[NJARC] Radios at War of the Worlds

[Owen Gerboth]

Al I hope non of my radios had serious problems. I played all four sets for 
two days. Only one had a small problem with the tone control that I fixed.

Owen
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Al Klase" <al at ar88.net>
To: "New Jersey Antique Radio Club" <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:46 PM
Subject: [NJARC] Radios at War of the Worlds


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> _______________________________________________
> Folks,
>
> I found myself up to my armpits in half-assed radios at Sarnoff last 
> Saturday.  Perhaps as may as one third of the set proved to be unusable. 
> I didn't have time to evaluate each one, or even pay attention to whose 
> they were.
>
> Now, all these things are 70-years-old, and no matter how careful one is 
> there will still be some problems.  Thinks like noisy volume controls that 
> clear up, at least temporarily, with a couple of twists and bad contacts 
> in tube sockets and band switches come and go and are hard to predict and 
> eliminate completely.  Getting one of these antiques to work like-new is a 
> non-trivial assignment.
>
> There were a couple of radios with RF/IF instability.  When you hear a 
> whistle when you tune through a station, that's a problem.
>
> The key here is that a five-minute test isn't the answer.  When you work 
> on a set, try to listen to it for an extended time.  Get it going, then 
> leave it play in the shop for a while, maybe even a week.  When it makes 
> trouble, try to figure out why, and eliminate that problem.  Tapping on 
> things with a stick is a really good way to isolate intermittents. 
> Contact cleaner on switches, the volume control, and tube sockets is a 
> good investment.
>
> When you find a particular problem, like a resistor that's gone way-high 
> in value or a funky tube socket, look for more of the same.
>
> I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to the War of the Worlds event, 
> especially the guys who brought really-solid good-playing radios like Bob 
> Bennet and Sal Brisindi.
>
> Regards,
> Al
>
> P.S.  I also have a suspicion that the better quality sets like RCA's, 
> Zeniths, and GE's are easier to get operating reliability.  There were 
> reasons these thing cost a hundred buck in depression money.
>
> -- 
> Al Klase - N3FRQ
> Jersey City, NJ
> http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
>
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