Happy Thanksgiving....and The Fisher Saga continues....

 First of all, We'd like to wish everybody who drops by here a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is our 15th Thanksgiving together, so I have 15 more things to be thankful for!

The work is proceeding quickly on the Fisher receiver now that I have sufficient time to devote to it. So far I've replaced 17 electrolytic capacitors that were under-rated. You simply don't run 24 Volts on a capacitor rated at 25 Volts. You have zero safety margin if the Line Voltage rises a few Volts, and I've seen a low of 116 Volts, and a high of 121 Volts, here at the house. Most of those were on the Power Supply Board,  six were in the Tone Amplifier Board and two were on the Equalization Board.

I soldered all of the wire wrap connections to their pins on the boards, and cleaned up some iffy areas regarding how the wiring is run inside the chassis.

A veritable forest of new lamps!

Say "Ahhhhhhhh...."

All the electrolytic capacitors removed.

And replaced with new, higher Voltage, and a higher temperature rating.

I did the same to the Tone Amplifier Board and the Equalization Board.

If I'm able to move when we get back from Dinner on Thanksgiving, I'll dress all the leads into their spaces, and replace the mini cable ties Fisher used.

And this completes the bottom side of the chassis

Drive safe be careful of any bad weather, and enjoy Thanksgiving. I have a LOT to be thankful for this year.

What I've Been Up To....

Started this post on Monday, then came down with a head cold, which is now progressing South. Feeling better, but still a bit woozy......

Tonight's cold and blustery, a Good Night to stay downstairs, drink hot cocoa, and continue the work on the Fisher stereo for my friend. Since I've scaled back garage operations for the year, and everything's been "Winterized" outside, I'm able to spend several hours or more on it daily.  I'm really embarrassed about taking so long on this, but I don't generally take in any outside work until mid-October or so. He brought this to me in mid-April, and I was only out of the Hospital for a month or so from the Dental Emergency that almost turned off my lights, and was just getting back on my feet.

It was a mess, having been (sloppily) worked on by several people before me.

This is the back side of the front panel. All the yellow, orange, and white wires connected to the brown circuit board are for the fourteen individual little light bulbs that were glued into the back of the panel to light the indicator when that function was activated. I tried really hard earlier this year to find a replacement bulb with lead wires attached. I'd seen them before in various modeling supply magazines, as they're used to light up the insides of scale buildings and such. Reasonably priced, too. BUT....they're all 12 Volts. The bulbs in the receiver are 8 Volts. If you run a 12V bulb on 8 Volts, it ain't gonna be very bright! It had three different kinds of bulbs in it, most were crudely soldered on to the original wires, and the connection wrapped with a bit of electrical tape. Some were dead, some were very dim, and a couple had fallen out of the panel, leaving the indicator for that function in the dark.

All of the wiring on this board had to be removed, the pins cleaned, the main harness wires put back on, and then the bulbs get soldered in. Whoever built this for Fisher didn't pay attention the the details. The soldered the leads for the bulbs to the pins on the board, and then they wire wrapped the main harness wires on! Changing a bad bulb just went from ~15 minutes to over an hour.

Per bulb.

And it turns out that most of the wire wraps weren't done properly, and they slid right off the pin! Wire wrapping is capable of producing a very reliable "gas tight" seal between the wire and the pin. It normally takes a special tool to unwrap the wire from the pin, but not here. Not wrapping them tight enough will cause intermittent connections at some time in the future, and they're NOT fun to troubleshoot. BTDT, DAMHIK!

Looks much better now that it's cleaned up.

This is the gut pile...

....and these are the lamp assemblies I made to replace them. Lamps are rated at at 8VAC, and expected life is 10,000 hours.

Since this receiver is loaded with wire wraps on all the boards, I'm going to add a drop of soldering flux to each of them, and then solder them. Problems solved, and future problems averted.

Early bedtime tonight. Still not running at 100%. I blame Well Seasoned Fool for the cold!

Interesting Flight Path

 Couldn't determine which aircraft flew this, but it caught my eye...

Happy Veteran's Day

 To all who served, I am deeply in your debt. Thank you all for your service, sacrifice, dedication, and loyalty to the USA.

I am humbled to count you as friends....

Ready For Winter!

 Sucked out the old gas from the tank with a "99 Cent Store" turkey baster so I could get all the sediment out, then drained what was left. 

Flushed the carb with a bit of Gumout and ran a small brush through the line and fittings. Put things back on, and filled it up with fresh Pure Gas and Sta-Bil, and it fired right up. Got it warm and then shut it off so the engine could heat soak, and then ran it again back up to temperature.

Brushed off two years of dust, and then went over it with some Meguiar's Quick Detailer while the oil was draining.

Put fresh oil in it and started it up. Again, it fired right up.

Gave Sweet Little Wife some "How To Start and Operate It" training, and parked it back in the garage.

All snow removal systems are now GO! for use.

Winter Comes In With Epic Snowfalls!

 Still here and cruising along. FAR better than last year. Even loaded up the fireplace and lit it. SLW and I are going to pop some corn, and watch Holiday Inn on the TeeVee.

Anywhoo....It started raining yesterday, and by this morning we had ~1" of snow on the cars, trucks, and yards.  The streets (up here...) are still warm, so it's not sticking on the roads. As of 2145 MST we've received .4" of rain, and the rain gauge stopped as the rain turned to snow, then picked up again when it got warmer and rained some more. Started off as rain around 0900, then turned to "Wintry Mix", and now it's snowing.  We had an inch on Thursday that melted in a few hours, and an inch or so this morning, that hasn't melted.

