[Hallicrafters] Re: [Hallicrafters]4 #402 -- S-38 Power Card; +Iso Xfmr!

[Phil Barnes-Roberts AD6PQ]

At 04:04 AM 12/26/03 -0500, hallicrafters-request at mailman.qth.net juggled 
the keys to produce...
>Message: 9
>From: "George Yazzolino" <kc7hkp at teleport.com>
>To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
>Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2003 22:07:59 -0800
>Subject: [Hallicrafters] S-38 power cord
>
>hi Guys
>I have a S-38 that has a bad power cord and I was thinking of putting on a 3
>wire cord. would the green ground go directly to the metal chassis. ?
>I just received it a couple of weeks ago and brought it up with a varaic and
>it worked !. still has all the original parts  Caps resistors ect.. only see
>one up-dated cap in the whole thing.
>any ways thank for all your help.
>so 3 cord ??
>
>P. George Yazzolino
>14801 NE 20 Circle
>Vancouver, Wa. 98684
>KC7HKP, Grid  CN-85
>(360) 885-0981

Hi, George--

I had to go check; try < http://www.antiqueradio.org/halli08.htm >  and of 
course, the BAMA (BoatAnchors Manual Archive) for manual, schematic, etc. 
at < http://bama.sbc.edu/hallicra.htm >

I was pretty sure my old S-38(E?) was an AC/DC set, and yep; they ALL 
are.  That means one side of the AC line is hooked _directly_ to 
chassis.  Usually there is some clever insulation scheme that keeps 
ordinary user fingers away from the potentially HOT chassis, but those have 
been known (esp. in older equipment) to fail!  It's a 50-50 proposition 
which way it's plugged in every time.  That was also before polarized 
two-prong plugs, with one (neutral) wider than the other.

To be safe, follow the advice in halli08 above; find a new isolation 
transformer of appropriate size/power capacity, and keep it with the radio, 
then you can use a three-wire cord if you wish.