[ARC5] Find Bad Bypasses in 20 minutes

[Tom Bridgers]

Dave,
Really appreciate the time, skill, and effort it took to document, photograph, and share with us your technique of finding bad bypass caps in a 522.

I always learn a lot from your postings.

Your post reminded me of a post to the list many years ago, by Marty Reynolds, of Atlanta, who  shared with us  a similar approach to id a leaky cap in ARC5 RX’s.

He removed (unsoldered) the ground end of the two 7k grid resistors, and then applied 250v to that now ungrounded lead, and got a current measurement.

Filament voltage was off during this process.

He then would turn off the 250v power, unscrew a flower pot cap, insulate it from the chassis, turn the power back on and get a current reading.  A lower current reading would indicate that cap was leaky and needed to be replaced.  

Then he would repeat the process for each cap in the RX, and in doing so would identify which caps were bad and needed to be replaced.

Unfortunately Marty passed away several years ago, and has been greatly missed by all of us who knew him. A super nice guy who would keep the Boatanchors Group at the Shelby Hamfest each year spellbound with his stories about military, commercial, and amateur electronics.  
Vy 73,
Tom KE4RHH