FT-102 No Output, Check the color of the tubes!
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:56 pm
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
© Fox Tango International 2006
Join Fox Tango and have a little fun for a change!!
http://www.foxtango.org
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
© Fox Tango International 2006
Join Fox Tango and have a little fun for a change!!
http://www.foxtango.org
