[Boatanchors] restored radio question

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 10/9/07, Gerry Steffens <gsteffens at pitel.net> wrote:

> I have approaching 300 radios in the collection.

You HOARDER!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist)  :D

Glad to see I'm not the only sicko out there with massive piles of
this junk. Somewhere between 300-400 different examples at last count.
Been trying to pare it down, as soon as I do, more arrives. Weird how
that works.

> How often and for how long per session should these functioning radios be
> turned on and used to preserve their functionality?

Plenty of good info, some seems a bit excessive to me but that's just
my view. I'd offer the following:

 - older sets with older parts, fire them up now and then just because
it's fun. Outlet strips work well for this. 'Restored' as in recapped,
re-resistored, re-everything - not a big issue. If you live in a damp
environment though, old carbon resistors, transformers, and no doubt
other components can suck up moisture over time. So it all depends on
how 'restored' your sets are, where they live, what you expect from
your gear, etc..

 - Variacs are indeed a good tool as John points out, although they
can be put to better use than sitting idle on a radio for voltage
regulation. Not disagreeing with John about keeping them near 115v,
just that all but the oldest AC gear I have is rated for some
percentage above or below 115v, maybe +/-10%? 105-125V comes to mind
as a 'safe' range. And thought I'm with John in that I wouldn't want
to run something for long periods at either end of the rating, a few
volts won't make a noticeable difference even long term. My house
hangs around 117-121. A power conditioner to outlet strip(s) should do
the trick if you have a big concern.

 - gassy tubes tend to be the biggest issue with transmitting tubes.
Receiving tubes...eh.. who cares? Unless it's something
old/scarce/expensive/delicate, I see no problem. Why not? Because
tubes are, for the most part, still as common as dirt. The entire
world ran on them for decades, the government kept huge stockpiles,
old radio shops and other caches are still found and liquidated
regularly. Not to mention nuts like us passing on to the Great Radio
Room in the Sky more and more.

I have an old Zenith 12S232 tombstone on a stand next to my bed. I
listen to it most nights lately, but didn't for years. Couple weeks
back I had to replace a microphonic 6J5 in it mainly because it was
annoying, not because the radio wouldn't work with it installed. I got
this radio back in.....'81 or '82? And I've used it a few times over
the years, but seldom with any regularity until recently (IBOC has me
a bit concerned).

Other than the one tube I replaced, the rest came with the set when I
got it, still work fine, and so on. At some point I intend to go
through it completely and install all Zenith tubes, new belts,
whatever else. But in the meantime, it picks up CHWO just fine. This
is the case will all my working radios, regardless of whenever the
last time was they were turned on.

Unless you run a piece of gear regularly, for hours at a time, I doubt
you'll wear out tubes or have issues of gassy tubes, bad
electrolytics, whatever else. There's always a chance that something
will fail, but weigh that against the time and effort spent in
perceived preventive maintenance-by-forced-use. You'll likely spend a
lot more time running around turning things one and off than you would
repairing something if it goes *pop*.

Then again, if you enjoy that kind of minutia and have plenty of time
to burn, knock yourself out. In the end, it's merely 'stuff' that we
enjoy playing around with. The part you enjoy most is what's important
to you.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