FT-102 No Output, Check the color of the tubes!

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w4clm
Posts: 40
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:52 am

FT-102 No Output, Check the color of the tubes!

Post by w4clm »

So a man came by the shop this morning with a problem in his FT-102.
As you know those rigs run three 6146 tubes in the final.

So I say hey Wazzz Up?
And he says Hey Wazzz up?
"I’ve got a color problem in my rig"
and I say
"Wazzz you mean ?"
I say back to him
"Are you crazy boy or has all that snow froze your brain?"

He responds
"Well the rig flashes color all over the walls
and it’s has no power output?
Yeah my rig flashed color all over the room
when I’m on the air.
Then finally NO POWER out!
Can you fix it?

So I says to hims…. "Well lets see Wazzz Wrong!"
So we proceeded to work on his rig for several more hours.

Finally after several hours we found the real problem was in the primary color generator in his rig! I tell him,
“You know you have to mix Red Green and Blue to get the right color.”
and output. Didn’t you study that when you learned about the tele in school?

So we pulled the tubes and right away I said “Ahhh yes indeed”
“Sir I think I see what the problem is and we can fix this”.
As you know when a rig is tuned up properly the tubes usually glow a little red, so something is definitely wrong here.

Being a cold winter morning as it was today,
our hands were getting a little blue in this cold old shop.
So we turned up the heat and drank two pots of coffee
while we analyzed the problems at hand.
When we pulled the first of the tubes we saw this tube was
also cold and it was plugged into the wrong socket for proper
phasing of the color at the output generator PA stage
I know it’s strange but we found this!
http://foxtango.org/6164%20file/Blue%206146.JPG
It must have been dammed cold in that shop!

So we swapped some more tubes around, tested them all and
worked on the phasing problem a little while longer.
Then... Ta Da!
We noticed we finally had a little power output where
as before there was none.
The man then becomes green with envy at my ability to fix
his rig so quickly.
http://foxtango.org/6164%20file/Green%206164.JPG
The rig feeling a sigh of relief also felt this way.

Having drank so much coffee, we both had to take a break.
In fact we had to go so bad, we hardly had time to make it to
the Out House. Like race horses we both ran out the back door
to the yard and made some yellow snow!
When we got back on the bench we found the primary
faulty tube and the real problem.
http://foxtango.org/6164%20file/Yellow%206164.JPG

Guess that rig had to go too!
So we gave it some needed relief.

So with my infinite knowledge of electronics and primary color mixing skills, we mixed the tubes around
a little more and replaced the bad one to get just the right amount of output. Finally the rig is working great.
Just like I told him they usually run a little red. So to confirm this
I pulled the tubes out again one at a time and showed him!
Yuppers they area tuned properly now!
http://foxtango.org/6164%20file/Red%206164.JPG


So he leaves and I sell the yellow tube on Ebay!

Best 73
Carol W4CLM :lol:
© Fox Tango International 2006

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w4clm
Posts: 40
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:52 am

Tnx

Post by w4clm »

Thanks for reading my ATTEMPT.... AND I SAY ATTEMPT
at humor. heehee....

Hey I have to tell you, those tubes are actualy that color!
You have no idea how much trouble I went to inorder to make the
tubes look like that. Those are NOT touched up photographs.

This tube had a hole in it by a CB'er!! The hole is in the back.
I filled the tube with food coloring and water! Then it was a hassle
getting the old color out! Hee Hee.

Original Tube is here.
http://foxtango.org/ft101zd/graphics/MVC-042S.JPG

I know, I've got too much time on my hands.


Best 73s
Carol W4CLM
w4clm
Posts: 40
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:52 am

Doing better today! Hee Hee

Post by w4clm »

Well I guess I have been staying up too long and loosing my marbles when I did the tube story! Hee Hee...

I had a computer hard drive crash here on another machine I used a lot, but it's an older one. Put in a new 200Gb drive and the old machine didn't like it very well. Had to partition the drive and I may have screwd that up on the first install to. Got everythng loaded to it and just when I though I was all finished, it crashed again and would not boot. I think what had happened is that, I had part of the drive formated for Fat32 and the other part for NTFS,
(NT-File system.) So I stared over again from ground zero on the project and I think I did it right this time. Both partitions are NTFS and the machine appears to be holding up so far. The next day, my all in one Copier / Scanner / printer on my primary computer took a dive and had to run out and replace it! Its' been crazy.

So I only tell you this in justification for my colored tube story!
Hee Hee... I think I was loosing it after staying all night for a couple of nights in a row. Something made me pick up that tube and I looked at it wondering what could I do that would fun ? Humm
my first thought was to try and put a gold fish inside of it?
But that would be kind of big for the small hole and needless to say a poor fish! So I came up with the stuipd idea of food coloring and a dumb story to go along with it!

so you see, staying up for two days straight without any sleep can do strange things to one's mind! Hee He

Well for those who asked if I was hitting the cooking Sherry. You'll be happy to know, I have slept very well last night and I have all my marbles this morning! Hee Hee..
Best 73
Carol
CLM
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