Ted here from Crescent City, CA (20 miles from Oregon Border). I rebuild OLD tube equipment and if anyone want's to send me your old Tube Radio's or Tube Test Equipment, I'd be glad to pay the shipping!
I've got a 1930s tube radio sitting here a friend asked me to try and refurbish. I've had it way too long, but with all this new electronics to play with I just keep putting it off. With a little research I found it sold for $69.95 back in the 30s. That was a fortune back then. Now you can get a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 for around that and you have a full blown SBC (once you add the monitor, keyboard, & mouse that you might just have laying around).
Time can be an issue. Hope you get to that radio some day.
I find old tube equipment fun to work on, and refurbish.
If you ever have anything you want to unload, let me know.
OH, I live in a town of only 7K of people. There is NO electronic store here, so I have to order everything online. I'd have to drive 270 miles if I want to find a Ham fest to buy old gear. Not worth the trip. I've been on the lookout for Heathkit IT-11 and Heathkit TT-1
Hey James. When I'm through refurbishing what I currently have on the bench, I'll do some snaps!
I do a thorough restoration: 1) Replace ALL Caps. 2) Check ALL resistors. 3) Full alignment. 4) completely paint the case. 5) Strip down the chassis and clean. 6) Make mods. that will make a piece of gear function better.
One of my New Year's Resolutions is to replace the power cord (which is totally shot) with a new one (which I do have), then plug it into my variac and slowly bring the voltage up to see what might smoke. Do you have any other ideas, suggestions, or warnings on powering on something that might not have been on for many decades?
I have an old tube type frequency generator. I dug it out of the attic this spring. After taking the cover off and blowing it out with a blast of air I put on a pair of goggles on and plugged it in. I was kind of expecting that red cardboard capacitor to blow up in my face. But it held up. All the tubes lit up and the power light bulbs came on. I checked it with an oscilloscope and it was putting out signals that I could adjust. I didn't really do much more than this with it.
Here's photo of the bottom of it.
This was a kit I had built myself a gazillion years ago when I was first learning electronics. I was thinking of cleaning it up and replacing some capacitors as you do. I kind of like it. It brings back childhood memories. ?
It has an amazing range. Look at all the adjustable coils. I can still remember calibrating the thing. It even has a crystal socket on the front panel for calibration.
Here's a picture of the front view:
It also supposedly does TV Marker and Bars. I don't recall ever using it for that though. And on the lower right corner it as an input that allows you to modulate the generated signal using an external modulation signal. It's pretty nifty little thingy.
Is this the type of equipment you're looking for? As I say, it appears to still be working. But the case is pretty beat up and rusty. I sprayed all the selector switches with tuner cleaner too before turning it on. Then I ran them through all their positions several times, and finally blew them all off with a blast of air.
I used to use this all the time on my electronic bench years ago. It was my goto generator. Audio or RF. Only sine waves, not triangle or square waves. Just a very basic AF RF generator. But I do remember using the external modulation feature on occasion too.
It's not very big about 1 foot wide, 8.5" tall and 5.25" deep. It weighs about 8.5 pounds.
It needs a lot of TLC. I hate to see it thrown in trash. If this is something you'd like to restore send me a PM with your address. I'd like to see it go to a good home. ? It was my childhood toy!
Hey Steve, glad you asked! Yes, I always replace ALL of the Wax Capacitors before I turn a radio ON. If you don't want to do that, at least check ALL of them for shorts. I don't know how far you want to go with testing, but at the least cost, but an ESR Meter, and Capacitor tester. You looking at a cost of around $30 each. There not the best, but they're better then nothing. The minimal test would be to check for shorts with a DMM. In most cases, you can leave them in the circuit if it's tube gear. Hope that helps.
A good source for parts is RadioDaze. To get a list of sites, go to my Web page an click on Parts. http://elecurls.tripod.com/
I have an old tube type frequency generator. I dug it out of the attic this spring. After taking the cover off and blowing it out with a blast of air I put on a pair of goggles on and plugged it in. I was kind of expecting that red cardboard capacitor to blow up in my face. But it held up. All the tubes lit up and the power light bulbs came on. I checked it with an oscilloscope and it was putting out signals that I could adjust. I didn't really do much more than this with it.
Here's photo of the bottom of it.
This was a kit I had built myself a gazillion years ago when I was first learning electronics. I was thinking of cleaning it up and replacing some capacitors as you do. I kind of like it. It brings back childhood memories. ?
It has an amazing range. Look at all the adjustable coils. I can still remember calibrating the thing. It even has a crystal socket on the front panel for calibration.
Here's a picture of the front view:
It also supposedly does TV Marker and Bars. I don't recall ever using it for that though. And on the lower right corner it as an input that allows you to modulate the generated signal using an external modulation signal. It's pretty nifty little thingy.
Is this the type of equipment you're looking for? As I say, it appears to still be working. But the case is pretty beat up and rusty. I sprayed all the selector switches with tuner cleaner too before turning it on. Then I ran them through all their positions several times, and finally blew them all off with a blast of air.
