb tester. I figured this way I could slowly up the voltage and still see what was going on with the current. There were no sparks, smoke, burning, or other bad signs so I took it to 100% voltage. When the radio is powered up the dim bulb tester burns brightly at first and then slowly dims back down like it is supposed to…. But it doesn’t seem to dim back down as much as I have seen in videos online. It went down to about 20-30% of the amount when it first turned on? I used a 60W bulb? Not sure if this is okay but I figured at least it shouldn’t have a bad short or it would have stayed bright right? After that I just plugged into the variac directly and powered up and left on for a little bit and most of the tubes started to glow very dim, but no sound at all or any other signs of life.
So next I took all the tubes out noted what was supposed to be in that spot, what actually was in that spot, and tested them with the continuity tester. Table of the results is attached and at this link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58236519@N00/16698888316/
A little detective work and you can see that it appears that someone put two sets of tubes in the wrong place. The Rectifier and AVC tubes appear to be switched as well as the Push/Pull and one of the discriminators. All the rest appear to be the correct tubes or substitutes in the right places. Would this have caused some damage elsewhere in the radio? I am thinking about putting them all back in the right position tonight and seeing what happens? From the continuity tester the Driver tube didn’t light the indicator light at all, the Rectifier and AVC light up the indicator light but very very dimly, and one of the discriminator tubes is separated from its base and nearly falling off, but indicator lights tests okay, but I don’t trust it and think I should probably get a new one? Wondering if I should put the tubes back all in correct position and see what happens, or just order 4 new tubes (Driver, Rectifier, Discriminator, and AVC)?
Also, after all of the tubes were taken out I tried the dim bulb tester again and when turned on the light did not come on at all? Is that what it is supposed to do?
Any thoughts on next steps?
Thanks, Bill
