[jcassity]

this has been frustrating, order of events.

i get the radio free
i power up and it works fine for a week, small poping noises now and again.
the normal things like switches and knobs need lube and move around a bunch with some cleaning and such.
prep for christmas and then i pull it back out to modify the bottom to add an access cover.
I extract the radio chassis and set it off to the side.
I mod the case , all went well.
I assemble the radio again and...............

upon power up the lower 75% of am bands are absent
upper parts of am band were there but fading fast.
speaker volume was drifting lower and lower until finally max volume sounded like 20% volume.
All i hear is something like "snow" noise like TV sets were there is no signal. , not AC noise.
Using a 6' aligator clip lead as a random antenna, connecting it up makes no noises
Rotating the band selector swich produces none of the normal crackle you usually get when you do this.
I measure my audio output xfrmr, its like 350ohms on the pri, about 28ohms on the sec.
I move over to my documentation and start taking readings of each tube per the instructions.
All readings were acceptable except for one particular one which said i need a negative less than a volt measurement when i vary fequency.
I never once questioned any of my readings, they all matched the Riders instructions.


I recap one at at ime until the last cap an nothing improved.
I even quickly did a simple resistor check ... Measure one side for voltage then the other side to simply "observe" on my meter a voltage drop that seemed mathmitically correct of the expected voltage drop.
I did not find a resistor that was acting in such a way that was shorted.
I did not find any resistor or thier bands obscured due to over heating.

Everything parts wise on the bottom all looked very cherry, like nearly new.
I am waiting on parts to recap the filter section so the filter section is still original 4 part.

Last night i confirmed that the filter caps are drifting way out using a digi meter so maybe perhaps this is my problem.

all i know is that normally when i troubleshoot i find problems by following the test procedures.

in this case even though it passes the voltage tests, that means nothing. I have no humming noises at all typically found if a filter section is going out. This actually depends on which way the filter caps are failing. if drifting towards a short or drifting upwards in capactiance... in my case one 10uf 25v filter cap was drifting towards 3uf, while my 50uf 350vcap is drifting towards 100uf.


maybe tomorrow i will have the 47uf 450v cap to replace my 50uf 350v cap along with the others to repair my filter setion.

I do have a 6h6 tube that has something inside it that rattles. its a metal midget 8pin tube.

when i remove this tube and power up, the set still acts the same,, not change.

I guess what i am saying here is i never like it when i end up shot gunning the problem, cause thats what i am doing right now.

At this point i "know" of 3 problems.
1- the 6h6 tube should go.
2- I had no inication the filter section was going out but eventually i guess i would have...
3- my ability to accept common sense in that with sets this old, step 1 is to replace all caps,, something i should accept and make it muscle memory.