Monday, April 23, 2012

Radio Dazed....and Confused!

WELL....started out trying to fix a VCR for my brother-in-law. They have a huge stack of unlabeled tapes, some with grand-kid stuff on them. They want to have them transferred to DVD before the tapes deteriorate too far, but they only VCR they have died. Since it has all the classic symptoms of a dead power supply, and 30 minutes of Googling confirmed it, I swapped out ALL the electrolytic capacitors in the supply, even though they passed visual.
No dice, it's still dead.
I loaned him a working VCR I had wrapped up and stored in the garage for just such occasions when he was over here Sunday after church, so at least they'll be able to sort out the tapes before they bring them over here so I can do the transfer to DVD for them. I have a Sony Professional VCR, and a PC I built specifically to do this, so once I get them on disk, I'll use Adobe Premiere Pro to author some nice DVD's with fancy title cards, fades, etc for them.

Seeing as it was only 7:30 when I put the toe tag on the VCR, I went back to doing what I had originally planned for tonight, upgrading my Elecraft KPA100 100 Watt amp that I use with my K2 portable HF transceiver.
I built the amplifier when they were at "Rev. C", and now they're up to "Rev. G", so I have some upping to do.
WELL....I destroyed the thermal pads under the two driver and two final transistors when I lifted the main board off the heatsink, and even though the kit says it includes them, all it had was ONE pad for one of the final output transistors.
RATS....
I sent them an order, and the parts will be here in a day or two, so that just gives me some extra time to do the work carefully, since putting the heatsink back on is one of the very last steps.

Oh.....and I get to do one of my favorite radio activities.....winding two toroids.
-sigh-

3 comments:

  1. Could be worse, I suppose, but at least it keeps you from being bored. Or something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As my wife tells me, "I'd much rather see you at your workbench DOING something all weekend, than sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching sports".
    And she's right.....;-)
    This weekend's activity will be to put the new entry door on the garage. I've read enough "HOWTO" websites that I'm confident I can rip the old door and frame out, and install the new pre-hung door and frame.
    Plus my stepson is a weight lifter, so I don't have to worry too much about moving/dragging/holding heavy things in place by myself!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep, kinda NEED those heatsinks... :-)

    ReplyDelete

Keep it civil, please....

Meet Luna!

 Great name for our new pup, eh? She's camera shy, and "Red Eye Removal" doesn't work for dogs! She's two years old, p...