[jshorva65]

I learned most of what I know from the "oldtimers" around where I grew up. Back in the 70's, I suggested to one tech that a pair of selenium stacks should be replaced with silicon diodes. I learned something that day and also did a bit of teaching. He said those stacks might not fail for another 10 years or more and replacing them would raise the B+ enough to need some compensation. Flipping back to the first page of the Sams, he read off the 1.8A current rating of the set (an old 19" B/W portable of some kind, metal case, knobs on top) and said "2-amp slo-blo pigtail" which he then went and got from the parts cabinet along with a length of clear plastic tubing. Unsoldering one lead from the on/off switch, he moved that lead to a nearby unused tube socket pin, soldered one end of the fuse there also, covered the fuse with the plastic tubing and soldered the other end to the switch lug where he had removed the original connection. At the time, I was maybe 14 and until that day my hanging around at the shop was sort of a nuisance to the oldtimers. The tech I was observing that day had been working on radio sets since 1941 and was from the "old school" of "if it ain't broke ..." and he thanked me for reminding him that safety precautions were often neglected in older sets and that's one more thing that it's our job to fix. He retired maybe ten years later and was about 80 when he died at the retirement home where my ex works.

I talked with a veteran technician from out in Arizona yesterday about a Farnsworth 661P at the request of someone from Texas who asked for my recommendation of a restoration shop that was closer to his location than Ohio. The conversation with someone in his 80s about this old gear reminded me of my years as a student. He doesn't have Internet access and only seemed vaguely aware that younger generations were taking an interest in old technology. I, of course, told him about AK and that his local library probably had Net access and people who could show him how to reach us. I also told him about Steve's museum and the Convention just in case he and his wife, who had initially answered the phone, might want to do a bit of traveling this or next year. He shared a few interesting stories about the CRT rebuild shops that used to operate in his area and how "some knew what they were doing, and some didn't" and he backed that statement up with one anecdote about some workers leaving some tubes in the oven with the vacuum pump running during a break. When the workers got back to their posts, these picture tubes were totally useless for anything "except maybe an ashtray" ... having been crushed flat when the heat of the tube oven softened the glass enough that the structure of the tube buckled under the pressure of the atmosphere.