[R-390] Cleaning

[sdaitch at mor.ibb.gov]

I had to make sure this is not April first, in
reference to the distilled water questions,
but in all seriousness, unless you have thoroughly
cleaned the radio numerous times with distilled water,
as soon as any of the salt compounds and other impurities
get disolved in the distilled water, it probably becomes 
highly conductive again.  It doesn't take a lot to make
distilled water conductive.

73
sheldon




----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Merz <mdmerz at verizon.net>
Date: Monday, March 19, 2007 1:11 am
Subject: RE: [R-390] Cleaning

> Hi, if it were a 390 I'd let it warm up to 45 to 50 deg C with air 
> movementand I would guess the water would be gone within a few 
> hours to 24 hours.
> Direct sunlight and some  way of forcing warm air over the radio 
> should do
> it.  Turn the radio upside down if you literally filled every nook and
> cranny.  You can probably safely heat it higher but not sure.   
> Has anyone
> ever submerged a 390 radio in distilled water and plugged it in 
> while under
> water ?  Or has anyone ever turned the heater on to a typical receiver
> vacuum tube under water?  Unless you really soaked the power 
> tranformer to
> the extent that water got into the windings, I'm having trouble 
> imaginingwhat would give.  If you took a dry 390, put it under 
> distilled water and
> immediately turned it on, what would give.  Do ferrite cores soak 
> up water?
> Does the phenolic suck up water and weaken?  Probably to some 
> extent but can
> safely driven out by moderate temperature.  I'm not willing to try
> submerging mine and powering it up unless someone is willing to 
> pay for the
> report.  And since I'm not familiar with a Siemens E311 my 
> recommendationabout how to get rid of the water may not be worth 
> much. I started out to be
> helpful but got lost in expanding the scope of the question, 
> forgive me.
> Postscript:  what a beautiful looking radio the E311 is !! - I 
> googled it
> and found some pics.
> 
> Most cleaning jobs,  with the exception of cleaning moving 
> mechanical parts
> such as gears, bearing, are aimed at cosmetic beauty.  I can't 
> recall a
> radio performing any better after cleaning except for the moving 
> mechanicalparts. So I would be judicious in how I used the liquids 
> involved when
> cleaning near the coils and transformers since you are just 
> wanting to clean
> the outside.  After all, you can use a saturated toothbrush to 
> scrub away
> areas without submerging the area with liquid  and then wash away the
> residue with small streams of water rather than a garden house ala 
> Medley.I think the beauty of the garden hose is getting rid of all 
> the cleaner and
> steel wool (use only when absolutely necessary, I like the green 
> scrub pads
> instead) in a forceful way.  I try to wash away cleaning residue 
> and not
> immerse the radio in liquid at any time.  If liquid can make its 
> way into
> some slight opening under slight pressure,  then water vapor can 
> likely make
> its way out later when you heat the radio.  It doesn't want to be 
> there when
> there's drier air outside.   Moisture is safely driven away by warm
> temperature and time.   If you can touch it with your finger,  the
> temperature is ok but a little cool.  If it's a little too hot for 
> yourfinger for any length of time,  it's probably still ok for the 
> radio and the
> water will go away faster.  I seem to remember that 60  deg C was  
> too hot
> to touch for very long. I've never bothered using distilled water, 
> but for
> some tap waters it may be a good alternative and it can't hurt.  
> If we all
> had the Arizona sun,  life would be much simpler.    
>  Dan. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net [r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
> On Behalf Of Paolo Mantovani
> Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 12:37 PM
> To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [R-390] Cleaning
> 
> Hi all,
> slightly OT: I'm cleaning my Siemens E311 "the Dave Medley's way": 
> 409,distilled water, drying. What if the area includes coils and 
> transformersthat cannot be removed? Water will penetrate and will 
> not go away easily.
> Does anyone have an alternative method?
> Regards
> Paolo
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