Selenium rectifiers in Zenith radios

[transmaster]

One thing people in the Electronic world over look are the ammeters used in commercial heavy equipment world. There you can get meters of 500 amps, or more. should you wish they are designed to a 100% duty cycle they have heavy duty shunts they read from. I know truck drivers who are hamradio operators they use heavy duty ammeters to monitor the power consumption, and charge state of the batteries used to power the 1500 watt ( or more ) HF amps they use in their mobile HF. setups.

[quaddriver]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

There is no overcurrent device, even fuses, which is still the best overcurrent protection, there is. As long as the current rating of the overcurrent protection is not exceeded, it'll never open the circuit.
That's where, the new arc-fault circuit breakers, come into play! They're supposed to open, when it senses a arcing condition is present, as referred to, with the failure of the high current cord on the heating appliance.
That also could be traced to, back stabbed or loose receptacles, poor wire-nut connections, etc.
There has been problems, regarding oversensitive AFCI breakers, but that problems seems to be addressed.

exactly. A welder, pretty close to a dead short, is what one of these vaporizing cords become....

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by transmaster

One thing people in the Electronic world over look are the ammeters used in commercial heavy equipment world. There you can get meters of 500 amps, or more. should you wish they are designed to a 100% duty cycle they have heavy duty shunts they read from. I know truck drivers who are hamradio operators they use heavy duty ammeters to monitor the power consumption, and charge state of the batteries used to power the 1500 watt ( or more ) HF amps they use in their mobile HF. setups.

Most of the stuff I do is low current, and the plethora of 50mV/full scale ammeters makes it easy to make your own shunts. A .05 ohm resistor is a natural 1A shunt, plenty for measuring my sub-1A needs. I have a shunt set as well, but have never used above the 5A shunt - the 50, 100 and 300A are all pristine. I smoked the 1A shunt, and replaced it with a .05 ohm, 50 Watt, 1 percent aluminum encased wirewound power resistor. Werks for me!

Cheers,

[Kingfisher]

I recapped my C724 and left the selenium in place...haven't had any issues. I just used the radio yesterday while outside pulling weeds. Sounds great as usual.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

I recapped my C724 and left the selenium in place...haven't had any issues. I just used the radio yesterday while outside pulling weeds. Sounds great as usual.

Good call using it outdoors because good luck getting rid of the smell if it goes up indoors. Ray Barone's cheese-wedge-in-suitcase trick would be nothing in comparison.

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

Good call using it outdoors because good luck getting rid of the smell if it goes up indoors. Ray Barone's cheese-wedge-in-suitcase trick would be nothing in comparison.

Even the reliable "Grumpy Old Men" technique doesn't even come close to selenium fumigation. (Freshly caught fish hidden under the passenger seat to stink things up.)

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

Good call using it outdoors because good luck getting rid of the smell if it goes up indoors. Ray Barone's cheese-wedge-in-suitcase trick would be nothing in comparison.

Originally Posted by NoPegs

Even the reliable "Grumpy Old Men" technique doesn't even come close to selenium fumigation. (Freshly caught fish hidden under the passenger seat to stink things up.)

I agree with not taking the risk indoors of the dreaded selenium stink . I also see the point of not wanting to loose the original appearance of the chassis . This is why I disconnect , but leave present , the selenium and wire in the diode and resistor in such a way that it could always be reverted back in the future if for some crazy reason it was desired . Or at least that's what I do with still functioning selenium units . Non functioning ones are still allowed on the chassis if they have gone open or otherwise failed non stinky , but I cut the lugs off of them specifically so that they can't be hooked back up by someone in the future .