Down by Denver is another story. They've received around 8", with another 6~8" forecast overnight. ALL the highways are closed South and East of Denver. Traffic is a nightmare, and many vehicles are stranded. Further South, into New Mexico, things are even worse. NWS is calling it a "Historic Snowfall for November", and the Northern part of NM is basically shut down.

East of Denver out on the plains is bleak. I think I heard there was about 12", and 6~10" is expected.

Luna is enjoying it, for now. Don't know how she'll react when it's 15*, but she's MUCH more an outside dog than Pebbles was. She's definitely a ColoRADo dog.

So keep warm and dry, keep your head on a swivel, and enjoy your weekend, if possible!

Lovely Fall Day.....not!

 Forty degrees and raining......and cloudy. Dog won't even go outside, and I can't blame her!

Hope you're having a good week so far. I'll be in the basement working on the Fisher stereo. I'm really embarrassed about how long this is taking me to finish. It needed a lot of TLC "under the hood", and some of the parts required were hard to source. The original transistors were obsolete ~30 years ago, and their replacement was obsoleted ~15 years ago. Fortunately Toshiba still makes Small Signal transistors for audio use, but it took some searching to find which ones to use. Then there were the 12 capacitors being run at, or slightly under, their rated voltage. It's amazing they lasted this long!

So have a good week, and keep checking your six. Might get spicy in the next couple of weeks. Whatever the outcome is, it's bound to be a Charlie Foxtrot.....

22LR Ammo....Your Preferences?

 Thinking about getting some more 22LR for my little Marlin semi-auto. I already have a good stock of 22LR, but they're all Wolf and Fiocchi "Match Grade" ammo, plain old lead round nose with what feels like a wax coating on the bullet. I bought these when it was hard to get any 22LR, and while they all feed and fire just fine, it might be nice to have something with a bit more punch to it.

My question is: Do you prefer Lead Round Nose, or Copper Plated Hollow Point? Does a CPHP expand in this caliber? Is it worth the extra cost?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Fall Is In The Air....

 The leaves have started turning here, and dropping, and I'm trying to make hay (aka "Yardwork") while the nice weather lasts. I've caught up on over half of my "Didn't Get Done in 2023" list, and have been keeping really busy with all the other projects I have.

And I just haven't felt like posting much. Maybe I can talk to OldAFSarge and see what he does when his Muse goes AWOL!

So between chasing grand kids, cutting firewood, fixing things on the house, and playing with the dog, I'm kinda busy.

I'm making great progress on the Fisher SR-2010 that I'm fixing. Found some more "25 Volt capacitors running at 24 Volts" that needed upgrading, and I finally got the right size dial cord to restring the dial pointer. The dial cord I had 'in stock' was a bit too big in diameter to smoothly go through the pulleys and guides, so I had to track that down and get some. Just another item requiring attention. 

And on the Supra front....

My son helped me roll it out and pressure-wash the engine bay, which had been marinating in Gunk for several days. I "missed" two small areas, but those will get hand cleaned when I get under the car to replace all the clutch hydraulics. I found receipts indicating the Original Owner had purchased NAPA parts for the this back in 2006. And his mechanic did a poor job of replacing it, using some "definitely wrong" hardware for the job. My new parts came with new hardware, so that will get addressed when I pull the master cylinder so I can repair where the leaking clutch fluid took the paint off the firewall.

I can see my bellhousing again!

This is one section of the intake manifold that I've port-matched to the gasket on both sides, and ground off all the casting flash and mold marks inside the runners, from end-to-end. Should flow much better as the port match was really bad.

Ms. Swan was quite happy to catch some rays and get a bath.

I'll try and get some shots of the Fall colors here. Only certain trees have flipped the switch, and they're quite striking to see.

Have a good rest of the week, and always remember to Checketh Thy Six!

Repeat After Me.....He's OK, Still Here, Yes He's Busy.....

 Goodness, I really should post more. I probably will once Winter sets in, but for now, I'm still catching up on Things I Couldn't Get Done in 2023.

The snow blower is #1 on the priority list. I have to get it running, and burn out the 2-year old gas in it. Then change the oil, and refill it with fresh gas with StaBil from my one gallon can, which I fill from my five gallon can, which is now sitting empty, and has to be refilled. 

So, Tuesday will be pretty busy between the Dump Run we're going to make, a trip to Home Depot to replenish some consumable supplies and pick up a few things, a stop at the auto parts store for some other consumables, then stopping for gas in the truck and gas cans. And depending on where and when, we'll probably stop for a late lunch.

WHEW!

Yes, I used to be able to do all this before lunch, and I marvel at how I did it. But that was then, and this is now. I ain't griping or anything....I give thanks  every  single  day  that I can still do it effectively, even if a bit slower.

Sorry, no eye candy. I'm doing busy doing things to stop and take pretty pix!

May you all be vigilant, safe, and prosperous!

Finally Friday!

 And I now have a functional PC with a new 4TB Solid-State Drive, and a fresh installation of Kubuntu 24.04 Long Term Support. It's also much quieter as the fans on the video card aren't screaming at full speed trying to keep the card cool. The Root Cause appears to be a leak from a failed soldered connection on one of the four heat pipes used in the heat sink assembly. Oh, well.....I built this rig in 2012, so I definitely got my money's worth out of the video card.

The money I budgeted to upgrade this PC will be used on the workshop PC, and a National Instruments IEEE-488/GPIB Interface board so I can automate my HP test equipment.

Have a great weekend, and keep your pagers and walkie-talkies wrapped in aluminum foil.....