Electronic Resurrection?

[W3XWT]

About 15 years ago the Heathkit digital alarm clock that my wife and I built during my senior year of undergrad school (waaay back in 1980) started emulating the "Debt Clock" in downtown D.C. by going thru the numbers at seemingly warp speed. I tossed it in the "to be fixed someday" box and forgot about it... until it came time to start packing to move. And, then she says, "If you haven't fixed it by now, will you ever fix it? Can you even get parts for it?"

I could see her point.

So I told her that if I can't quickly figure out what's wrong with it, it's landfill fodder.

Then came what can only be described as a "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" moment... It works like it's supposed to! And, for over a week now, it's been working perfectly!

Anybody else ever have this happen? Something electronic which was given up for dead, comes back to life perfectly, years later just by plugging it in?

[radio nut]

The radio in my dad's 1965 Mustang quit working in the late 70's and after sitting for ten years in the garage we got the car running and the radio actually worked

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by radio nut

The radio in my dad's 1965 Mustang quit working in the late 70's and after sitting for ten years in the garage we got the car running and the radio actually worked

We had a 1970 Olds Cutlass with the factory AM radio. It suddenly quit working one day, and 4-5 years later, my dad traded it for another car. I was allowed to drive it to the dealer (I was 17) and on the way, I turned on the radio, and it played the rest of the trip to the dealership!

I've never forgotten that. Thanks for jarring into my mind again!

[old_tv_nut]

I HATE things that fix themselves. When I worked a summer for Western Electric installing gear in Bell central offices, the foreman had a hammer for these sorts of things - Bang! "Now we know it's broken for sure."

[ChrisW6ATV]

Old tv nut, that is the funniest thing I have heard in weeks! Thanks for the laugh. Especially because it was true.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by W3XWT

A
Anybody else ever have this happen? Something electronic which was given up for dead, comes back to life perfectly, years later just by plugging it in?

I have had this happen, especially when a brown-out totally confuses a microprocessor. It needs to be without power so that any stored charges dissipate.

My best tuner, an Onkyo T9090-II got "zapped" during a thunderstorm. A ground-charge came from my yard-mounted yagi antenna. It was haywire and I thought it was FUBAR....so I unplgged it....for a month. Later I tried it and back to normal. I grounded my coax cable after that.

[Kamakiri]

I could sure use one of those moments on the CTC-25 sitting in my living room. I'm not hopeful though

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I could sure use one of those moments on the CTC-25 sitting in my living room. I'm not hopeful though

Does your 25 have the little IC audio output? I've seen exactly one of them fail in all my years.

[Kamakiri]

Gots me. I posted about this in the "My God my back is sore" thread in Rectangular & SS. Any advice is welcome