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#21
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Tony Meloche wrote: craigm wrote: wrote: Yes I agree Telamon. A good service bureau is an expensive proposition. The ones I am familiar with (industrial based) barely break even after salaries are paid. The important thing here is that somebody is getting paid a salary. I would think the consumer market is even worse. I suppose that is why so many mom & pop tv radio shops are gone now. It's a shame. 73 Bob N9NEO If there were a demand for the mom and pop repair shops they would still be around. However radios and TVs no longer need to have tubes replaced on a regular basis. Without that business there is little for them to do. Combine that with generally decreasing prices for electronic products and it becomes advantagous for folks to replace rather than repair. craigm I agree. When I was knee-high (mid fifties) TV repair shops were swamped with work, and many "8 to 4:30" guys studied nights to learn TV repair, and made it into a lucrative sideline. The original TV chassis (save the Muntz, for one) had around 32 tubes on the board besides the CRT. They were in the shop three, sometimes four times a year as a matter of course, as they slowly cooked themselves to death. People accepted it as part of the miracle of "pictures through the air". Madman Muntz designed a 17 tube chassis (some double duty some cut corners) and they were very reliable sets - maybe into the shop once or twice a year (we had one for years). Craig M is right - Assuming they pass the "infant mortality" stage, todays electronics last about exactly as long as it takes for people to *want* a new one - for better features or whatever reason. Tony Back then TV sets were very expensive and not particularly reliable. Tubes went out, tuners needed cleaning and the early color sets seemed to need frequent realigning. A TV nice TV set with far more features than the sets of the 1950's costs a lot less and is highly reliable. When a new CRT set finally does die the replacement cost is usually equal to the price of a new one. Does anyone know if there are repair shops for the still pricey plasma and lcd sets? |
#22
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wrote:
Madman Muntz manufactured some Automobiles too. cuhulin Yes - I believe I even read he was into Formula One racing for a few years. He was like that - he was a cockeyed genius, but he had a restless intellect. After adopting something and mastering it, he got bored and went on to something else. Tony ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- |
#23
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#24
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#25
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Tony Meloche wrote:
I agree. When I was knee-high (mid fifties) TV repair shops were swamped with work, and many "8 to 4:30" guys studied nights to learn TV repair, and made it into a lucrative sideline. The original TV chassis (save the Muntz, for one) had around 32 tubes on the board besides the CRT. They were in the shop three, sometimes four times a year as a matter of course, as they slowly cooked themselves to death. People accepted it as part of the miracle of "pictures through the air". Madman Muntz designed a 17 tube chassis (some double duty some cut corners) and they were very reliable sets - maybe into the shop once or twice a year (we had one for years). Craig M is right - Assuming they pass the "infant mortality" stage, todays electronics last about exactly as long as it takes for people to *want* a new one - for better features or whatever reason. Tony Yes, there were a lot of "Tube changers" out there who called themselves TV repairmen. At one time there were over 50 so called "TV shops in Middletown Ohio. Only a few could really troubleshoot a TV set with real problems, and they were the ones who were in business till a few years ago. Now, there isn't one shop left in a town of over 50,000 people. In the '70s it cost around 10,000 to equip a van for TV service calls, unless all you did was pick up the TV and haul it to the shop for the bench techs to work on. I ran some TV shops in the late '70s and saw the costs. It was over $100 in taxes and insurance just to open the doors of a shop that didn't have a mortgage or rent payment. Then you had to make enough money to pay the wages, buy parts, pay for the phone and gasoline. Basically, you had to take in about 300 a day to keep the doors open, and a TV service call was $17.50, for the trip and first half hour, plus 17.50 per hour after that. -- ? Michael A. Terrell Central Florida |
#26
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My Drake R8B tuning sometimes gets lost when I spin the knob fast.