I used to use this all the time on my electronic bench years ago. It was my goto generator. Audio or RF. Only sine waves, not triangle or square waves. Just a very basic AF RF generator. But I do remember using the external modulation feature on occasion too.
It's not very big about 1 foot wide, 8.5" tall and 5.25" deep. It weighs about 8.5 pounds.
It needs a lot of TLC. I hate to see it thrown in trash. If this is something you'd like to restore send me a PM with your address. I'd like to see it go to a good home. ? It was my childhood toy!
Not sure what you meant by PM? I would love to restore that old relic! Looks like that Red Electrolytic has been replaced. BTW- nice pictures. Do you have the manual with schematic, and test leads?
PM = Private Messaging. My fault, you don't have enough posts to send or receive PMs yet. I think you need to have at least 10 posts. It's not a good idea to post your personal email addy on an open forum. But hopefully nothing bad will come of that.
I'll see if I can get Steve to erase your email address from your post for you as I have already copied it. ?
What Robo-Pi meant by PM was a "Personal Message." This is a feature that just got implemented on the forum during Bill's upgrades over Christmas. It allows members to communicate directly with each other with out posting to the whole group. Like when maybe you want to share actual email addresses or mailing addresses without exposing that info to the whole world.
If I'm not mistaken I think you have to post at least 10 forum posts before that option is enabled for your login. You can check by clicking on my, or anyone's for that matter, displayname below the avatar in any post. If you see the 'Send a Message" button in the upper right of the user's info, then you are all set. If I click on your displayname I can see the button on your info page, but not sure you will see it at the moment on my info. But in a few more posts it should show up. An aside to that though, is that since I can send to you I'm guessing you'd be allowed to answer. Want to give it a try?
And as for the test equipment you mentioned, I'm not planning on going into the restoration business, so may just go with replacing all the wax capacitors before applying any power. Just hope I can read the values on the 90 year old components!
An aside to that though, is that since I can send to you I'm guessing you'd be allowed to answer. Want to give it a try?
Actually Teddy won't be able to answer until he accumulates the 10 posts. But the message WILL be in his Inbox once he reaches the magic number.
@teddy - My apologies, but I don't have the ability to set the Private Messages requirement differently for individual users. I can obviously see that you are going to be a wonderful contributor to the forum, so I wish I could. The limit is there to make sure that the Private Message system doesn't get abused, as the messages are truly "Private" so even I, as an Administrator, cannot see their contents.
You need 5 more posts to send and receive Private Messages. I can offer you two options:
Make 5 more posts and it won't be an issue! That's obviously the easiest option.
If you'd like to give Robo-Pi your contact information I can send him your email address, and the two of you can get in touch that way. I would need your permission to do that of course, so let me know.
And Happy New Year to all of you!
?
Bill
"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak
An aside to that though, is that since I can send to you I'm guessing you'd be allowed to answer. Want to give it a try?
Actually Teddy won't be able to answer until he accumulates the 10 posts. But the message WILL be in his Inbox once he reaches the magic number.
@teddy - My apologies, but I don't have the ability to set the Private Messages requirement differently for individual users. I can obviously see that you are going to be a wonderful contributor to the forum, so I wish I could. The limit is there to make sure that the Private Message system doesn't get abused, as the messages are truly "Private" so even I, as an Administrator, cannot see their contents.
You need 5 more posts to send and receive Private Messages. I can offer you two options:
Make 5 more posts and it won't be an issue! That's obviously the easiest option.
If you'd like to give Robo-Pi your contact information I can send him your email address, and the two of you can get in touch that way. I would need your permission to do that of course, so let me know.
And Happy New Year to all of you!
?
Bill
Hi Bill. Thanks for setting me straight. Yes! Send him my info.
What Robo-Pi meant by PM was a "Personal Message." This is a feature that just got implemented on the forum during Bill's upgrades over Christmas. It allows members to communicate directly with each other with out posting to the whole group. Like when maybe you want to share actual email addresses or mailing addresses without exposing that info to the whole world.
If I'm not mistaken I think you have to post at least 10 forum posts before that option is enabled for your login. You can check by clicking on my, or anyone's for that matter, displayname below the avatar in any post. If you see the 'Send a Message" button in the upper right of the user's info, then you are all set. If I click on your displayname I can see the button on your info page, but not sure you will see it at the moment on my info. But in a few more posts it should show up. An aside to that though, is that since I can send to you I'm guessing you'd be allowed to answer. Want to give it a try?
And as for the test equipment you mentioned, I'm not planning on going into the restoration business, so may just go with replacing all the wax capacitors before applying any power. Just hope I can read the values on the 90 year old components!
Most the time you can. There are schematics out their. 🙂
Hi Bill. Thanks for setting me straight. Yes! Send him my info.
I copied your email address before Steve erased it and I've already sent you an email to the email address you had posted. I also sent you a PM but you won't be able to see that until you make two more posts.
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