[ARC5] Can old crystals be restored ?

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I sometimes encounter crystals in FT-243-A holders that exhibit low output. 
 There could be a myriad of reasons for this.  I haven't found that opening 
up the holder and cleaning the crystal and contact plates results in any 
consistant improvement.  However, I have found that whapping the face of the 
holder smartly about three times against the upright of the steel open frame 
rack that my crystal tester is mounted in sometimes results in an 
improvement so that has become SOP.

However, if the crystal is dead instead of weak, I have found that with 99 
and 44/100 percent probability, either one or both of the pigtails on the 
brass contact plates are broken.at the point where they join the rectangular, 
square or round plates.  Repair success ratio so far is 100%.  The problem 
is that the various contractors who made FT-243 crystal assemblies almost 
always used different shape contact plates.  So the organ donor holder should 
be made by the same contractor.  I have not found a practical way to repair a 
plate because of where the break always is.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480

In a message dated 06/11/2016 08:38:17 AM Central Daylight Time, 
arc5 at mailman.qth.net writes: 
> Got his box full of xtals for the BC-659, but wouldn't ya know that only 
> one of the 10 meter simplex ones are good!
> I suspect that the problem is internal contact oxidation, but I wonder if 
> anyone here has restored one and how they did it.
> Otherwise I'll just have to open one up and see what I can do with it.  
> 
> 
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