[jcassity]

i powered up and the problem remained.
so jumping around the socket proved out a socket is a waste of time.

The only conductor i had not disconnected from pin 6 was the tone control shielded wire run.

i took that wire away from my gobbled 3way splice with the read jumper and the radio was perfect, no poping or anything.


at that moment  i traced that shielded wire out and confirmed it was the tone control,, a part of me said,,, who needs tone control anyway.
i put everything back to normal and did not connect the tone control back up..
Radio operates fine,, and pin 6 on the 6sq7 reads 60VDC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so,, the center of the radio has three shielded wire runs which on each end the shield has been skinned back an inch or so and soldered to the chassis.
the wire pokes out and continues on out to its final termination point.
i guess the insulation around the conductor is breaking down and its arch flashing out onto the shield... pulling down my pin 6 voltage expectations.

I ran a plain old wire from the tone ctl to pin 6 and all is well.

here is a pic where you can almost make out the three shielded runs.  i retired in place the problem wire and thats the way its gotta be.  ive used another wire to replace it unshielded.