[Boatanchors] Bad tube pins.

[Philip Atchley]

Hi All,
Yesterday I thought I'd finally finished with the Farnsworth BC-342N, only to
have it go "belly up" after cooking it for several hours in it's tightly
sealed cabinet.  It appeared the LO had gone berserk as the upper bands all
dropped down in frequency significantly while the lower bands were either dead
or jumping all over.   After turning it off and letting it cool for a little
while all was normal again.

So I anticipated having to pull the bandswitch shaft out followed by the LO
module (yuck) for trouble shooting.

However, I opened the little tube access door and pulled the 6C5 tube out for
testing.  Stuck it in the old B& K and waited, and waited, and waited.  No Gm.
Smacked it one and waited and it came to life ( I knew it was working 5
minutes before I pulled it).  Pulled it out and stuck it back in, dead!
Wobbled it and it came to life.  So, I cleaned the pins with DeOxit, no help!
Then I decided to try resolder the pins, even though outer appearance was
good.  resoldered all the pins and stuck it in the tester, good.  Smack it
with my hand, still good, smack it with the hammer and it was still good
(yeah right).  Anyway, it now at least reliably tests good in the tester.

Stuck it back in the set and checked calibration, no change from when I
aligned it the other day 8^)  Time will tell, but I think I fixed it!

73 de Phil KO6BB
A genuine Antique SWLing from Central
California with Antique Radios.

RX 1:  Military Surplus Farnsworth BC-342N (circa 1943).
RX 2:  Hallicrafters SX-71 (circa 1955).
RX 3:  Grundig YB-300 digital (spotting set ONLY).
Antennas: 65' sloper, 1/2 size G5RV Inverted Vee,
                 15M Inverted Vee, Hustler 6BTV Vertical.