[Hammarlund] Re-fusing to work!

[Craig Roberts]

The very first components I install during the electronic restoration of 
an AC powered boatanchor are a new, 3-wire line cord (Home Depot has 
nice ones in the guise of power tool replacement cords), "safety" caps 
(see www.justrados.com), and -- if the radio soesn't have them already 
-- a fuse holder and fuse on the side of the AC line that goes to the 
ON/OFF switch.

I was reminded of the wisdom of this practice (as aggressively and 
correctly promoted by our friends Ed Richards, Roy Morgan and others) 
last night.  After reinstalling a couple of IF transformers I had 
rebuilt for one of my project receivers, I "powered up" and was 
instantly startled by a momentary white flash in a dark corner of the 
radio.  The little 1-1/2 amp fuse had blown.  I unplugged the set and 
inspected the area I had just worked on. Sure enough, I had accidently 
bent a thin capactor lead and shorted it to an adjacent tube socket 
pin.  I could have simply bent the lead out of harm's way, but -- for 
the sake of safety -- I unsoldered the errant lead, slipped s short 
length of Teflon insulation on it and resoldered it. The radio then 
played perfectly.

The problem was discovered and rectified in less than two minutes thanks 
to a 50-cent fuse, and no harm came to the radio.  I'm not sure what 
would have blown, burnt or fizzled without the fuse in line, but I'm 
sure the repair would not have been quite so simple or economical.

73,
Craig
W3CRR
www.aerialacts.com