[glyphmon]

While I'm waiting on some material to attempt the repair of a band switch wafer, and the subsequent final two resistor replacements, I was thinking about test equipment.

I know a dim bulb test is basically the first step once I'm reasonably certain I've gotten everything back together correctly, and so I put this together today with old things we have around/extracted from the houses here and next door:

   

Two old surface-mount Levitons, an old porcelain bulb socket, and re-used the safe part of the radio's old power cord and plug.  The wiring between the devices is the only "new" stuff - decided not to try reusing the old knob and tube wiring.  The board is cut from one of the 140 year old subfloor boards from the house that was removed, replaced, and kept aside a few years back.  No idea about the age of the bulb, but I'm thinking it's up there too - still works though.  This one is a 60 watt bulb, though.  According to the specs, the 37-620 uses 65 watts.  What wattage bulbs would you say are ideal for testing once at that stage?  As I understand it, to truly test for a short, I should be trying a bulb which itself is a higher wattage than the radio to see if it goes super bright and stays that way, but I'm also thinking a super-high wattage is bad for the radio if there is actually a short?

I've also been looking at some variacs online.  Most people seem to think that's a pretty essential piece as well - agree/disagree?  I've heard isolation transformer also, but not as universally necessary.

Looking forward further, when I'm sure the radio is electrically sound, I presume it should also be realigned.  I know more tools are helpful than not, but a signal generator seems to be pretty much an absolute necessity.  Are there specs or features I should be looking for?

Best wishes,
Roy