10-17-2017, 01:12 AM
I did work for Digital Equipment, but I started after the heyday of PDPs, and in the 90s, it was all board swapping until the problem was fixed. (So now you may understand why testing tubes wasn't my first instinct, and why I found the problem by substitution. Sometimes you have to swap all the DIMM's and move the originals back one at a time until the problem comes back. A 24A is just a single bit DIMM to me.)
I'd rather work on radios because (a) I can get a schematic, (b) I can easily see and replace individual components (and a slip of the screwdriver won't dislodge a dozen microscopic capacitors), and © I don't have to use an anti-static strap.
The great thing about 80+ year old radios is you get to have imaginary conversations with the long dead people who built them. ("Boy, you really wrapped that wire in there, didn't you? Don't you realize that a baby will be born in a few years, who will have a son, and that child, after aging well into his fifties, will judge your work?")
Sorry about the rambling post...
Anyway, about that mystery resistor. Theories?
I'd rather work on radios because (a) I can get a schematic, (b) I can easily see and replace individual components (and a slip of the screwdriver won't dislodge a dozen microscopic capacitors), and © I don't have to use an anti-static strap.
The great thing about 80+ year old radios is you get to have imaginary conversations with the long dead people who built them. ("Boy, you really wrapped that wire in there, didn't you? Don't you realize that a baby will be born in a few years, who will have a son, and that child, after aging well into his fifties, will judge your work?")
Sorry about the rambling post...
Anyway, about that mystery resistor. Theories?
"Why, the tubes alone are worth more than that!" (Heard at every swap meet. Gets me every time!)
Philcos: 90, 70, 71B, 610, 37-61 40-81, 46-420 Code 121 to name a few.
Plus enough Zeniths, Atwater Kents and others to trip over!
