[Hallicrafters] Tiny Chiefs and the SX 101A

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Andy, 	
	
I have often noticed that during a restoration the resistors generally test
within tolerance in spite of their age. I asked one very experienced tech about
this once out of curiosity as to why they survived so well for so long. He
really had no idea, but said that if they were going to fail they generally did
so in the first few years of use. His philosophy was, if it tests within
tolerance, there is no need to replace it. If it had not failed in forty years,
it was not apt to any time soon. 	
	
Has this been the onbservation of others also? 	
	
I always felt nervous about a set being refurbished electrically with all new
capacitors, new tubes and so forth, and the old resistors remained.    	
	
I wonder, are the newer resistors of the past twenty years inclined to stand the
test of time like the ones from the forties have?	
	
Duane W8DBF 	

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From: Andy Bullington <abullington at comcast.net>
To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Hallicrafters] Tiny Chiefs and the SX 101A
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 2:12 PM

They are the tubular red caps that say "Tiny Chief" on the side (along with
the capacitance and voltage rating) As long as we are on the topic....I just
finished recapping my
SX101A (and aligning it as well). Out of  30 or so paper
(molded plastic) caps I replaced, almost every one of the black ones with
color bands tested bad....about 25% of the Tiny Chief caps were bad. Overall
at least 90% of the caps were not up to spec and most of those were leaky .
I used an old Heath cap checker that has the leakage setting. The radio then
sounded great but was way out of alignment...especially on the higher bands
where the bottom of the bands was WAY off. After alignment the radio is more
sensitive and properly calibrated and sounds marvelous. This was my first
alignment and after running through it 3 or 4 times, I finally got it right.
I think this is an essential step. I know a lot of guys are hesitant to do
the alignment for fear of screwing something up (as I was) but it turned out
to be a terrific experience and I learned a lot.
                    Andy W1AWB


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