As I recall, the old pcb material was made from urea and smelled like it. Or the exploding selenium rectifiers were a dead giveaway, just like H2S.
----- Original Message ----- From: oover...@lexmark.com To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 5:55 PM Subject: RE: TV nostalgia I have noticed several responses related to the smell of the old equipment. I had been thinking the very same thing. You could trouble-shoot by the type of smell a failed component produced (cap vs. resistor, vs choke, etc.) Ever notice how connected one's memory and smells are connected? Think about the number of things, both good and bad, that particular smells recall. Fresh cut grass, a certain type of perfume, a new or old car, fresh paint, burning leaves, foods, etc. rbusche%es....@interlock.lexmark.com on 08/03/2001 05:02:21 PM Please respond to rbusche%es....@interlock.lexmark.com To: emc-pstc%majordomo.ieee....@interlock.lexmark.com cc: (bcc: Oscar Overton/Lex/Lexmark) Subject: RE: TV nostalgia How about the reported X-Ray emissions from the old high voltage regulators and the 25-35KV anode voltages? Those old color sets were beasts. It is interesting to note that the process of keeping the CRT filaments warm, (instant on) was the cause of numerous TV fires. But you know, there's something pleasant (or nostalgic) about the smell of a tube type radio or TV. Perhaps it's just my age. Rick Busche -----Original Message----- From: Ehler, Kyle [mailto:keh...@lsil.com] Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 2:38 PM To: 'Ralph Cameron'; 'EMC and Safety list' Subject: RE: TV nostalgia Which reminds me of other oddball video contraptions. A few years back I had to dispose of a Heathkit GR-2000 25" TV w/onscreen digital clock option. Alas, it worked great, but the digital matrix tuner did not like CATV (ch. 2-13 only). Its entire chassis was copper plated steel. All pcb's were 94V0 and, typical of Heath products, documented more than thoroughly. Very well made! kyle -----Original Message----- From: Ralph Cameron [mailto:ral...@igs.net] Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 2:41 PM To: Ehler, Kyle; 'Rich Nute'; 'EMC and Safety list' Subject: Re: TV nostalgia And lest we forget the Hallicrafters electrostatic deflection systems. You could sure get a poke off those. Ralph Cameron ----- Original Message ----- From: Ehler, Kyle <mailto:keh...@lsil.com> To: 'Rich Nute' <mailto:ri...@sdd.hp.com> ; 'EMC and Safety list' <mailto:emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 9:23 AM Subject: RE: TV nostalgia My experience was with the Packard-Bell transistorized models. I think the aversion I have was prejudiced by the fellow who mentored me. I had little reason to doubt, but then the sets I worked on, had a callback history that may have been created by my mentor. -kyle -----Original Message----- From: Rich Nute [ mailto:ri...@sdd.hp.com <mailto:ri...@sdd.hp.com> ] Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 5:36 PM To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org <mailto:emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org> Subject: TV nostalgia Okay... more nostalgia and a bit on safety back in those days... so that we don't stray too far from the subject matter of this forum. My first TV was a Motorola 7-inch round in a Bakelite cabinet. The speaker was the same size as the CRT. My second was the famous RCA 10-inch round chassis with 32 tubes. I could pull out 15 tubes and still have a usable picture. Kyle mentions Packard Bell, which I considered a straight-forward, good product. It used the Standard Coil turret tuner. The one that won my respect was Muntz TV. It was CHEAP! When you looked inside the chassis, there was nothing there compared to the other TVs. They really knew how to take the cost out of the TV! Amazingly enough, its picture was among the best, and its reliability was indeed the best -- no parts to go bad! The company was owned by "Mad Man Muntz," the classic Los Angeles used car dealer. In the mid-fifties, GE came out with a transformerless 17-inch TV. One side of the power line was tied to the chassis (2-wire plug back in those days). The only protection was the plastic knob on the shafts of the various controls. When servicing this TV, you quickly learned never to touch the chassis! The power supply was a simple full-wave rectified power line. The tube heaters were connected in a series-parallel arrangement. These sets were the initiation of UL's investigation into antenna coupling capacitors. These capacitors provided the isolation between the TV antenna terminals and the mains voltage. TV sets of those days consumed between 400 and 600 watts. When they were turned on, the cold filaments were a very low impedance, so the turn-on current was very high. The off-on switch was often mounted on the back of the volume control. Eventually, the contact resistance of the switch would grow to the point where the I**2*R power would melt the solder and the power wires would come loose. It was common to have a customer report that his TV was dead, and it was due to the lack of a good connection to the switch. At one company, we had metal bat-handle toggles blow out of the switch due to the cold filament load. Out of this experience, UL developed the requirements for the TV-rated switch, which had specially-designed contacts that would not overheat when used in a TV or similar application. Best regards, Rich ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/> To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.rcic.com/ <http://www.rcic.com/> click on "Virtual Conference Hall,"