I'll be going up 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.2 See? I expect this is a pretty common prob. Ok so unit is going to go back to Drake for fix and I will tell them to go thru whole unit and check it out. Any idea what they will charge me for this? I finally got around to fixing the encoder problem (erratic tuning) that's been bothering me for awhile. Removal of the encoder board from the front panel was fairly straightforward; just time consuming. The inner and outer panel came apart surprisingly easy and making the repair somewhat enjoyable---re-assembly was just as easy. My first attempt was to unsolder the encoder from the board. However, like many of you, I finally I bent back the tabs of the encoder with a small screwdriver to take it apart. Even though I had a replacement encoder it was difficult to unsolder the part from the board---plated through holes! It might be that replacement of the entire encoder would be required at some later date anyway. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was interested in learning why the encoder failed. After removal of the encoder wheel from the body of the encoder I examined the contact surfaces under stereo microscope (Leica SZ-4) at 40X magnification. I could plainly see what appeared to be normal wear patterns in the conductive surfaces that matched the position of the contact fingers in the mating part. The contact fingers were examined next. Using similar magnification and upon carefully rotation of the part, I could plainly see that the contact points were worn through their silver plating and well into the brass base metal. The contact surfaces were burnished to a bright, mirror finish. Furthermore, the first two contact points were clean with a clear grease residue while the third inner contact (electrical common?) had a dark brown/black greasy residue about its contact surface. With the realization that I rarely used the tuning knob I wanted to understand why the wear on the contact fingers seemed, in my opinion, excessive. I observed that the third contact finger (electrical common?), the one with the dark residue, was in continuous electrical contact with the wheel more so than the other two fingers that rode on the 'spokes' of the wheel. Furthermore, the surface that the contact was moving against had a rough surface consisting of striated tooling marks with uniform depth and spacing that suggested the result of rough polishing or grinding. Close study of the wear patterns on the wheel clearly revealed hills and valleys and that the hills were the surfaces that had been worn into the wheel by that contact finger but had not yet reached the depth of the valleys. It was this observation that led me to think that the brown/black residue on this particular contact was an accumulation of silver and brass particulate from the contact finger and wheel that had oxidized and mixed with the grease. The rough surface of the wheel was simply acting as an abrasive surface and was wearing the contact points. I thought I would reuse the old encoder and see how long it would last after a bit of maintenance. I cleaned the encoder with electrical solvent cleaner and with the help of a very fine brush I cleaned the contact fingers as well. The parts were carefully blown dry then examined under the scope and were found clean. A small drop of DeoxIT contact cleaner was placed on the wheel surfaces then worked by pressing the assembly together and rotating the wheel against the contacts. There was another problem with the encoder that I need to take care of as well. Ever since I got this receiver I had been bothered by the viscous, squishy feel of the tuning knob. While I had the encoder opened I carefully cleaned it of all grease with electrical cleaner. The designers of the encoder had used a relatively large quantity to gain the damping action that had bothered me. On the reverse side of the wheel (shaft end) the grease was easily removed with a probe and the remainder was readily soluble in the electrical solvent. However, before re-assembly, I placed a very light film of fine grease on the shaft. After the front panel was replaced I placed a small felt washer on the encoder shaft. The knob was positioned against the felt washer to get the desired feel. Now the knob turns with a dry, positive, precise, clean feel with no wobble or endplay. Furthermore, I replaced the R8B knob with that of the R8---the aesthetic enhancement that the old R8 knob adds to the receiver is remarkable! While the front panel was detached from the chassis, I also removed all controls and added a drop of DeoxIT into them and worked it in. The tone control was beginning to get scratchy and I've had a problem with the volume control in the past. In the process of working on the front panel I learned how the readouts are backlit---just a bunch of green LED's on a circuit board. I have always been upset by the lime-green color of the display. Drake had been known for decades for their use of a distinctive blue for illuminating the meter and dial displays of their older equipment and I liked it very much. I guess when the receiver was designed there weren't any blue or white LED's and those that are available now are expensive. I intend to experiment with blue and white LED's as well as blue filters. The closest filter color I had on hand to match the Drake blue on my vintage pieces of Drake gear is the blue tab on 3-ring binder notebook separators or hanging file tabs. I' ll take a tab to the art supply shop and see if I can match it. The receiver has been re-assembled and everything is working properly; tuning is as it should be. It will be interesting to see how long the repaired encoder lasts. I had the encoder replaced under warranty repair by Drake twice before. In summary; apparently the encoder failed as a result of intermittent electrical contact resulting from dirty contact surfaces. Others have suggested contact bounce and poor electrical design. My personal opinion, although based on this one example and comments from others, suggests that the encoder is poorly designed or not able to take the continuous wear and tear it experiences in its application as a main tuning control for a radio receiver. Quite possibly it should be replaced with a part more suited to the task. [Note: It's been three years since I cleaned the encoder---there has been no recurrence of the problem.] RG |
#27
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The receiver has been re-assembled and everything is working properly; tuning is as it should be. It will be interesting to see how long the repaired encoder lasts. I had the encoder replaced under warranty repair by Drake twice before. So this is the third repair of the same component on a radio that costs over $1,000?? Wow - not exactly confidence inspiring. |
#28
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In article ,
dxAce wrote: wrote: So,if they charge you two hours of work on the radio and there will be shipping & handling charges too,it will cost you over $200.00.Hopefully,they can repair it for you in one quarter hour. Plus, if they hold true to what they used to do, they charge you for a new box to ship it back to you in. I never could figure that one out but they always said it was for insurence purposes. Probably past fights between various customers and the gorillas at the "Parcel Delivery" company. Wouldn't take too many $1500 radios smashed up, and then have the claims adjuster say that they couldn't tell where is was smashed up, because of the old box, to cause problems with their reputation. Drake's reputation, I mean. Mark Zenier Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com) |
#29
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Some vehicles have little thin flat "wires" in the windshield and rear
windows and mirrors for helping to melt ice and sleet that gets on there in cold wet weather.Sometimes a break in the wires occurs and then there is no more electrical contact.Auto parts stores sell repair kits to repair broken contact areas.The repair kits will also work to repair worn out electrical contact areas under the push buttons of radios and many other things too such as remote control units and keyboards,etc. cuhulin |
#30
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On 11 Sep 2005 22:44:47 -0700, "RHF"
wrote: For One and All, . First most people today are paying $30-$50 or more a month for Cable TV with an Annual Cost of $360 to $600 or more a year. . So they do not think anything of spending that same amount $360-$600 for a TV that will last 3, 5 or 7 Years. . At and average of 3-5 Hours Daily per Year that is 1100 to 1800 Hours of TV Viewing per Year : You didn't factor in the billions of dollars of damage done to society by Zombies who watch 5 hours of TV a day. |
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