[Hallicrafters] Another resource for beginners

Thu May 6 19:08:03 EDT 2010

Thank you Carl and Carl for mentioning the excellent William Marcus and Alex Levy
books. I second your recommendations for "Elements Of Radio Servicing" and "Practical Radio Servicing. " Both books do a great job of covering the basics in a way that is informative while interesting to read and so easy to follow that you will have a hard time putting either one of them down. I agree there is no substitute for hands on experience but you also need an understanding of the basics so you know where to start and what to do next before you begin taking things apart. You should be able to find them on the Internet auction site for around $10 more or less.

73, Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl <km1h at jeremy.mv.com>
To: Carl Nord WA1KPD <chnord at comcast.net>
Cc: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Thu, May 6, 2010 5:11 pm
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Another resource for beginners

Id suggest that a beginner start with the first book in that series, 
Elements Of Radio Servicing" which was aimed at training WW2 servicemen for 
 civilian job fixing consumer grade radios. It does a good job explaining 
hings to a former foxhole digger with absolutely no radio experience for 
xample. This is a 1947 copyright.
The excellent book suggested by Carl Nord was first published in 1956 and 
evised in 1963 with some SS sections.
While there is a lot of overlap they complement each other and the 1947 book 
s particularly good for some of the prewar circuits. Both are fairly common 
n Ebay, vintage radio swapmeets and that type of forums.
I picked up both books about 10 years ago when I got serious about 
ollecting consumer style radios and it was very helpful with several new to 
e circuits not found in communications sets.
Carl
M1H

---- Original Message ----- 
rom: "Carl Nord WA1KPD" <chnord at comcast.net>
o: "Mike Pagel" <mpagel at uwsp.edu>
c: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
ent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 4:08 PM
ubject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Another resource for beginners

 The absolute best resource I have is a book from the 40s or 50s called 
 "Practical Radio Servicing" by

 William Marcus and Alex Levy

 The book walks you through circuit theory and trouble shooting by each 
 section of a tube radio. It explains what a part does, how it does it and 
 what symptoms are exhibited when the part is bad. It is not aimed at an 
 engineer but at the normal guy who might be trying to fix a radio

 The book starts at the AF output and works its way back.

 They show up on ebay from time to time and at radio shows. I strongly 
 recommend it. I only wish they had done a similer book for transmitters.

 73
 Carl
 WA1KPD

 ----- Original Message ----- 
 From: "Mike Pagel" <mpagel at uwsp.edu>
 To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
 Sent: Thursday, May 6, 2010 3:36:23 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
 Subject: [Hallicrafters] Another resource for beginners

 Several days ago I posed a question about resources for beginners...today 
 I'm sharing a link to a potentially useful tool for newbies.

 The 1949 version of the NRI Radio Repair Course is available (PDF) for 
 download at:
 http://www.fyrbotlz.com/Downloads.html

 The education provided by the NRI material is far too basic to have value 
 to most of the subscribers on this list, but I expect to gain competence 
 and confidence by taking the course. I've recapped a half dozen radios, 
 with the SX-101 being the most sophisticated of that small group, but 
 simply swapped caps without really understanding what each one did and 
 why.

 Most hams I know will say that radio theory came easily while they 
 struggled to master the code. For me, it was the other way around.

 73, de Mike, K9UW
 Amherst, WI

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