Here is a story that I'm sure some of you have heard but others may
enjoy.
In 1994 a flood came to the Spring, Texas area, just north of
Houston, and water was over the top of the building that our business
was in. In addition, the ham shack was a trailer that was near the
business building and it washed away and busted up under the bridge of
IH45 at Spring Creek. The water didn't go down for several days. Then
there was the clean up and go hunting time. I'll try to keep this
short. Most of the pieces were found but the modulation deck which had 4
813s, the filament-XFRM, Screen supply XFMR, Modulation XFRM, and Driver
XFMR was missing. There was a tremendous hole that had formed around
one of the bridge support pillars under the bridge. I assumed it was in
that hole. About 6-8 months later as I was driving under the bridge I
noticed that there was a corner of something sticking out of the mud. I
took a closer look and it was the corner of a metal military desk. As I
pondered it I saw something else, it was a corner of the modulator
chassis.
After a couple of hours with the rope and truck we had the thing
out of the hole. Sure enough it looked pretty wrecked and worthless.
But I dragged it up and threw it aside for a while. Packed full of mud,
the ants made a home in it. About another 6-8 months I decided to wash
it out. I had now decided that I would rebuild. Two 813 sockets had to
be replaced the modulation XFMR measured 2 k ohms from anywhere to
anywhere. So I said to my self that I would just rewind it. I took it
all apart and started cleaning in preparation for making measurements
and turn counts. After knocking it all down to the core and iron I put
it up on a shelf for a while. The storage place would reach 150 deg
during the summer. When I got back to the job at hand (about another 6
- 8 months), I found that all the shorts had disappeared. I reassembled
the MOD - XFMR and gently started putting audio to it. Well it is in
use today with 4 - 813s running 2500 volts as modulators and pouring
audio to a pair of 250ths @ 1600 - 2000 volts (depending on the draw
bridge position). I would have never believed it if it weren't my own.
BTW all the other XFMRS on the chassis are still doing there thing.
John, WA5BXO
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 7:52 PM
To: amradio@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Re: 500 Transformer
I'll second the slow-dry method. The dessicant capsule in my Collins PTO
turned from pink to blue in just a few days just from sitting in my
heated basement room, 29% relative humidity!
-Tony, K1KP
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