POWER UP

One of the radios I received from Mark Quebe N9EKG was an old Hallicrafters S-40B.  I was hanging out with my buddy Nick N9SJA and we decided we should fire it up.  Seemed like a good idea since he was there with me when I got the radio.  I used my trusty method of bringing up the power slowly by inserting various wattage light bulbs in series with the hot lead in order to drop the voltage.  This is a crude method but it works.  I’m pleased to say that Nick and I both now have proper 20A variacs for this chore in the future.  I haven’t done anything with the radio but wipe it down with some Armor All and blow out the dust.  It isn’t perfect but it plays pretty well on the AM broadcast band.  The caps definitely need replaced and the pots need sprayed with some DeoxIT but you have to love it when a radio from the early ’50s is still working with no catastrophic failures.  It’s fun to listen to some old AM on the boatanchor radio.

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