[R-390] RF Deck, Module Washing (dishwasher)

[James A. (Andy) Moorer]

  I think part of the enthusiasm for dishwashing was the wonderful story 
from Dave Medley about how he took his favorite Tek scope to the factory 
for repair and the first thing they did was put it into something that 
looked for all the world like a dishwasher. Although horrified at first, 
he was delighted with the results. Of course, there is some unspoken 
back-story here - the commercial electronics washers use special 
cleansers and rinse with distilled water, so there are no nasty residues.

-A

-- 
James A. (Andy) Moorer
www.jamminpower.com


On 3/24/2011 3:28 PM, Barry wrote:
> I try never to run aluminum-handled untensils in the dishwasher for that reason.  I don't know if the recent change to dishwashing detergents have stopped this, but it really made a mess out of one of my knives.
>
> Barry - N4BUQ
>
>
>   On Thu 24/03/11  1:33 PM , Tisha Hayes tisha.hayes at gmail.com sent:
>> While reviewing the latest draft of the R-390A inspection process I found
>> afew references to cleaning the RF deck in a dishwasher (Page 9, Section
>> 4,activities 8,9). This brings up an interesting point for discussion and
>> Iwanted to share with the reflector on my experience with cleaning a radio
>> inthe dishwasher.
>>
>> I have a bunch of ARC-5 stuff, one item that joined my collection was one
>> ofthe ARC-5 transmitters that was in pretty rough condition as far as
>> beingloaded up with dirt. Worried about things like Haunta-Virus (from
>> rodentdroppings) or the many other things that can go wrong I decided to give
>> thisthing it's own cycle in the dishwasher. I pulled the tubes and the
>> crystalreference plug-in and set it all by itself in the dishwasher. Since it IS
>> adishwasher you cannot use detergents that foam up so I dropped a Dawn
>> dishwashing packet into the machine and let it run through a cycle.
>>
>> This was set to the most aggressive cleaning cycle on the dishwasher
>> (heavy)with heat drying at the end. What came out looked really nice, the
>> aluminumwas even shiny. I had pulled off the bottom plate so the soap and water
>> could get up inside, below the tube sockets and removed the tube
>> removalplate on top and left open the front IF coil adjustment window and the
>> little flip-door at the back top of the radio. The antenna tuner worked
>> really nice and it even cleaned up most of the tarnish on the contact
>> wheeland the turns.
>>
>> Not thinking much more about it, and wanting the thing to sit for quite
>> awhile before I applied B+ to wiring that still had some moisture in the
>> cloth I left it to sit on top of a heating register in my office for a
>> fewweeks.
>>
>> When I got back to it the aluminum had taken on a terrible, tarnished
>> look(greyish-black in appearance). It seems that the aluminum did not like
>> thedishwashing method. Strange since my kitchen cookware is also aluminum
>> andit does not seem to mind.
>>
>> The point I am trying to make is that a dishwasher is probably not the
>> bestway to wash radio modules or the RF deck. Any kind of detergent that is
>> rated to run in a dishwasher (non foaming) is fairly aggressive. I do
>> notthink you can run Simple Green in a dishwasher, at least not MY
>> dishwasher.
>> Can other folks elaborate upon their attempts to clean modules in a
>> dishwasher? (if you have tried it) What were your experiences?
>>
>> It is one thing to mess up an ARC-5 (that I have almost a dozen of),
>> something completely different to put an RF deck or R-390/A module in
>> there.
>> Maybe it is best to stick with the Simple Green, parts brush, garden
>> hose,followed with distilled water routine. If the dishwasher is a bad idea
>> wemay want to remove references to that technique from the R390A
>> InspectionProcess guide.
>> -- 
>> Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
>> -
>>